2023 Session Retrospective: Rep. Karlee Provenza of House District 45
Provenza said she went to Cheyenne to fight the fascist creep. The House Minority Whip worked with Democrats and Republicans to push back on various “anti-democratic” bills. The results were mixed.
Throughout the 2023 General Session of the Wyoming Legislature, Rep. Karlee Provenza (HD-45) advocated for enhanced constitutional rights and protections, pushed back on various anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ bills, and served as the Democrats’ House Minority Whip.
Provenza said it was initially difficult to set her priorities for this session, not knowing what to expect from a chamber with so many new and recently elected members. But then the bills started rolling in.
“I think my main focus this session was making sure that we got out of it without having a full-on kind of fascist takeover,” Provenza said. “So ensuring that the laws that we pass represented the state of Wyoming instead of out-of-state interests or just ideas that are anti-democratic.”
Provenza said the Democrats were “mostly successful” in their efforts to hold back this session’s right-wing push. They weren’t always successful, but Provenza said they worked with Republican allies to fight anti-LGBTQ legislation, protect public education, and attempt to expand healthcare access.
“I think that there was an opportunity for just some really bad legislation and we were able to either amend it or just kill it,” Provenza said.
Furthermore, Provenza said the Democrats — the five that served in the Wyoming Legislature this session — sometimes cast the deciding votes, when there was debate between the Freedom Caucus and more traditional Republican members. That's not to say that the work could have been done without the work from colleagues from across the aisle — Provenza said communication with the Republican Party was crucial to her duties as House Minority Whip.
“I was whipping more than just my party, so that was probably where a lot of my extra time was spent this session — whipping Republicans in an attempt to try and either kill bills or pass amendments and pass my own bills,” Provenza said. “There were a lot of partnerships that had to happen to be able to get anything done. When you have five people, you have to work with at least 28 more people essentially.”
Voting rights and abortion
When Provenza wasn't focusing on whipping votes, the Albany County representative worked on various bills aimed at strengthening constitutional protections.
Measures like Senate File 120 — co-sponsored by Provenza and signed by the governor earlier this month — will restore voting and gun rights to non-violent felons after they have completed their sentence.
“It should be their right to get their rights back once they finish their sentence, and I would argue that they should always have the right to vote,” Provenza said. “We had 5,400 people who were able to get their rights back under previous legislation and now I think we might triple that number.”
Provenza said she was still proud to participate in several other constitutional protection proposals regarding abortion, privacy, healthcare, and public defender rights — despite most of them not passing this session. Provenza was disappointed to see some key “anti-democratic” bills pass, like House Bill 103, which deals with crossover voting.
The bill, now law, requires voters to register with a political party before the candidate filing period opens. In the past, voters could look at the field of Democratic and Republican candidates and decide which of those primaries they would prefer to have a say in, and register accordingly. With the new law in place, they can no longer do that.
The bill was pushed by some Republicans who believe that Democratic voters are going Republican to vote for more moderate candidates. There is a healthy culture of this crossover voting in Wyoming — especially during contentious battles between establishment Republicans and right-wing challengers.
But there is no evidence that crossover voting has flipped elections in Wyoming.
“If the Republican Party doesn't want you to be able to switch your vote in your primary, then take over their Republican Party,” Provenza said. “At the end of the day, there's a bigger picture involved, and it's how do we keep a democracy in this state? How do we keep legislators who aren't invested in harming trans kids, harming people of color, harming poor people — and that's Republican primaries.”
Provenza said the crossover voting ban concerns her more than the two anti-abortion measures passed this session.
“I am not as upset about those — only because they're so unconstitutional that all it's doing is continuing the injunction,” Provenza said. “The best strategy that pro-choice people can have is to bring more unconstitutional pro-life bills because then we're just back in court every single year and abortion remains legal.”
Alongside a coalition of Teton and Albany Democrats, Provenza brought abortion amendments that would have provided some abortion protections, such as those seen in Wyoming before the overturning of Roe v. Wade. However, the legislation died after not being considered in the House Judiciary Committee. Separately, House and Senate Republicans passed two anti-abortion measures containing language similar to the “trigger ban” legislation passed last year. Gov. Mark Gordon passed one of these bills and let the other go into law without his signature; the latter bill has already inspired a lawsuit and on Wednesday, it was hit with a temporary restraining order. Like the trigger ban before it, the new law will not go into effect until the legal challenges are worked out in court. And in the meantime, abortion remains legal.
Future plans and public participation
Provenza said she plans to reintroduce several of the items that failed this session during the interim between now and next year’s budget session. Those include cannabis reform, Medicaid expansion and the issues raised by House Bill 240: Ballot initiative process amendments. Provenza said she intends to continue bringing these issues back and educating the people of Wyoming about them.
Regarding respectful and effective discourse this year, Provenza said the Wyoming Legislature did better than most state legislatures — at least publicly.
“(They) were pretty civil this session, but there was more snarkiness this year,” Provenza said. “We're trending in a direction I'm not comfortable with.”
Having seen just one of her seven sponsored bills pass this session — House Bill 147: Unlawful trespass signage-taking of wildlife — Provenza stated that she is not grading her success according to the number of bills she was able to pass, but by what she “left on the floor.”
“I had people reach out to me and tell me that they felt represented,” Provenza said. “That was the point of me running, this young woman who didn't see herself in politics, who didn't have the money, who grew up poor, who didn't have healthcare. That's who I wanted to feel had representation. And I've had people tell me that they feel represented. That's the biggest measure of success for me.”
Social media has become an important forum for discussion of state politics. Provenza and fellow Albany County Rep. Trey Sherwood (HD-14) were ahead of the curve on this.
“In my last term, Rep. Sherwood and I used social media quite a bit, and whereas a lot of my colleagues were not doing that, they've learned from us how to pick that up,” Provenza said. “Which is good. I mean, everybody should have access to their representation. I think that social media also plays a really negative role in some aspects because I think it controls the narrative. (It’s) sometimes inaccurate depending on who's pushing out that information and what they're saying. So it's even more important that folks that are invested in facts and transparency are posting.”
Provenza said she uses platforms like Instagram to be informative, provide space for questions, and address constituents directly. She said she will also use social media platforms during the interim to host educational quizzes concerning the legislative process, with the dual aims of encouraging constituents to get involved and promoting transparency.
Democracy lives and dies on public participation, Provenza said.
“So if your representation is not representing you, replace them,” she said.
Committees:
House Education
House Judiciary
Select Natural Resource Funding Committee
Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision
CSG West-Education
Bills Sponsored:
[Passed] HB147: Unlawful trespass signage-taking of wildlife
[Failed] HB173: Records Available to POST
[Failed] HB186: Court appointed attorneys-fee probation for minors
[Failed] HB273: Game and fish trespass-intent
Bills Co-Sponsored:
[Passed] SF69: Electronic records retention
[Passed] SF87: Natural resource finding-large project threshold increase
[Passed] SF120: Restoration of civil rights
[Failed] HB91: News source shield law
[Failed] HB117: Abortion amendments
[Failed] HB120: Traffic stops-probable cause
[Failed] HB169: K-12 post secondary options
[Failed] HB197: Defend the guard act
[Failed] HB0230: Driver license penalties-time for imposition
[Failed] HB241: Prohibiting sexual relations with persons in police custody
[Failed] SF175: Hazing
Joint Resolutions Sponsored:
[Failed] HJ8: Ballot initiative process
Joint Resolutions Co-Sponsored:
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