The race for Albany County’s House District 46 is in its final hours, with less than three weeks until Election Day, and this could be groundbreaking year. Mike Selmer is the democratic candidate for HD-46, running against the Republican Glenn Moniz.
If elected, Selmer would be the first Democratic representative for House District 46, ever.
Although Selmer has never held an elected office, he has gotten a fair amount of experience. Selmer has been the head of community associations in the past.
“I got a lot of experience with dealing with different types of people and circumstances and budgets and all that,” said Selmer. Selmer believes that his lack of elected and true political experience is an advantage.
“I think one of the problems with our democracy lately is that both at the state level and national level, the people representing us are from a very narrow slice of America,” said Selmer. He believes that most politicians are cut from the same slice and that what America needs is more variety. Selmer believes that he can provide that variety.
The three key issues that Selmer would like to focus on are accountability in state legislature, Medicaid expansion and marriage equality.
Selmer believes that he would be successful in passing a bill on accountability in the state legislature because he has asked several other representatives and has gained support.
He also believes that Medicaid expansion is very important because he does not understand why Wyoming is so resistant to Medicaid.
“The federal government is willing to pay 100 percent for the first two years of the Medicaid expansion for Wyoming. Those are our federal tax dollars that the state is refusing and it is absurd,” said Selmer.
With recent news about marriage equality in Wyoming, Selmer said that if he were in office, he would have sponsored a bill for marriage equality in Wyoming.
“As the Equality State, we should be leading the country, not being dragged into the 21st century,” said Selmer.
Mike Selmer is optimistic about the race and believes he stands a good chance of winning, even going as far to say, “When I win”.
“I am very confident, I have been working very hard for five months,” Selmer said, “But in the conversations I have I feel like I have more than a good chance [of winning].”
