A future nonprofit is being set up to encourage Wyoming women to run for public office.
Wyoming Women Rise, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created to encourage more women to run for public office. The organization was founded by Samantha Case, a former UW Genders and Women Studies.
“The hope is that the organization will focus on increasing female representation and participation in our state’s politics,” Case said.
In order to provide the resources a candidate might need in order to run for office, Wyoming Women Rise will hold campaign trainings.
“Specifically, the organization will focus on providing campaign training to women who are interested in running for office,” Case said. “Those trainings will teach them essential components on how to run a campaign.”
Case said the lack of women in public office may be an issue of recruitment.
“I think a big reason why there aren’t more women in those offices is because they’re not being recruited,” Case said. “So they’re not being trained. They don’t know how to run for office, they don’t have those resources available.”
Only 11% of the Wyoming Legislature is made up of women. According to the Wyoming Women Rise website, that number is the lowest in the nation. In 2008, 23% of Wyoming Legislators were women.
“When you consider that we’re the equality state and that early on we made significant gains for women, it’s a big problem that women have been losing those seats,” Case said.
Case said the organization will focus on future generations as well.
“Another important part of the organization will be focusing on getting younger women in the state involved, whether that’s through workshops or volunteer opportunities,” Case said. “I think that’s really important to get those younger women engaged and more active early on.”
Crocker Hollis, a member of the advising board, said the organization is a way to promote awareness and encourage women to get involved in politics.
“It’s an avenue to promote awareness in women specifically, that there’s a lot of work to be done in terms of Wyoming and issues in Wyoming,” Hollis said. “Young people need to get right in there and make a change.”
Hollis and Case have worked together in the past on Dan Neil’s campaign during the 2016 election season.
“If there’s hope I see it in [Samantha] and a lot of young people,” Hollis said.
Wyoming Women Rise is still in the process of being classified as a nonprofit and is working to find members for its board of directors.
