CJ Day
Staff Writer
A University of Wyoming professor has declared her candidacy for US Senate, running for the seat that Sen. Mike Enzi will vacate in November.
Merav Ben-David, a professor of zoology and the current head of the Zoology and Physiology Department, announced her candidacy for the seat Jan. 18. She is campaigning as a Democrat, and is the second Democrat to have joined the race.
Ben-David’s campaign is focused on climate change. Over the course of her career, she said, she has seen the direct impacts of climate change on ecosystems around the world.
“I’ve spent thirty-five years analysing the effects of climate change, I built my career on it,” she said. “I’ve been observing this data since the late 80s. There’s a point where we have to say ‘Wait, stop, we have to fix this.’”
The idea of a Senate candidacy only recently came to Ben-David. For most of her career, she worked with non-governmental advocacy groups to advance her cause, but as the outlook turned bleeker, she decided a more decisive action was necessary.
“I’ve sat in the bow of an icebreaker at 80 degrees north in October, and it was so warm that I didn’t need a hat or gloves. We’ve been looking at beetle infestations, how they change the entire ecosystem around them,” said Ben-David. “And of course the fires, not just in Wyoming, but in California and in Australia. How many more things need to happen before we take responsibility?”
Though Ben-David is passionate about climate change, she is careful not to brand herself as a single-issue candidate. To her, climate change is not just one issue – it affects many other arenas of public policy, from finance policy to healthcare. The core of her platform is an effort to diversify Wyoming’s economy and move it away from an energy focus.
“Whether you agree with climate change or not, the world will be moving away from fossil fuels soon,” said Ben-David. “We can make an opening statement here in Wyoming. We don’t want to be left behind without income.”
Ben-David said other states like Arizona and Utah can provide green energy better than Wyoming can. Her platform has Wyoming producing enough energy to stay self-sufficient, but not much more than that. To make up for the lost revenue, Ben-David argues that Wyoming can become a leader in computing and technology.
While Wyoming may lack the infrastructure and personnel that other tech centers have, Ben-David said Wyoming has unique advantages to companies looking to move here.
“Wyoming has an unparalleled quality of life. For an outdoorsy person, it’s great. I took this job because I loved it here,” she said. “We’ve also got the friendliest people, there’s a social aspect there.”
All these new jobs will need educated people to work them, and like many Democrats, she has plans to make higher education more affordable. She plans to use Wyoming’s unique system as a model to make public education more accessible and affordable nationwide.
She has also turned her sights on health care. While she agrees with other Democrats that medical care should be more affordable, she wants to increase the access rural people have to quality healthcare. Even in a university town like Laramie, people have to go to larger cities for more complex procedures, she said, and that needs to change.
Though Ben-David has high hopes for her campaign, she does not plan to stop working for the university during the race. During the semester, she plans to do most of her campaigning on the weekends and after hours. Though the hopes that she ends the year in Washington, she is still conscious of the fact that she very well could end it still in Laramie.
“I’m not going to quit my job,” she said. “I’m a realist.”
The Wyoming Democratic Party will select their candidate for Senate on April 4.
