Rebecca Bextel’s baseball bat has no place in politics

Last week, I attended Rebecca Bextel’s town hall meeting in Lovell with a fairly simple purpose: I was there to listen, take a few notes and write an article for the newspaper about the Constitution Party candidate for Wyoming governor.

I had no intention of becoming part of the story, but within minutes, Bextel began attacking the profession to which I had devoted 37 years of my life. She criticized teachers unions, questioned Wyoming’s public schools and claimed our students were performing near the bottom nationally.

I spent nearly four decades working with Wyoming children. I’ve taught them, encouraged them, worried about them and celebrated their successes. I’ve worked alongside hundreds of dedicated teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators who have given far more to their students than any paycheck could ever compensate.

I wasn’t about to sit quietly while someone dismissed all that work with sweeping accusations that weren’t supported by the facts, so I spoke up.

When Bextel claimed Wyoming students were “at the bottom of the pile,” I challenged her. 

A few clicks on my phone showed that Wyoming’s 2025 ACT composite score ranked fourth among the 17 states that test essentially all their graduating students. Our fourth- and eighth-graders also scored well above the national average in reading and mathematics on the most recent Nation’s Report Card.

Those are published statistics, not something I dreamed up to win an argument.

But rather than consider the information, Bextel turned to the audience and declared, “We’re at the bottom of the pile, folks. Don’t let this man lie to you.”

There it was. A retired Wyoming teacher challenging an inaccurate statement had suddenly become a liar.

When I offered to show her the ACT results, she replied, “I don’t care about ACT scores.”

I found that exchange troubling, not because she insulted me, but because it illustrated how quickly a disagreement over facts could become a personal confrontation.

And as the evening continued, I became even more concerned about how she spoke of the people who serve our communities.

Bextel announaced that she was entering the Wyoming government with a baseball bat.

“I’m showing up with a baseball bat and swinging for the folks of Wyoming,” she told the gathering.

She went further, declaring, “I don’t give a crap about teachers unions, unions, associations, county commissioners, Wyoming municipalities. I don’t care about any of that crap.”

She promised to examine government agencies, school boards, county commissioners, municipalities and even cemetery districts. She made broad claims about corruption and waste without ever identifying the people responsible or providing information that would allow those claims to be evaluated. When asked about teachers unions, she answered, “Because they’re some crooks. They are in it for themselves.”

I have no objection to examining government spending. Taxpayers deserve accountability, and public officials should welcome difficult questions, but accusations of dishonesty deserve evidence, too.

When she talked about Steve Harshman, the Republican candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, she vowed to antagonize him just like how Chuck Gray has played foil to Gov. Mark Gordon. She called Gordon weak, and also told the audience more than once that her campaign rival, the Republican Sen. Eric Barlow, a Marine corps veteran who has spent 14 years as a legislator, was a weak coward unfit for office.

But what troubled me most was her willingness to cast suspicion on people I know personally. When the chair of our local water board questioned her plans and disagreed with her that they, too, should be investigated by the state and another audience member identified him by his role, Bextel’s response was to dismiss him and his concerns just like she had dismissed me.

“There we go,” she said. “You’re the first person that I’ve heard say that our water situation is working for the people.”

And then she turned to our school boards. I regularly attend meetings of several of the area school boards. I know many of the trustees. They’re our friends and neighbors, parents and grandparents, farmers and business owners.

They spend countless evenings reading budgets, discussing policies, listening to parents and trying to make our schools better.

I told Bextel that these were good people who cared about their communities.

“That doesn’t mean anything to me, sir,” she replied.

She also told me, “I’m not going to agree with you that all the school board people are good people.”

I wasn’t asking her to declare every school board member in Wyoming a saint. I was asking her to recognize that public service and dishonesty are not the same thing.

I’ve disagreed with plenty of school board decisions over the years. I’ve questioned spending and challenged policies. But those disagreements haven’t changed my belief that most of the people serving our small towns are trying to do what’s right.

And that belief extends far beyond our schools. Think about the people who serve on our town councils, hospital boards, library boards, cemetery districts and countless community committees.

They need to attend too many meetings, answer too many complaints and often receive little or nothing for their efforts.

They don’t always make the right decisions. None of us does. But they show up.

Bextel also spoke enthusiastically about Proposition 1 and reducing property taxes. When asked how she would protect the Lovell library from a potential loss of revenue, she offered no specific funding solution.

“We’re going to look at the Lovell library,” she said.

She also questioned cemetery district reserves without establishing that the districts she mentioned had done anything improper.

I believe the government should spend our money carefully. I also believe libraries, schools, hospitals and other local services are worth supporting. Those are legitimate subjects for disagreement and debate.

But I would rather have a serious conversation about budgets than listen to accusations that leave our neighbors defending their integrity.

Bextel has previously said that, when she is governor, she will “listen to everyone with a serious idea” and that the governor’s responsibility is to listen to everyone in Wyoming, but I didn’t see that. You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat people who can do nothing for them, and I saw Rebecca Bextel treat others with condescension and unkindness.

Near the end of the meeting, a woman in the audience named Kass Klemz spoke up about the way Bextel had treated me.

“I found your tone to be offensive,” she said.

Bextel responded, “I don’t care.”

When Klemz continued, Bextel declared, “I don’t give a crap what you think about how I talk to that man.”

I appreciated Klemz’s willingness to speak. She wasn’t asking Bextel to change her political beliefs. She was asking her to show some respect to a fellow Wyoming resident.

As several frustrated audience members began leaving, Bextel told those remaining, “Now that we’ve flushed out all the Barlow supporters, vote for me.”

I’ve lived in the Big Horn Basin most of my life. I’ve raised my family here and spent my career working with our children. I’ve come to believe that one of the greatest strengths of our small towns is our ability to disagree and still remain neighbors.

My mother taught me to share burdens, do my part and look out for the people around me. I still believe in those lessons. I believe in the neighbors who serve because somebody needs to do the work. And I believe we can demand accountability from those people without assuming they’re corrupt.

I went to Rebecca Bextel’s town hall hoping to learn about her plans for Wyoming. Instead, I found myself defending my profession and the integrity of people I’ve known for years.

I didn’t expect to become part of the story, but I won’t apologize for asking that claims about our schools be supported by facts.

Nor will I apologize for standing up for my friends and neighbors.

We can disagree about education, taxes, government spending and the future of Wyoming. Those disagreements are part of living in a free society.

But I hope we never reach the point where disagreement itself is treated as proof of dishonesty.

The Wyoming I know is filled with good people doing their best, often without recognition or reward. I still believe in them, and I intend to keep speaking up for them.