LUSK, Wyoming (AP) — In some of America’s remote rural areas, Democrats are facing extinction. In Niobrara County, Wyoming, the least populated county in the least populated state, Becky Blackburn is one of just 32 Democrats left.
Her neighbors call her “the crazy Democrat,” although that’s more of a nickname than a nickname.
In some less populous counties, the number is fewer. For example, Clark County, Idaho, has 21 Democrats and Blaine County, Nebraska, has 20. But according to Associated Press election results, Niobrara County’s Democrats, who make up just 2.6 percent of registered voters, are the most outnumbered by Republicans in the 30 states that measure local party affiliation.
In Wyoming, the state that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, the overwhelming dominance of the Republicans may now be even more firmly established after the state passed a law that makes it much more difficult to switch parties.
Tuesday’s primary will be the first elections since the law went into effect.
It’s not easy to be sad in the grassy pastures and pine-studded hills of Niobrara County, which borders Nebraska and South Dakota.
As a paralegal for the Republican district attorney, Blackburn hears a lot of right-wing views in town.
“I usually just roll my eyes and walk away because I’m fighting a losing battle and I’m fully aware of it,” she said. “Maybe that’s why I’m so popular because I keep my mouth shut ten times more often than I’d like.”
Not that she’s politically shy. At her home in Lusk, a ranch town of 1,500 residents and the county seat of Niobrara County, she flies an LGBTQ+ flag in support of her lesbian daughter.
In the political season, Blackburn stocks up on Democratic campaign signs to replace stolen ones. She speaks approvingly about police reform, taxing government services and transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney.
Perhaps it is because Blackburn is open about these views – and outnumbered to act on them – and indeed seems very popular in Lusk, where she recently served nine years on the city council.
Becky Blackburn, one of the few Democrats in Niobrara County, poses for a portrait in front of her home in Lusk, Wyoming, on July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
“I won two elections here. Even though I am bipartisan, people knew that I represented left-wing values,” she said.
Nationwide, Democrats make up less than 3 percent of voters in three counties this year. While that’s up from one county in 2020, it’s down from seven counties in 2016. In the 2012, 2008 and 2004 presidential election years, no county had such a low percentage of registered Democrats, according to AP data.
The most Republican districts in recent years are concentrated in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. In the most Democratic areas, however, the dominance of a single party is much lower.
The District of Columbia, where 77% of voters are Democrats, ranks second in terms of Democratic dominance. First is Breathitt County in Kentucky, which is traditionally 79% Democratic, but not to the core. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has family there, and in 2020, 75% of the county voted for former President Donald Trump.
Niobrara County has not always been quite so Republican. In 2012, there were more than twice as many Democrats (83) and in 2004, there were more than four times as many (139).
A personalized license plate is seen on the back of a pickup truck at the Niobrara County Fair in Lusk, Wyoming, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
The Democrats’ struggle in Wyoming reflects the party’s challenges in rural areas across America, where it has been losing ground for years.
It wasn’t always this way. Seventy years ago, Democrats were a political force throughout southern Wyoming, where union jobs were plentiful in mining and railroading. Today, the party’s only strongholds are the college town of Laramie and the resort town of Jackson.
While Democrats in Wyoming are struggling to field compelling candidates at all levels, many Democrats have abandoned their voter registration to participate in the more competitive Republican primary and then re-registered for the general election.
What you should know about the 2024 election
“You feel shabby and dirty when you do it. But you do it anyway and change it as quickly as possible because you don’t want to get Republican mail,” Blackburn said.
The Republicans had had enough. The Wyoming legislature, where Republicans control over 90 percent of the seats, passed a law last year that prohibits voters from changing their party affiliation in the three months before the August primary.
The party switch has “undermined the sanctity of the Wyoming primary process,” Wyoming’s Republican Secretary of State Chuck Gray said in an approving statement.
Tuesday’s Republican and Democratic primaries in Wyoming will be the first in recent history in which voters will not be able to change their party affiliation at the ballot box.
The Democrats will have a small selection. At the state level, unknown candidates who have barely campaigned have no opponents for the nomination for the US House of Representatives and Senate.
There are no Democrats running in Niobrara County. They are not running for a seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives, for a vacant seat on the County Commission, in either of the two major elections, or for local party offices.
Republican political signs are displayed at the Niobrara County Fair in Lusk, Wyoming, on July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
And yet, not long ago, the region had a Democratic state representative: Ross Diercks, who is recognized and warmly greeted at the Outpost Café, a cozy breakfast and lunch spot in Lusk.
Diercks, a former middle school English teacher, was a Republican before deciding the GOP wasn’t doing enough for public education. He defeated a Republican incumbent in 1992, beginning an 18-year run for the House.
Knowing voters personally and staying up to date on current issues helped him keep office. For example, when he received a C-minus grade on a National Rifle Association questionnaire, he decided to improve his performance. In the following election, he received an A grade in the poll.
Many Republican congressmen are friends. When one of them from the neighborhood died, he sang at his funeral.
Then in 2022, Diercks temporarily switched parties to vote in the Republican primary against Harriet Hageman, who was challenging then-Rep. Liz Cheney for the state’s only House seat. How many other Democrats did the same is hard to count, but Diercks was far from alone. Hageman, the daughter of the congressman he sang for at his funeral, still won the race by a wide margin.
The new law, which prevents Diercks and others from simply re-registering, has angered him toward the Republican Party.
“How far will they go to restrict the right to vote? If it is really about purging the party, from the voters up to the elected officials, there will soon be no one left who is pure enough to be in the party,” said Diercks.
Truck driver Pat Jordan supports many left-leaning goals, including universal health insurance, but said he is only registered as a Republican.
“The best way to participate in meaningful change is to try to influence the dominant party,” said Jordan, who lives in Niobrara County. “You know, we need a government that serves the people, everyone, not just Republicans and not just rural and not just urban and not just Democrats – and definitely not just the rich and wealthy.”
Last winter, dozens of locals gathered outside to honk and cheer as a Democrat left town. But they didn’t cheer when Ed Fullmer left for good.
Fullmer was on the bus with the high school basketball team as it headed to the state championship. They lost, but Fullmer coached the Tigers to their best record in a decade, 20-8.
He said people know his views but rarely embarrass him politically.
“Most people don’t want to get involved in these discussions,” he said. “They respect you for what you do and how you work.”
Blackburn, for example, intends to maintain her political position even as it shrinks around her.
“I am who I am and I have the views I have,” she said. “And I don’t care if it bothers people or not.”
___
This story has been corrected to make clear that Diercks sang at the funeral of Hageman’s father, not that of the lawmaker he defeated in 1992.
___
The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to improve its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. More about the AP Democracy Initiative HereAP is solely responsible for all content.
