Why I’m Running
I’m running for office as a lifelong Wyomingite who wants to see Wyoming families represented in the Legislature.
I grew up in the oil and gas industry and had a front-row seat to Wyoming’s boom-and-bust economy. I’ve seen what happens when good years create opportunity—and what happens when families are left to absorb the consequences of the bad ones.
I’m running because the next generation of Wyomingites shouldn’t have to solve every economic challenge alone.
The Wyoming Dream Should Still Be Attainable
Most of us want the same basic things: a home to call our own, space to roam, meaningful work, and enough financial security to retire and weather an emergency.
That shouldn’t be an unreasonable standard of living in Wyoming.
Affordability is about more than the price of a house. It’s the mortgage rate. It’s the interest on the truck you need to get to work. It’s groceries, utilities, childcare, healthcare, retirement savings, and whether there’s anything left when the month is over.
A strong economy should be measured by whether the people who work here can afford to build a life here.
Working Families Need an Economy That Works for Them
My experience working with at-risk youth showed me how economic pressure reaches every part of a family.
When the adults in a household are working full-time and still struggling to make the numbers work, children experience those consequences too.
A living wage isn’t just a number on a paycheck. It means housing costs don’t consume the family budget. It means being able to repair a vehicle without missing rent, see a doctor when you need one, save for retirement, and build an emergency fund.
Work should provide stability, not simply survival.
Healthcare Requires Structural Reform
Wyoming’s healthcare shortage cannot be solved by simply telling doctors we would like them to move here.
We have to address the structural barriers that make it difficult to practice medicine in Wyoming, including our insurance system, reimbursement environment, and medical liability framework.
Tort reform should be a major legislative priority, alongside meaningful insurance reform that strengthens the relationship between patients and providers.
If we want to recruit and retain physicians, nurses, specialists, and other healthcare professionals, Wyoming has to become a place where they can build sustainable careers.
Build Communities People Want to Stay In
Workforce recruitment is about more than jobs.
Doctors, teachers, tradespeople, entrepreneurs, and young families are looking at the entire community when they decide where to put down roots.
That means good schools, attainable housing, reliable healthcare, childcare, infrastructure, recreation, and communities where people can see a future for themselves.
Economic development cannot simply mean attracting employers. It has to mean building communities capable of keeping people.
Put Public Education First
Public dollars should strengthen public schools.
I support ending public subsidies for private education and reinvesting those dollars into the schools responsible for educating Wyoming children in every community across our state.
We should reduce class sizes, improve the teacher-to-student ratio, and reduce unnecessary administrative overhead so more education dollars reach classrooms, educators, and students.
Public education is not simply an expense on the state ledger. It is part of Wyoming’s economic infrastructure—and one of the most important investments we make in the next generation.
Build a Sustainable Revenue System
Wyoming needs a revenue system capable of funding the state through both the boom and the bust.
For generations, working Wyoming families have helped create enormous economic value. We should not continually shift the cost of maintaining our schools, roads, healthcare systems, and communities onto individual taxpayers while corporations benefit from Wyoming’s infrastructure and business environment.
I support examining a corporate income tax that asks large corporations doing business in Wyoming to contribute appropriately to the state that makes their success possible, while protecting Wyoming’s small and locally owned businesses.
Our goal should be straightforward: broaden the tax base, reduce our vulnerability to commodity cycles, and stop passing the buck to working Wyomingites.
How to Write Me In
A write-in vote only works if my name is written clearly and correctly.
Write in: SUSAN E SCHMID
When you receive your ballot:
- Find the race I am running for.
- Locate the write-in line for that office.
- Write SUSAN E SCHMID clearly on that line.
- Fill in the oval next to the write-in line so the voting machine recognizes that you cast a vote in that race.
- Complete the rest of your ballot and submit it as you normally would.
SUSAN E SCHMID — write it in, fill in the oval, and make your vote count.