Funny how quickly incumbency starts looking different once it’s yours.
A few years ago, candidates were saying, “Drain the swamp. Vote them all out. Career politicians are the problem.” Now some of those same people are incumbents – and suddenly we’re hearing a lot about how their experience in office is a reason to send them back.
I do think experience matters. But time in office doesn’t mean you’re entitled to more time. In fact, I think the longer you serve, the more voters should expect of you – not the less.
Did you get better at listening to the people you represent? Did you become a student and servant of your communities? Did you learn more about the problems people are dealing with, and about how the decisions you make in Cheyenne affect them?
Did experience make you better at the job? More willing to question your own assumptions? More aware of what you still don’t know?
Or did it simply make you more certain that you’re the one who should keep the job?
My experience has given me the opportunity to see life in Wyoming from a lot of different sides. I grew up traveling Wyoming with my dad as his highway construction work took us from project to project. I started babysitting at 11 and later bagged groceries at Safeway, filled orders in a Coast-to-Coast warehouse and worked as a legal assistant.
Eventually my work took me into public service – about five years with the Central Wyoming Regional Water System and three years with WYDOT. Later, as a private consultant, I worked alongside Wyoming
communities on planning, economic development and natural resource projects. I’ve led the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce. I’ve spent more than 30 years building businesses across professional services, retail and hospitality. Some have done well. Some have been a struggle. And I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way.
These days, I’m as likely to be baking croissants or dealing with a broken water line at the campground as sitting around a conference table.
That’s a lot of different ways to see the same state. And maybe that’s why I think about experience a little differently.
Experience should widen your view, not narrow it. It should make you want to understand how other people live and what they’re up against. And it should teach you to think beyond the vote you cast in Cheyenne to the people who will actually have to live with it.
Most of all, experience should teach you some humility – to listen more carefully, keep learning, and remember that holding office was never the point.
The point is to serve people well and leave Wyoming stronger for those who come next.