LARAMIE—Wyoming’s U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman provided no new details regarding the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers during a Wednesday night town hall.
Her constituents, however, made one thing clear — they want answers. And many of them are angry.
More than 500 people squeezed into the auditorium of the historic Laramie Plains Civic Center. With each seat filled, including the balcony, residents crowded in the back and lined the outer aisles. Dozens brought signs. One carried a blue, pink and white flag. Some wore red baseball hats and brandished Hageman for Congress campaign signs.
Originally slated for a room a fraction of the size in another corner of the building, the event had been advertised as a “recap of the latest developments in Congress” with an audience Q&A to follow.
But before Hageman even reached the spotlit podium, she was greeted with a roaring “boo” as she walked across the stage. Supporters stood and clapped despite being heavily outnumbered.
“What an incredible turnout. It’s very exciting to be back in Laramie, Wyoming, where I went to school. What I would like you to do is, I see a lot of signs around, and I understand what you’re trying to say. I get it. I can read them,” Hageman said before she was interrupted.
“Fuck you! That’s what we’re saying,” someone in the crowd hollered.
From there, the room remained at a rolling boil.
At several points, the crowd broke out into chants, including “tax the rich” and “do your job.” Some attendees argued amongst themselves, while the heavy law enforcement presence maintained a hands-off approach. No one was asked to leave or escorted out, a Laramie police officer confirmed to WyoFile after the event.
About half of the Q&A was conducted without a microphone, making it difficult to hear. A couple of local Democratic Party organizers, including Linda Devine and Mike Selmer, asked attendees to curtail the yelling and cursing in order to have a “dialogue.” Those calls were mostly ignored.
Hageman’s supporters, most of whom sat in the front rows, were vastly outnumbered. A few, including former Colorado congressman Doug Lamborn, used the Q&A as an opportunity to thank and praise her. Others, like Kathy Russell, who lives in Cheyenne and works as executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party, scowled and used her phone to record those who objected to Hageman.
The congresswoman, meanwhile, returned fire with her constituents.
“It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with the federal government,” Hageman said when asked about the fate of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
“You guys are going to have a heart attack if you don’t calm down,” Hageman said. “I’m sorry, you’re hysterical.”
The night marked Hageman’s 74th town hall in the last three years, she said. The event, however, was decidedly different from what had come before. A typical Hageman town hall mostly attracts her supporters, functioning as a kind of campaign stop. But the Laramie town hall took place in one of the few blue-leaning cities in Wyoming, home to the state’s only four-year public university.
Republican congressional leadership recently urged its members to stop hosting in-person town halls to avoid angry constituents and confrontations going viral online.
Hageman has pressed on.
Earlier in the week, she held a town hall in Afton, where she was met with some resistance but mostly support. Speaking to reporters after the event, Hageman dismissed questions regarding how the Elon Musk-led DOGE downsizing was affecting Wyoming’s federal land managers and their staff with a remark about “a lot of rumors” going around.
She maintained that position in Laramie, even when she came face to face with constituents who said they’d been fired in February.
One woman, who did not give her name, told Hageman she had been fired from a job with the United States Department of Agriculture, where she worked with Wyoming farmers to combat drought. The woman said she was dismissed despite having only the highest marks on her performance review.
“In a state where so many farmers rely on government programs for drought and disaster relief, Trump’s plans to cut these programs and the people who administer them, coupled with the tariffs, will decimate Wyoming farms in rural communities. What are you doing about that?” the woman asked.
“I disagree,” Hageman responded.
“I think that our small businesses, our ranchers and our farmers are going to be able to actually thrive in an environment where they are not so over regulated by the federal government,” the congresswoman added.
Another woman who did not give her name described uncertain working conditions while serving as a fellow for the Department of Defense.
“Every day we get unsigned emails that are supposedly [from the United States Office of Personnel Management.] Are you scared? Are you getting those emails? Do you know what DOGE is doing?” she asked.
Unsatisfied with the congresswoman’s response, the crowd chanted “answer.”
“She asked me if I was scared and if I knew what DOGE was doing, and I said ‘no’ to both,” Hageman told the audience.
Others asked about the Trump administration’s plans to shut down the Department of Education and whether Hageman, an attorney by trade, would vote to impeach judges who rule against the administration as called for by Trump.
Hageman did not directly answer the impeachment question and said she would support the federal government sending states flexible block grants to fund education as an alternative to the current formula-driven approach.
One of the more raucous crowd reactions came when someone asked Hageman what she would do to help protect the rights of transgender and non-binary people.
“I don’t even know what that means,” she said.
About 52 minutes in Hageman ended the event which had been scheduled for an hour. The congresswoman has met with the press after previous town halls, but didn’t this time.
“I’ll be back in Laramie soon,” she said to more boos. Then she walked off stage and out of the building.
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