Neiman named Speaker of the House

Representative Chip Neiman will complete his swift rise to the top of the leadership ladder next year as he takes on the position of Speaker of the House.

Neiman was elected on the weekend, which came as little surprise to him, considering his was the only name being considered.

"I knew that was the next logical position for me, as majority floor leader, to move into the position of speaker," he says. "I knew I had the support of everyone who was winning and potentially could win in the general and, as far as I know, nobody else even considered it. When I announced, that was the end of it – I never even had a challenger."

Neiman's election is testimony, he says, to how the legislative body has changed, with the Freedom Caucus now holding a majority.

"The natural thing would be for leadership to reflect the new makeup of the body," he says.

"I don't think, I know we're going to do an exceptional job and there's some really outstanding people in that legislature who got newly elected or were previous members of the legislature. I'm very hopeful and excited about what's going to get done."

He hopes for a new atmosphere of hope and enthusiasm during the coming session – one that reflects the attitude of the body during the election.

"I was very pleased – nobody seemed to be angry or frustrated, to speak of," he says.

"Everybody was looking forward to the future and what could potentially be done. It's great to have that be the attitude and I look forward to seeing it develop into policy and people being very happy and satisfied with where things are headed."

To determine where things should be headed, and with the assistance of the Trump Organization, the Freedom Caucus sent out a poll across the state to determine the people's top priorities.

"The number one issue was election integrity – even above property taxes and tax reform was the issue that our elections are safe, that they're honest, that there are audits done," he says. "What happened in Weston County made even more clear that that is definitely something that's important to the people – that really resonated."

In Weston County, some voters were given incorrect ballots, which led to a miscount in a county commission and the House District #1 race. This led to a hand count to correct the numbers.

Many of the items on the list were social issues, he says. Wyoming people want to, "Go back to a meritocracy – they want to see people move ahead based on their hard work and their abilities, not a lot of what's being projected onto or coming from a lot of the universities."

Poll respondents want to be sure that Wyoming is not funding or encouraging things like diversity hiring, Neiman says. Additionally, respondents expressed concern about Environmental Social Governance.

"That goes back to the whole idea of debilitating companies based on political pressure from a social agenda that is not conducive to what we do here in Wyoming. People are resentful of the idea that they are going to withhold funding or moderate power or tell people how and what they should have in their boardrooms," he says.

Real, meaningful property tax reform was also on the list, Neiman says.

"From what we could gather from the polling, it was not talking about putting a band aid on it, they want real reform," he says. For example, a change from using fair market value to potential acquisition, which,

"Follows along with what we've been trying to promote."

"With that property tax reform comes a reexamination of what we spend and how we spend it and what we are getting for the dollars that are being expected from our taxpayers," he adds.

Education reform also made the list, he says, in the form of school choice and parental controls and, "A higher expectation of being able to have options for children." Not everyone in the education sphere is supportive, he says, but, "The reality of it is that competition breeds excellence."

This feeds back into the idea of a meritocracy, he points out – a person should be successful based on their efforts and Wyoming's laws should be set up to support that.

Respondents also want to, "Clear up the issue of men competing in women's sports," says Neiman.

"They want us to respect Title 9, they want us to respect women's sports and protect that and make it a level playing field," he says. Responses also pointed to a desire to, "Protect women's restrooms, women's locker rooms."

The items on the poll have fed into a plan to move forward, Neiman says.

"Our commitment as the House and with the leadership team that we have is to recognize those issues that the people are having and that they want to see real, tangible policy decisions made based on the directions people want us to follow," he says.

"We're going to do that. We're going to do everything we can to make sure it's leaving the House and going to the Senate and we'll see what the senators have to say about it."

Neiman has high hopes of success with the new Freedom Caucus majority in the House.

"We've got some real opportunity here and we don't want to waste it," he says.

He is already seeing bills of interest emerging for the session ahead, such as on school choice, gender, Second Amendment and property tax. In addition, he expects some of the bills that will be presented right off the bat will be those that were vetoed by Governor Mark Gordon last year.

"A lot of those pieces of legislation passed with a supermajority in both the House and the Senate last go-around, but we weren't there to be able to override the vetoes," he says.

"I'd like to see us really have some good conversations with our governor, try to get his take on some of this stuff."

Neiman feels confident that the Freedom Caucus majority will see Wyoming move in the direction its citizens desire.

"A guy told me, and I think it is true, that if [people] thought things were going in the direction they wanted and everything was fine, [I] wouldn't be here," he says.

When Neiman's class came in, he says, the Freedom Caucus was a small group of around eight representatives. This doubled the next cycle, "And now we're looking at a consistent, solid 37 to 38."

That does not mean, however, that Neiman intends to ignore the moderate faction of the chamber.

"I'm trying for everything I'm worth right now to try to build bridges with some of the more moderate members of the House to see if we can create a veto-proof majority in the Wyoming House of Representatives, which we have not had," he says.

"I think we have a very real opportunity right now if we treat people with respect and we do everything we can to bring good policy and legislation."

Neiman doesn't want to be a flamethrower, he says – he wants to work with everyone fairly, listen and build coalitions on the topics he feels are important to the people of Wyoming. He also looks forward to working with the Wyoming Senate under President Bo Biteman and Vice President Tim Salazar.

"I've got a great team to work with and I look forward to everything we're going to accomplish," he says.

Neiman does note, though, that he needs the help of the people. Citizens need to continue to stay involved and hold the legislature accountable, he says, and make sure that their legislator knows what issues they want to see addressed.

"I've always told people down there that I've got an awesome district that are proactive and involved in the political sphere and they are not afraid to let people know what they do and do not support," he says. "That helps me a lot as a legislator to know where the people are at, I like that communication and I want to know what they're thinking so I can do the best job I can for them."