By Hannah Shields
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — Challenging candidates are frustrated after incumbents U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, and U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, both R-Wyo., declined to appear in a primary debate hosted by Wyoming PBS, prompting the public television station to cancel the event.

The pre-primary debate was to take place in Casper on Aug. 8, but plans quickly fell apart after both incumbents declined to make an appearance, Wyoming PBS senior producer Steve Peck said in an email Monday to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

“That’s as far as the process went,” Peck said. “We had not announced or promoted any debates, had not secured panelists, and had not added the debates to our program schedule.”

Republican Steven R. Helling of Casper is challenging Hageman for the state’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

There are two Republican challengers for Barrasso’s seat in the U.S. Senate — Reid Rasner of Mills and John Holtz of Laramie — but Peck said there was doubt over whether both candidates would show up. In the end, Wyoming PBS “opted not to move forward with plans.”

Barrasso didn’t offer a reason for declining the invitation, Peck said. 

Hageman campaign advisor Tim Murtaugh didn’t give the WTE or Wyoming PBS a direct reason for declining the debate. Instead, he said in an emailed statement that Hageman plans to fulfill her promise to hold town hall meetings in every Wyoming county “to engage directly with citizens.”

“In fact, she has driven over 15,000 miles in just the last six months,” Murtaugh said in the email. “Rep. Hageman has a record of fighting for conservative Wyoming values and putting Wyoming and America first. She believes that directly interacting with voters is the best way for candidates to engage, and that a voting record remains the best measure of a candidate.”

Helling and Rasner received the news of the canceled debate last week, and both were less than pleased.

In a news release issued Saturday, Rasner criticized Barrasso for refusing to participate in the debate, saying it was “cowardice, contempt, and abandonment of the people of Wyoming.”

“From the perspective of a Wyomingite, I know how upsetting it is to hear that a state-funded and supposedly unbiased news source is canceling one of the only chances that people have to hear each candidate discuss and argue the issues,” Rasner said in the release. “The people deserve better.”

Helling formally announced his campaign for U.S. Congress on Monday, a week after Wyoming PBS told him his debate was canceled. He said in the campaign announcement that he was disappointed when Hageman declined to debate him, the same way she refused to debate her Democratic opponent, Lynnette Grey Bull, in 2022.

“I want to give voters a choice in the upcoming election,” Helling said in the release. “I think debates are important for voters. Apparently, Ms. Hageman does not.”

Peck said all candidates have been informed that Wyoming PBS intends to host a general election debate later this year, likely in early October. 

Scott D. Morrow of Laramie is the sole Democrat running for Barrasso’s Senate seat, while Kyle G. Cameron of Cheyenne is the sole Democrat running against Hageman for House.

There’s no promise the incumbents will show, however. Peck said Hageman had declined to participate in the network’s 2022 general election debate, where she would have faced Grey Bull, although she did take part in the primary election debate that year against former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

Barrasso’s campaign team did not respond to the WTE’s question by deadline Monday.