Laurie Bratten Announces Campaign for Re-Election to Wyoming House District 51

March 24, 2026

News – Sheridan Media

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Laurie Bratten announced her candidacy for re-election to Wyoming’s State House District 51 on Saturday, March 21st, at the 2026 Sheridan County Republican Convention. “It has been an honor to represent the people of House District 51, and I want to build on the success of my first term. After 4 straight years of no relief from skyrocketing property taxes, the people have finally seen some relief at the residential level. I want to level-up from that relief to reform as we evaluate the best ways to provide our state, our educational systems, and our local governments and special districts the proper levels of funding they need along with the stability required to be able to provide the essential government services people expect, while doing so in a fiscally responsible manner.”

Laurie has put her extensive experience at the state and federal legislative levels to work for the people of House District 51. Her work on two key committees, Judiciary and Education, as well as her work on the Select School Facilities Committee, made positive, lasting impacts for the people of Wyoming.

Working together with the Senate on the Joint Judiciary Committee, she helped craft legislation to fight the stalking and grooming of minors, which can lead to other crimes in human trafficking. Over the last interim this committee also crafted successful legislation that was strongly supported by the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce to clamp down on retail theft. Another key piece of legislation was a bill addressing mental health
holds in jails. “Judiciary is such an important committee and to be selected for that duty was an honor and a great responsibility,” Bratten says.

On the Joint Education Committee she was able to bring two pieces of additional legislation to the table late in the interim to protect the rights of parents and home-schooled students which were signed into law by Governor Gordon. Other achievements were increases to the Hathaway Scholarship for Wyoming high school graduates and increasing funding for Career and Technical Education.

Budget wins included working for amendments to restore funding to the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming Business Council along with additional oversight, as well as obtaining $15mm of funding to renovate the Science building at Sheridan College. Those strategic choices to increase select spending items were balanced by holding the line against scores of amendments that would have added $1.2 billion of spending to the budget.

She enjoyed bi-partisan support for her bills, and developed many strong relationships in the House and the Senate. “My strengths include finding areas of common ground and collaboratively working together for solutions. The relationships I’ve developed in both the House and the Senate will be incredibly valuable in the next session. I have earned a reputation as being well prepared, thoughtful, and ready to approach every issue
on its merits – even if that means going against the grain at times when I felt it was the right thing to do.”

In February Laurie personally funded a postcard that went out to every homeowner in Sheridan County who was eligible for the 25% reduction in residential property tax but had not yet signed up. “We worked with the assessor’s office to identify some gaps, and our local print shop Alpha Graphics was really helpful with the design and print work on a very short timetable. We were able to send those notices to every eligible homeowner we could identify – not just in HD 51, but the entire county. I was thrilled when the assessor’s office called to tell me that a flood of confirmations started coming in.”

One of the things that Laurie truly enjoys is providing constituent services. She’s become a go-to for people in the county who need assistance with a government issue of some sort. “I bring that from my prior experience as the District Director for the second largest agricultural Congressional district in the country. Constituent services was my number one job, and I am able to bring that experience to my role as a state legislator.” Asked about this year’s campaign, Laurie says she’s eager to continue to represent HD51. “I was able to navigate a challenging, sometimes contentious session by doing the hard work, building relationships, and collaborating with legislators of all stripes in both the House and the Senate. I look forward to building on that success.”

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