Wyoming Political Surprises In The Late 1980s: Deviating Elections in a Conservative Republican State

Authors

Cal Clark, University of Wyoming
Janet Clark, University of Wyoming

Date of this Version

1991

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 11:3 (Summer 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Wyoming is typical of the states in the upper Great Plains region (Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota) in many but not all aspects. In socioeconomic terms, the Great Plains are basically agricultural and rural with fewer prominent urban centers than elsewhere in the nation. Politically the region is generally viewed as conservative and Republican, but this image is subject to several important caveats. First, agrarian crises have periodically fueled insurgent political movements, such as the Populism of the 1890s, Progressivism in the early twentieth century, strong support for Roosevelt's New Deal, and support for populist or liberal Democrats, especially in congressional elections, during times of agricultural downturn in the postwar period. Second, the political party structures and partisan loyalties of the electorate in most of these states have not been particularly strong; consequently, important Democratic politicians periodically emerge (e.g., George McGovern in South Dakota or Robert Kerrey in Nebraska) on the basis of idiosyncratic or personal appeals.¹