Wyoming Rep. Scott Smith was one of about two dozen members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus who advocated for the right to marry children younger than 16 during the 2023 Wyoming Legislative session.

Scott argued that there are kids in his district who are “pretty mature” and whose families don’t want the government interfering with their personal decisions.

Thankfully, the Legislature disagreed with the Freedom Caucus and banned child marriage in our state. But now the Freedom Caucus is coming to the University of Wyoming to promote its agenda. As a student here, I find that deeply concerning.

The Freedom Caucus has gone so far as to endorse candidates for UW’s student government. This endorsement is ironic given that the Freedom Caucus spends its time in the Legislature attacking UW. They routinely sponsor proposals to cut funding for colleges and programs that allow our university to be competitive nationally and enrich our educational experience.

It is telling that the very people who would rather we shut our doors by voting against our budget chose to endorse students who will follow their lead in undermining what makes UW an inviting and inclusive place.

The Freedom Caucus, along with a handful of far-right senators, has led the efforts to defund our diversity, equity, and inclusion office and any DEI programming on campus — work that supports our student veterans and other groups that have more than earned the support of our university and state government.

While the Freedom Caucus relies on rhetoric from Washington D.C. extremists, the reality is that DEI functions to support research that informs our understanding of our aging population, the impact of climate on suicidality and more. DEI protects women’s sports through Title IX and our religious freedom through Title VI. It supports our many brilliant international students in finding a community of fellow cowboys. DEI is built into our state motto, “Equal Rights.”

The University of Wyoming is a leading research institution for industries like the fossil fuel sector, and DEI helps attract the best students into our engineering departments. But the Freedom Caucus wants to shut all this down and diminish the caliber of students we attract.

Now, they are endorsing candidates for student government who they think will support them in their extremist project.

The Freedom Caucus advocates for far more than the “freedom” to marry children. They also vote against vital programs that would benefit young people across the state battling suicidality — in a state with a perpetually high suicide rate. The Freedom Caucus voted against the state’s 988 suicide hotline, an important tool that helps people across Wyoming get connected with community mental health care. They also voted against bills that would help fund mental health programs and suicide prevention efforts for young people across the state through their K-12 public schools.

Make no mistake, the Freedom Caucus is meddling in our student elections because they are “building a bench” for tomorrow so that one day people who share their radical ideology will be running for the Wyoming Legislature and even U.S. Congress. They are grooming new politicians who will further their platform of defunding the government, the University of Wyoming, and installing institutions in their place that limit your freedoms and drive more youth out of our state, or worse, out of their lives.

Students at the University of Wyoming should reject these politicians meddling in our lives because, in addition to their fringe ideas, they have no clue what makes our university great.

Tanner Ewalt is a current student and former senator at the University of Wyoming.

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