After news broke Tuesday evening that Fort Washakie’s Lynnette Grey Bull had won the Democratic nomination for Wyoming U.S. House, she released a statement soon after. Grey Bull congratulated her Democratic opponents, spoke about future plans, and extended an invitation to her General Election opponent, Liz Cheney. Her full statement is below.
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Let me be among the first to warmly congratulate Carl Beach on his campaign. I have enjoyed meeting Carl and I hope to work with him in the upcoming election. I want to recognize Carol Haffner for her interest in the people of Wyoming. There is nothing easy about running for public office.
I also want to congratulate Representative Liz Cheney on winning her race without having to visit Wyoming. I’d like to offer an enormous thank you to my small volunteer campaign team. It was a real honor to have Congresswoman Deb Haaland acknowledge our grassroots campaign as “historic.”
We were told that we’d need seven figures to cross this finish line, but with creativity and will we have achieved it with four. Going forward, it’s going to take a little more than that against Representative Cheney’s multinational corporate-fueled war chest!
It was humbling to receive the endorsements of so many Wyoming Democratic Party State
Representatives; thank you all – I will do everything I can to uphold your confidence in me. I want to thank all of my supporters, and I ask each one of you to believe and welcome others into our movement. And finally, I want to thank my children and family for making the sacrifices that permitted me to pursue this campaign to “Put Equality in the State.”
Today, on the centennial of the 19th Amendment, Wyoming Democrats chose to vote for an
Indigenous woman. My friends, you made history today; in Wyoming statewide elections,
women of color are now not only in the room where the glass ceiling is, you made it possible for us to shatter it.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer Representative Cheney an invitation to come to the Wind River Indian Reservation in the heart of Wyoming to debate the many critical issues that are facing the citizens of our state. Were she to accept, she would witness first-hand how COVID-19 has laid bare the structural inequities for minority communities and low-income families across Wyoming.
For example, Native Americans make up only 2.1% of Wyoming’s population but have suffered almost 50% of the state’s COVID-19 fatalities. Representative Cheney would see that the failed policies of the Trump Administration she has proudly supported 97% of the time have left many Wyomingites with the desperate choice between seeking medical care or putting food on the table. “It is what it is” will never be an acceptable answer for me.
With over 5 million of our fellow citizens having been infected by coronavirus and some 175,000 having already died on President Trump’s watch, I realize that it may be impossible for Representative Cheney to accept an invitation to debate me in public on the reservation. Due to that, I extend a sincere invitation to Representative Cheney to come to my home. We are both mothers, and so what better way to discuss issues than over the kitchen table, 6 feet apart? We wouldn’t need moderators, we could simply discuss the issues, mom to mom, and invite everybody to watch on one broadcast feed.
In closing, I hope Representative Cheney will address this issue tomorrow: On my campaign’s Facebook page, over 90% of the comments left by identifiable Trump-Cheney supporters on posts referring to the Latino community were unambiguously racist. Over 50% of the comments left generally by Trump-Cheney supporters included derogatory racial slurs against Native Americans.
I don’t doubt that I’ll be accused of “playing the race card” for raising this, but this is no race card, it is the truth card. As the great John Lewis famously said, “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up.” I assure you that as we move forward together, I will continue to do that as we collectively continue the work to “Put Equality in the State.” I also promise you all, that I will do everything I can to stop the destruction of our true Western way of life.
Today, more than ever, there is no turning back. We must hold this truth to be self-evident: “We, The People” must finally become “All The People,” for without that there can never be a more perfect Union.
Thank you. May our Creator bless you, and may God bless the great State of Wyoming and the United States of America.
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