Rex Rammell in 2022 WY Governor's race

On Health Care: No on Medicaid expansion: we're addicted to federal money

Wyoming is one of 12 states that have resisted expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The federal government provides states a federal matching rate for the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage to cover the cost of adults with incomes up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level of $17,744. The fear of accepting the match is that Washington will yank it away some day, or reduce the amount of the match, straining the budgets of states like Wyoming.

Rammell said the last thing people in Wyoming should do "is get more addicted to federal money." Washington is bound to go bankrupt under the strain of its $30 trillion of debt, he said.

On Health Care: COVID-19 restrictions went too far & overreached authority

Governor Mark Gordon defended the public health orders he enacted, saying he withstood pressure to take even more drastic actions.

Some of the attacks came from inside Wyoming. Governor Gordon responded angrily at early news conferences to calls from his political left that he should issue a statewide "stay at home order." Critics on his right questioned the science and the legality of the orders. Gordon famously called the resistors "knuckleheads." Rammell said that Gordon went too far.