Troy Bray For HD25

Issues and Values 

As a native of Wyoming, I have travelled around the world, but stayed Wyoming to the core. From the South Pole to Alaska, from the east coast to the Republic of Korea, I have never forgotten where I came from, and I have always maintained the values I espouse.

I will, as your representative in Cheyenne, remember that I represent the finest community in the entire world, and do everything I can to keep it strong, and make it better.

Wyoming, Park County, and Powell are growing BECAUSE they are the best, but recent actions (or lack of actions) by the Governor and Legislature are putting our economy, our freedom, and our way of life at risk. We cannot allow the actions of the last 3 years to contiue, or we will lose our livelyhoods and our way of life. I will stand firm against oppression and poor leadership, and help Powell grow into the future with the same pride it has held dear in the past.

Constitutional Compliance 

Gun rights, and more

My top priority is preservation of individual rights, and the return of those rights that have been curtailed. Firearms rights and Second Amendment issues are a part of that, and I have worked with others in the past to get Constitutional Carry, Castle Doctrine, Stand Your Ground, and SAPA passed. While none were passed cleanly (One of my opponents loved to amend the bills to uselessness), they can be fixed. The SAPA bill passed by the legislature this year is almost worthless- actually, it is worthless- but it can be strengthened by people with courage and dedication. This is my top priority.

Now that we have a Second Amendment Preservation Act, we need to get to work on a First Amendment Preservation Act to keep the Governor from shutting down our churches again, and preventing federal agencies from targeting parents who attend school board meetings, and to keep our voices from being silenced when we object to immoral and corrupt political and social movements.

We need a Third Amendment Preservation Act. One of the "solutions" to school shootings being proposed (often by conservatives) is to have armed guards in schools. This will probably be done at the federal level, and I am not very pleased with the idea of having federal law enforcement agents standing in my son's classroom. I remember Ruby Ridge, and I had a very personal view of Waco, and I am not keen on quartering federal agents in our schools, especially when the real solution is to allow teachers and other staff members to defend themselves.

Expanding individual rights is the right solution, not constricting them.

Right To Life
 

Defending the rights of the unborn

Morally, I agree with the religious arguments against abortion, but those arguments don't make good laws. I take an extremely scientific approach to this issue. When an egg is fertilized, it has 23 pairs of chromosomes and is scientifically, provably a human being, separate and distinct from the mother. The child  therefore has the same rights any other human has, and is entitled to life. State law already protects an unborn child from being murdered by somebody other than the mother (and a "doctor"), and that protection needs to be expanded. I support the death penalty for rapists and child molesters, but I cannot support the death penalty for the children of rapists and child molesters, especially without due process. If you want to kill the unborn, make a law, put the child on trial, and let a jury decide that the child deserves to die. The most heinous criminals in our society are afforded that right, why are the most innocent among us denied it? 

Endorsed by Wyoming Right to Life

Taxation is theft

"Taxation is a neccessary evil, but it is still evil" 

I will work to lower taxes whenever and wherever possible. The Wyoming Constitution requires a balanced budget, and the legislature has taken that to mean that we need to raise taxes to cover all of the extraneous spending they want to do. I believe that we should cut spending to match the revenue received, and we should cut taxes. Whether it is skyrocketing property taxes, some of the highest fuel taxes in the nation (with increases proposed while Wyoming’s families are struggling with already climbing prices at the pump), to increasing sales taxes, lodging taxes, and on and on. I will work to ensure that taxes don’t increase, and will fight to lower taxes for every citizen. 

I hate paying taxes as much as anybody else (but I won't quote Daddy Bush)

Government’s job is to protect INDIVIDUAL rights

All rights are individual rights. Government borrows authority from the people, and businesses only have rights because they are made up of individuals.

Your rights were granted by your creator, at your creation. They are unalienable- they cannot be taken away, you can’t even give them away- they belong to you. They are also indefeasable- they only exist as a whole, and removal of one right negates all of them. If you remove all of the tires from a car, it is no longer a car, it is a lawn ornament. Rights are the same, if your First Amendment rights are infringed, none of your other rights function correctly. If a police officer can seize your property without a warrant, then ALL of your rights are violated. 

People form governments in order to defend their individual rights. This is the basic premise behind our founding documents, and what makes America unique in human history. Our government was formed in order that we can have liberty, and that liberty be preserved for all. Our current legislature has, in large part, forgotten that- many never knew it. The State government should be defending your rights from the overreach of the federal government, and I will work to ensure that they do. 

Wyoming should lead the nation 

Leadership requires a backbone, and the willingness to take risks

Wyoming is a great place to live, the best place in the world. Whatever your pursuit of happiness entails, Wyoming can be the leader. The current leaders and legislators have followed other states in lawsuits against the federal government, following the herd like a bum lamb. Wyoming should be leading the pack, and that requires people with backbones. 

Several laws ensuring liberty have originated in Wyoming, and have been passed by other states first, with Wyoming’s legislature finally getting on board years later. Constitutional Carry was written and first proposed in Wyoming, for example, but Wyoming was the 11th state to pass it (and only after being amended heavily to weaken it). Wyoming should lead, not follow. As a graduate of the finest leadership school in the entire world (US Army Primary Leadership Course), I am more than willing to take stands first, rather than waiting until the fight is won.

Education

Not much bang for our buck

Wyoming spends close to $20,000 per student every year. That is almost the highest in the nation, yet, our students rank firmly in the middle of the pack in outcomes. This is unacceptable, we owe our children more than that.

Our education dollars are being poorly spent, and the Governor and legislature are largely to blame. By chasing every federal dollar dangled in front of them, our representatives have grabbed every string attached to those dollars. We hire new administrators to ensure compliance with programs we would not choose to fund ourselves simply because it makes the education budget BIGGER. We need to focus on making it BETTER. We need to cut ties with the Federal DOEd when their goals don't align with our values, or when their agenda seeks to undermine our children's learning. We owe our children more, and I will seek to provide the best education we can afford, without federal handouts for programs we don't want.

One of the big issues I hear from administrators is that there is too much uncertainty in the budget. Every year, legislators cry about "$100 million in cuts" that never actually happen. Administrators cannot form their own budgets until they know how much they will get, but because the legislature doesn't do their job, the Superintendants are left doing it at the last moment. This reduces the amount of time they can devote to the business of providing an education. We need to stop the fearmongering (by legislators who have sold their souls to the WEA), and give our districts some continuity. 

Real Choice in Education

Public, Private, AND Home

Parents should be able to choose how to educate their chidren, whether they choose public schools, private schools, charter schools, or homeschooling. Ideally, the education dollars should follow the student, and I would work to make that happen. 

Currently, where charter schools exist, they are regulated too closely by the school district, and many districts block the schools from opening. That is flately wrong, and I will work to rectify that. Charter schools only recieve half of the money allotted to the district for each student. This is a tacit admission that public schools are less efficient, and waste too much money on adminstration. We can fix that.

Private schools are left on their own, and parents have to foot the bill for the entire cost of educating their children, making it very diffcult for lower and middle class families to choose a good education for their children. Many of those schools value their independance, and refuse to accept conditions placed on their curricula, and they shouldn't have to in order to recieve funds for basic needs. This would open those schools up to less wealthy families.

Homeschoolers also reuse the strings government attaches to money. Ideally, those dollars would come without strings, and if I can get enough friends in the legislature to go along with me, we will get education dollars to homeschoolers without strings. But I absolutely, under no circumstances, will vote to regulate or limit homeschool rights. No compromise.

Ending a Culture of Harassment

Protecting our Guard by cleaning it up

Many people are unaware that the Wyoming National Guard is a cesspool of sexual harrassment, sexual assault, and rape, and that leadership at the highest levels has either turned a blind eye to it, or actively participated. The WYANG is currently non-compliant with court orders, and the Adjudant General has used Guard resources to attack and defame the women who sued the Guard, and won.

A soldier or airman deserves a level of respect simply by virtue of their service. When a soldier passes an officer, they are required by law to show respect by rendering a hand salute. What many who have not served in the military don't realize is that the officer is REQUIRED to return the respect by returning the salute. Our soldiers and airmen are not being shown that basic respect by their commanders, or the governor who allows them to remain in their positions of authority, and even promotes them. 

The former Adjudant General of the WYANG (who was appointed by Gov Gordon to head the DOT) would not allow his own daughter to serve in the Wyoming Guard because he was afraid she would get raped, and he wouldn't or couldn't prevent it. 

A soldier or airman deserves to be able to serve without being exploited by their commanders. They deserve to be shown a basic level of respect. As my Drill Sergeant said "There are no black soldiers or white soldiers or yellow soldiers or brown soldiers, You are all green now." There are no female soldiers and airmen or male soldiers and airmen there are soldiers and airmen, and they deserve to be treated as such.

For more information, and the story of one of the most courageous women in Wyoming, Check out my friend, Rachel Bennett's website Here.  https://www.rachelforwyoming.com/

Troy Bray

Wyoming's Patriot

Paid for Troy Bray for HD25, NOT by Pfizer

Candidate photos provided by Heather Clarkson Photography

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