Wyoming presents Green’s route to progressive politics

October 9, 2022

After receiving a bachelor’s in mass communications and working at the student newspaper for Morningside University in Sioux City, Green returned to his home state of Wyoming in 2008 to pursue a career as a journalist in the small town of Thermopolis.

It was in Thermopolis where the editor of the paper introduced Green to the local community and where Green met Charles Curley — a voice for the local Republican Party.

Green said he feels he has had a successful last 15-16 months since taking office. “The nature of the beast is a lot of this stuff takes time,” Green said. “It was a huge effort to get direct assistance done. That took longer than I would have liked, but it still was breathtakingly fast considering the way most of these things frequently go.”

“[Curley] was kind of viewed as a crank, was way out of the mainstream — a bit of a nut job,” Green said. “And yeah, Curley said, ‘Welcome to Wyoming, where we hunt Democrats with dogs for sport.’”

In the same job, Green met Wyoming’s most recent Democratic governor, Dave Freudenthal. Freudenthal had been touring the state’s first whisky distillery in Kirby, Wyoming, about 10 miles north of Green’s paper, while Green worked on a story about the distillery. During the visit, Green spoke with Freudenthal’s interim press secretary and discovered he could apply for the same position. Green did just that and got the job.

Although the letter attached to Freudenthal’s name was a D on the ballot, Green said he feels Freudenthal was barely left of center.

“It was frustrating when he was doing stuff that was too conservative,” Green said.

Green, however, feels his experience as press secretary gave him the right learning opportunities for future political endeavors.

“Sometimes you have to figure out what you’re not good at to figure out what you should be doing,” Green said about the job.