Wyoming in the most instinctively conservative place I’ve ever traveled within the United States. I say this because, even considering the deeply socially conservative and anti-Washington nature of the Deep South, the large black populations there have a significant influence on the political culture. Wyoming is much whiter and its economy is all about ranching and oil, gas and mineral mining.

In the northeast of the state, you can see the results in Niobrara County (Trump 90.1 percent, Harris 9.1. percent), Crook County (Trump 88.3 percent, Harris 10.3 percent) and Weston County (Trump 87.8 percent, Harris 11 percent). The only county in the state that Harris won was Teton, home of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks and Jackson Hole, where she carried 67 percent. Other than Teton County, the only country where Trump failed to carry at least 65 percent of the vote was Albany County (Trump 50.6 percent, Harris 47.5 percent), home of Laramie and the University of Wyoming.

U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman represents all of these counties because despite its size, Wyoming has the smallest population in the country, trailing even tiny Vermont. That means that while it has the same number of U.S. senators as California and Texas, it only has a single member of the House of Representatives. Rep. Hageman could have chosen much friendlier places to hold a town hall meeting than Albany County, and I am sure she wishes she did because she just got booed off the stage at the Laramie Plains Civic Center.

Specifically, she was booed off the stage while attempting to defend the work of Elon Musk and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On the video you hear her say, “Here’s the only thing that DOGE has done, and it’s so bizarre to me that you’re so obsessed with federal government.” At that point she is drowned out by catcalls and hooting. She must have been shocked that that line, which has been a go-to line for Wyoming Republicans for a century or more, was received with outrage rather than nodding approval.

Hageman then shifts to trying to calm the audience, finally telling them that if they don’t calm down they’ll all have heart attacks. This is met by louder booing and someone in the audience yells back, “We’re already having heart attacks!”

Clearly flustered, she tries to soldier through with an explanation that all DOGE is doing is “the closest thing to zero-based budgeting. Why would you be opposed to us looking on a line-by-line basis..?” At which point she is completely drowned out. You hear a woman scream “by a South African immigrant who wan’t elected!” as she gives up and walks away from the podium.

It was ironic to hear anti-immigrant rhetoric thrown back in the Republican congresswoman’s face, because she began the meeting by praising passage of the Laken Riley Act, a law that requires the government to deport undocumented people without a hearing or trial if they have simply been accused of minor crimes like shoplifting.

But it’s true that Musk was not elected. And it’s clearly true that Musk has quickly become a political liability for Republican members of Congress. Hageman doesn’t have to worry about being defeated in a general election against a Democrat simply because she has such a huge partisan cushion in other parts of the state, but this still happened in a county that Trump carried.

Hageman apparently tried to continue after the video concludes, but was soon “drowned out by many people chanting ‘January 6th’ in reference to the storming of the nation’s capitol in 2020.” She concluded the meeting prematurely “with the line of those at the front wanting to ask questions being the longest during the evening.”

A Fox News poll shows that 58 percent of Americans oppose what Musk is doing with DOGE and that 39 percent of Republicans are concerned with how DOGE cuts are being implemented. Those are rough numbers for any Republican who serves in a remotely competitive seat.

But these things will continue until the fascist regime is defeated.