Home

Ted Hanlon earned his chemical engineering degree at the University of Wyoming.  He has 45 years of experience in the oil and chemical industries. Roles in engineering and management with major companies led him to the conclusion that developing people and optimizing processes are the keys to success. He founded Hanlon Process Consulting to help organizations across the country become more profitable.  Ted will bring a business perspective to the state legislature. His strength is collaborative problem solving. Solutions to the public-school funding crisis, the crushing cost of health insurance and the skyrocketing cost of owning a home can only be found by rolling up our sleeves, working hard, and working together.

I believe in a Wyoming where the government answers to the people, and where the rule of law applies to everyone equally. Unilaterally-signed 287(g) agreements turn our local law enforcement officers into federal immigration agents. This shifts our limited local tax dollars away from public safety to do the federal government’s job—all without the transparent, democratic oversight Wyomingites deserve.

When local police engage in federal enforcement during routine traffic stops, it erodes due process, invites arbitrary profiling, and breaks the trust required to keep our neighborhoods safe. As your Senator, I will defend the Constitution, demand local control, and oppose any measures that expand federal overreach onto Wyoming roads and into our communities

Wyoming’s public lands are central to our way of life, but keeping public lands in public hands is also a matter of strict fiscal conservatism. I oppose the mass transfer or privatization of federal public lands because it is an economic trap for our state. If Wyoming took title to these millions of acres, our taxpayers would immediately inherit the astronomical costs of wildfire suppression and land management—expenses that could easily bankrupt our state budget.

Furthermore, the ‘multiple-use’ doctrine ensures these lands remain economic engines for everyone—supporting our energy sector, our ranchers, and our booming outdoor recreation industry simultaneously. Privatizing these lands means locking out regular Wyomingites so a handful of out-of-state billionaires can turn our heritage into their private playgrounds. I will always vote to protect your access to hunt, fish, and work on Wyoming land, while keeping our state’s budget secure

I welcome the technology sector to Laramie County, and I appreciate the high-paying jobs and economic diversification data centers bring to Senate District 5. But a digital gold rush cannot come at the expense of our residents, our utility rates, or our natural resources.

Right now, data center developers are exploiting a loophole in Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Act. By building inside annexed industrial parks, they bypass the robust state-level reviews that we require of every other heavy industry. This allows them to hide the full scope of their massive water consumption and staggering power demands from the public.

As your Senator, I will lead the fight to close the industrial park exemption. If a data center wants to build a campus that rivals the power grid demand of a power plant, they must play by the same rules. Closing this loophole will guarantee transparency regarding resource use, protect local ratepayers, and ensure our community receives mandatory impact mitigation funds to handle the strain on our roads, housing, and public services.

Lowering the Cost of Living to Strengthen Wyoming Businesses

High costs shouldn’t force families out of their homes or prevent small businesses from hiring. True fiscal conservatism means proactively stabilizing the costs of basic necessities like housing and healthcare, making Wyoming a more competitive place to live, work, and do business.

1. Slashing Homeowners Insurance Premiums

Extreme weather and unstable global markets are driving property insurance rates out of control, threatening homeownership for young families and seniors on fixed incomes. As your Senator, I will champion a State Reinsurance Program—a proven, market-based safety net. By having the state backstop catastrophic insurance losses, we drastically lower the risk for private insurance companies. This stabilizes the market, injects competition, and directly lowers property premiums for every homeowner in Laramie County.

2. Creating a Common-Sense Healthcare Safety Net

When a working-class resident can’t afford doctor visits, they end up in the emergency room. Wyoming hospitals take on millions in unpaid care, which forces them to jack up prices on everyone else—driving up insurance premiums for our local small businesses.

We must close the coverage gap through a smart combination of federal-state cooperation, targeted Medicaid expansion, and localized premium assistance. This ensures low-income workers have a doctor, protects our hospitals from bankruptcy, and lifts the heavy burden of skyrocketing premium costs off the backs of Wyoming employers.

Honoring our Promise to Wyoming’s Classrooms

The Wyoming Constitution and our State Supreme Court are absolutely clear: funding a high-quality public education is not an optional line item—it is our primary constitutional duty. Providing excellent schools is also a fundamental moral obligation we owe to our children and our communities.

We do not need new taxes to fix our schools; we need a legislature that respects local control and prioritizes the massive revenues Wyoming already generates. Recently, Cheyenne politicians implemented an over-regulated ‘instructional silo’ model that micro-manages local districts, cutting flexibility for activities and causing artificial budget shortfalls right here in Laramie County.

As your Senator, I will fight to restore block-grant flexibility so local school boards—not state bureaucrats—decide how to use their dollars. Furthermore, I will advocate for modernizing the investment structure of our state’s multi-billion dollar Permanent Mineral Trust Fund and rainy-day accounts, ensuring their historic returns directly shield our classrooms from inflation and cover critical needs like school counselors and competitive teacher pay. We can keep our constitutional promise to our kids while keeping Wyoming a low-tax state.

Defending Personal Freedom and Medical Privacy

I believe in the foundational Wyoming value of limited government. There is no area where government overreach is more dangerous than when politicians try to insert themselves between a competent adult and their doctor.

Our State Supreme Court recently reaffirmed that Article 1, Section 38 of the Wyoming Constitution explicitly guarantees every citizen the fundamental right to make their own healthcare decisions without state interference. This amendment was overwhelmingly passed by Wyoming voters to keep the government out of our private lives—and that principle must be applied consistently.

I trust women, families, and their doctors to make these deeply personal, complex medical decisions. As your Senator, I will fiercely defend the Wyoming Constitution, uphold the rule of law, and oppose any efforts by politicians to override the rights of citizens or weaponize the state government against private medical choices.