THE ROAD TO THE CAPITOL: Casper Home Baker Wants Wyoming to Go “Back to the Basics”

By Shen Wu Tan

Special to the Wyoming Truth
 

MILLS, Wyo. – Amid jars of handmade jellies and shelves of baked goods, Adrian Dusseljee maintained an air of mystery about her politics. 

An Independent voter and owner of Cottage Bakery, Dusseljee, 49, was mum about her preferred candidate for this year’s U.S. House race during her shift at the Milkhouse Farmer’s Market in Mills. She volunteers there once a week and sells her bread, eggs, herbs and cheesecakes.

“It’s not anyone’s business,” she said. 

But Dusseljee did disclose that she will support a Republican candidate and that like many other Cowboy State voters, she has soured on incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney. 

“I feel that Liz Cheney has turned her back on the Wyoming way of life,” said Dusseljee, a Casper resident. “She’s more hobnobbing with the upper crust of East Coast society and has forgotten her roots and who she’s supposed to be representing…She continues to rub her nose, or thumb her nose rather, at the state of Wyoming, and that is a slap in the face.”

Dusseljee admitted she previously voted for Cheney, the vice chair of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but wishes she could take back her vote.

In Dusseljee’s opinion, legislators are frittering away time with the investigation, which she referred to as a one-sided “political witch hunt.”  

“It’s over, it’s done,” she said of the Jan. 6 riot. “They [Jan. 6 committee members] lost their shenanigans over it. They’re just dragging it through the mud. They need to let it go. Move on with their lives. They are wasting money they don’t need to waste and valuable time they could be working on something else.”

Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump and considered Cheney’s most serious challenger, does pique Dusseljee’s interest. She described Hageman as “quite agreeable” although she doesn’t see eye-to-eye with her on some issues, such as Roe v. Wade.

Dusseljee wants Wyoming to go “back to the basics,” and to her, that means tapping into the state’s own natural products like coal and oil, opening up pipelines, putting people back to work, teaching kids how to farm and ramping up the military.

She also firmly supports term limits. At all levels of government, Dusseljee wants older politicians to step aside and make room for new candidates. And she wants the United States to get a grip on what she called its “horrendous” spending habits.

“Our country is spending money left, right and center that’s not ours,” Dusseljee said. “We’re in debt up past our eyeballs, and that’s wrong.”

As for 2024, Dusseljee values Trump’s business experience and would “love” to see him run again for the presidency.

“He has that charisma,” she said. “Our country is a business, and it has to be run as a business. You can’t run it as a popularity contest.”

Our next stop: Kaycee.