“This notion that government can’t be reflective of our economy or our population base doesn’t seem terribly realistic,” she said.

The University of Wyoming has offered employees early retirement to save money. She said other parts of the state need to look at similar options.

“I think Floyd is a very nice person who has always been very kind and gracious whenever I’ve interacted with him,” Ellis said of her opponent. “He has served Wyoming for 20 years. And I think the question after serving that amount of time is, What more am I working on and successfully getting done in the Legislature? And I just think it’s time for people to bring new ideas in.”

The Senate district roughly spans south of Interstate 80 and Pershing Boulevard to the Colorado line and from the South Greeley Highway to the Albany County line.

All the schools in the district are Title I, meaning a high percentage of the students come from low-income families.

Ellis knows some people in the district would benefit from Medicaid expansion, but she hasn’t made up her mind about the program. It’ll cost money for the state to expand, and she doesn’t know if it’s right to cut services from one group to expand Medicaid to another, she said.