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With much fanfare and at the risk of violating state law, the Wyoming Republican Party broke with decades of tradition and endorsed candidates in last week’s primary election instead of remaining neutral.
It picked the losing candidates in all four of the competitive races for statewide offices. The most embarrassing misfire was Brent Bien for governor, who finished third.
The far-right retired Marine colonel has never won a political race. He finished a distant second to Gov. Mark Gordon in the 2022 GOP primary.
What was it about Bien that convinced party leaders to bypass two Republicans with real governing experience?
State Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, has served in the Legislature for 14 years, including a term as House speaker. He won by 20,000 votes over Megan Degenfelder, state superintendent of public instruction.
The Wyoming Republican Party was never going to give Barlow a pat on the back and tell him he’s their man.
Barlow’s agenda — keeping public land in public hands, improving healthcare affordability and accessibility, and properly funding education — is what party executive officers deride as the goals of Democrats and RINOs (Republicans in name only).
Degenfelder served only one term before seeking the state’s top job. One of her most touted accomplishments on the campaign trail, as strange as it sounds for the state’s public school chief, was her support for a bill that gave state public education dollars to pay tuition for private and religious schools.
And Degenfelder was on the far-right side of all of the political wedge issues that state GOP leaders embrace.
She backed banning a handful of transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports events. Degenfelder pretended that it’s necessary to ban pornographic books and materials from public and school libraries that don’t have pornography on their shelves.
Plus, Degenfelder had the most prized political possession in this ultra-red state: President Donald Trump’s endorsement. It was the most prominent feature in almost all of her campaign advertisements and yard signs, as if the connection to Trump would automatically give her the kind of landslide win Rep. Harriet Hageman had over Liz Cheney in 2022.
To top it off, Degenfelder had the ringing endorsement of Hageman herself. If the golden girl of her state party can’t persuade the GOP to back her friend unconditionally, what in the heck drove the Bien endorsement?
Perhaps it was Bien’s push for “the people’s initiative” to cut residential property taxes by a massive 50% that will be on November’s general election ballot.
Republican lawmakers, especially Freedom Caucus members, have promoted chopping property taxes — or getting rid of them for good — in the past several sessions. They’ve viewed it as a winning issue, even though their own legislative efforts at such huge cuts have failed.
But I just don’t buy that’s the reason the state party gave Bien its blessing. I submit it was looking for a far-right conservative Christian male to carry its banner, and Bien was the only one in the race. Only he was “qualified.”
Imagine that, in the Equality State.
But think about it. Wyoming has only had one woman governor, Democrat Nellie Tayloe Ross, in the state’s 136-year history. She won a special 1924 election to fill the unexpired term of her late husband, Gov. William Ross.
While several Wyoming women have run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, none have been successful.
Wyoming voters are used to putting women in congressional seats, and also into the offices of secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor and superintendent of public instruction.
The Wyoming Republican Party had no problem giving its secretary of state endorsement to Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams of Cody, chair of the Freedom Caucus.
But like the other two Freedom Caucus members who chose to leave the House — Rep. Scott Smith to challenge State Treasurer Curt Meier, and Rep. Tom Kelly, who vied for Degenfelder’s open superintendent’s seat — she lost.
Now, I do think there’s one woman that the Wyoming Republican Party would have endorsed for governor, and that’s Hageman. She reportedly considered running to become the state’s chief executive before deciding to try for retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis’ open seat last December.
Barlow announced his run for governor more than a year ago. While I believe a Barlow-Hageman race would have been a barnburner, and Hageman would have come closer than Degenfelder, I think Barlow still would have won.
Hageman would undoubtedly have had Trump’s endorsement, but that didn’t turn the tide for Degenfelder, did it?
A Trump endorsement is no longer the golden ticket that it was for Hageman four years ago. Degenfelder’s loss marked the fifth losing gubernatorial candidacy that the president has backed this year.
Hageman ran for governor in 2018 against Trump’s pick, Foster Friess, and both lost the primary to then-State Treasurer Mark Gordon. Wyomingites like their governors to be moderates compared to ideologues like Hageman, Degenfelder and Bien.
No matter who his opponents were, in a year when the Freedom Caucus was blown out of the water in state government, Barlow was seen by voters as the right man for the job.
And despite the absurd claim of Bien’s camp that Barlow is really a Democrat, he won the primary because Republicans chose him.
The far-right has been flooding social media to falsely charge that Democrats made Barlow the GOP nominee, even after Republican legislators changed state election laws to ban changes in party affiliation before candidates even file for office. It was statistically impossible, given the relatively low numbers of Democrats who switched.
The best thing about the Wyoming GOP trying to stick it to the man who is now the nominee is that Barlow never has to worry about party leaders threatening him if he doesn’t toe their line.
They have no more power. What little they did have was wasted on backing Bien, and it backfired big time.
Veteran Wyoming journalist Kerry Drake started writing "The Drake's Take" for WyoFile weekly in 2013. He is a communication specialist for Better Wyoming. More by Kerry Drake
6 Comments
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WyoFile’s goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.
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Reading this, I was surprised that Barlow’s political position is considered to be left-leaning or downright not republican. Small government, government for the people, among other things has always been a cornerstone ideology for republicans as far as I understand it. And the diatribe about certain candidates being where they are, getting the endorsements that they got, simple because they are a white christian male is unnecessary and untrue. I would’ve voted the for a non-christian, non-white, or female candidate if that had been their stance. As far as this article goes, it seems Barlow is the only candidate that wants to do things that support Wyoming and it citizens in a sustainable and sensical manner.
For many people who were fed up with the Freedom Caucus and their own agenda that had nothing to do with making life in Wyoming better – anyone they endorsed or the state FC ran GOP endorsed was basically a list of who NOT to vote for (so I guess a thank you is in order for violating state laws and institutions?).
As for Democrats effecting the outcome, I for one have been a registered Republican since the 2018 election because of the Governor race. As a Democrat in Wyoming, there is little to no advantage to being a registered Democrat as 99% of elections are determined in the primary. So, if we want any voice in our elected officials that are supported to represent ALL of Wyoming, we have to vote in primaries as Republicans. Unless open primaries become a thing, this will continue to happen. I also think you’ll find moderate Democrats running as republicans because it seems that too often Wyoming voters only cares about the “R” and don’t really know who they are voting for…anyone remember Cindy Hill???
To answer Drakes statements :” Now that Barlow is the nominee, why should he listen to what party leaders say?” Why? Because he ran as a Republican.
“Governor nominee Barlow doesn’t need to listen to state party leaders who didn’t support him.” He’s just showing his true colors. The party didn’t support him because he doesn’t support the party. Duh.
The Wyoming Republican Party is more concerned with keeping Washington and east coast conservatives happy than providing good, common sense leadership in Wyoming. That’s why Mr. Barlow was not supported. Wyoming voters were looking for someone who would solve their problems here and now, not tell them what they should be worried about. Mr. Barlow listened to us, and acknowledged our concerns. He spoke to Wyoming people on issues they could relate to, and will find solutions that will be supported in the new, non-Freedom Caucus legislature.
“because Republicans chose him” really? You mean a minority of Republicans chose him. 60% did not. If there had been a runoff between the top two with one getting over 50% then the outcome may have been very different. Gordon was also a minority elected gov. “Wyomingites like their governors to be moderates” says who? You? How come we have governors elected by a minority of the voters? Barlow also claims to be a Republican yet does not support the party platform nor its by-laws. His long voting record and public statements go counter to the party’s platform. Why should he receive the party’s support when he doesn’t support the party? He wants to wear the jacket but not “ride for the brand.” Same goes true for the so-called moderates.If you don’t like what the party stands for why do you want to be a member? Remember, a majority of grassroots Republicans, developed the platform and by-laws.
Cui Bono?
Who benefited from the Wyoming GOP endorsement?
All of the winners in the primary are the ones that got a boost from the endorsement, so I have to wonder whether it was a mistake or did they do it on purpose? It would be interesting to hear the “logic” they used at arriving at their endorsements because if they thought they were pulling the winning move for Bien or any of their crew, they certainly missed by a mile, so much so, that it almost seemed like a plan to get Barlow, Harshmann and Short elected?
For my part, I will not miss seeing or especially hearing Rachel, Chip, Tom and the rest of the Freedom Crew in Cheyenne. As for Meghan, GO UWYO Women’s Rugby!
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