After a vote in the Cody Auditorium on May 3, the Wyoming Republican Party has a new chief executive officer: Bryan Miller, the former chair of the Sheridan County GOP. He runs BEM Int’l, LLC, a consulting company in Sheridan.
Miller ran against Jackson resident Rebecca Bextel, a fundraiser for the further-right wing of the party who he called a “strong fighter.” He attributed his win to years of involvement in state and local party politics.
“I'm thrilled to have the trust of our central committee, to lead them into the future,” Miller said in a phone interview with Wyoming Public Radio.
Bextel told Jackson Hole News & Guide after the vote that her loss will free her up to work on turning the state Senate a deeper shade of red.
“I think Rebecca Bextel will be better outside of [the state party] because of her unique gift set to just be a very, very blunt, open mouth of opinion, which I love about her,” said Wyoming Freedom Caucus member and Speaker Pro Tem Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland). “I think she would have been hampered in there. I think Bryan Miller has a lot to learn.”
Miller is replacing Frank Eathorne, who chaired the party for three terms during a time of growing divisions between moderate and further-right Republicans in Wyoming.
The chair of the state party presides over its executive and state central committees. The state central committee is made up of representatives from each county, the state and national committeeman and committeewoman, state chairman, state vice chairman, state secretary and the chair of each county central committee. It’s responsible for determining party policy, making rules and settling disputes.
Meanwhile, the executive committee consists of officers elected by the central committee and representatives from each of Wyoming’s seven districts. Its function is to carry out the will of the central committee.
Both bodies play a role in organizing the state party convention held in even numbered years, when delegates decide on changes to the party platform.
But the top job is the chair of the state party.
Miller said he helped grow participation during his years in state and county politics, and that he wants to bring that same energy to his new role. He mentioned increasing youth involvement as one facet of his broader mission to gin up statewide interest, and funding, in the party.
“Look at what Pres. Trump did this time around with the youth vote,” he said. “They are interested.”
A Wyoming version of that strategy could look like improving the party's social media messaging and holding more events centered on young people, Miller said.
He said that his Sheridan County track record is why some people encouraged him to throw his hat in the ring.
“[They said,] if you can bring those general values to the party, where we expand the party and get more people involved, that's what they'd like to see done,” Miller said.
Aside from boosting party engagement, Miller, who said he aligns with the Freedom Caucus on most issues, also said “we should be doing more” with the party’s Governance Review and Feedback Committee. As described by Miller, the committee’s goal was to ensure legislators were being honest with their constituents about their policy agendas.
He told WPR he used to lead the committee, and that he believes it ceased operating around 2019 after it made headlines in the press for allegedly “trying to influence the party.”
When it’s up and running, Miller said it operates in three stages. The first starts at the county level and involves a self-assessment that Republican lawmakers would complete on what they say they want to accomplish in the next legislative session.
Next, the committee reviews those electeds’ legislation and compares it to the party platform, the U.S. Constitution, the Wyoming Constitution and the party’s yearly priorities, according to Miller.
“That review process, when that happened, we gave that information to the leadership of the House and Senate at the time, and they wanted nothing to do with it,” he said. “They handed it off to the press, which came after the party. [That] was a bit crazy, because we were looking at bills, not at people.”
He said the third stage of the process consists of county parties taking all of that information and giving feedback to their representatives and senators based on what the people in the counties wanted from their leadership.
In a WyoFile report prior to the election, Bextel expressed interest in creating a similar committee.
“It has been put on hold because we've never had a Legislature that wished to participate with the party, and we do now,” Miller said.
In the past, some worried the committee’s work could be used to create a conservative yardstick for lawmakers to be measured against. The Casper-Star Tribune reported in 2019 that some lawmakers feared campaign funding could be withheld by the state party, depending on individual results.
Its creation came as the party began fracturing in recent years between so-called “Republicans In Name Only,” or RINOs, and the further-right conservatives who snagged a majority of seats in the House following the November general election.
Miller cited past Sheridan County legislators “going down, voting one way, and coming back here and telling people that they voted a different way” as one reason it was devised.
He said the decision whether or not to restart the committee’s work will ultimately be up to the state central committee, but that he “can't imagine it won't be brought back up as a topic.”
“I would expect that our next meeting will probably hear from the body on where they want to go with that,” he said.
The state central committee is scheduled to meet again on August 22 and 23. Next year, the Republican Party in Wyoming will hold precinct, county and state-level conventions that could change the party platform.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
