Last week, the Wyoming Republican Party endorsed a slate of candidates for Wyoming’s top offices ahead of the Aug. 18 primary election. It’s the first time the party’s done this.
But there’s a sticking point: State law blocks political parties from spending money, either directly or indirectly, to help a candidate win the party’s nomination. The Wyoming GOP said it’s challenging that state law in court on behalf of all political parties, though Wyoming Democrats haven’t signed onto the GOP’s federal lawsuit.
To better understand the legal landscape and what these endorsements mean, Wyoming Public Radio’s Nicky Ouellet called up WyoFile’s Maggie Mullen.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Maggie Mullen: In this case, the [Wyoming Republican] party and party leadership have said they're clear to vet candidates and to endorse them, but they cannot – and GOP Chairman Brian Miller also confirmed this to me – that the party will not spend any money on these endorsements ahead of the primary.
I think for some of these members, this is a long time coming. The groundwork for this was set back in April when the party had this convention in Douglas. The party voted to adopt these bylaws, this framework to vet and endorse candidates.
When I spoke to Chairman Miller – he's been involved with the GOP for some time now and he just became the chairman in 2025 – what he described to me was this experience he said he's had over the years, where he says Republican voters have come to him and said, "Hey, there are so many candidates running. I don't know who to vote for. Who is the true conservative in this race?"
Brian has described to me being hamstrung by the law, that the party has not been able to tell voters who to vote for or who the party believes is the, quote, "true conservative" in the race.
So part of it, obviously, is about what the party describes as being limited by state law from telling voters who they think is the true conservative. Unless you've been sleeping under a rock in Wyoming, you know that this discussion about what it means to be a Republican has been a debate for some time now, and this is just one version of that debate
Nicky Ouellet: I think you're referring to the rise of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is a conservative voting bloc within the Republican Party. In the past, that group has endorsed candidates and made it pretty clear who would be aligned with the caucus's votes. Are you expecting to see the Freedom Caucus release its own set of endorsements?
MM: That's a great question, and in at least one race I put that question to caucus Chairwoman Representative Rachel Rodriguez Williams. I asked her about the governor's race, because some of the members of the caucus as individuals have split in their endorsements.
Some, for example Representative [Jeremy] Haroldson and Representative [Scott] Heiner, have endorsed Megan Degenfelder for governor, whereas Representative [Ken] Pendergraft has endorsed Brent Bien.
I was curious if the caucus as an organization is going to make endorsements in the governor's race, but they have not endorsed candidates in those statewide offices before. Two years ago, they did endorse candidates for the Legislature. I think it remains to be seen if we'll see those endorsements for the state House. We only have a few weeks left until the election, and we haven't seen those yet.
NO: I want to get to who got the endorsements, and how did the state GOP make its picks.
MM: This goes back again to the party voting to adopt these bylaws that set up this framework to vet and endorse candidates. So part of that included getting in touch with candidates, sending out these questionnaires, but ultimately that came down to the state central committee meeting last week.
They took a vote on each of these races, and what they decided [was] U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman for U.S. Senate [and] Secretary of State Chuck Gray for the U.S. House of Representatives race.
NO: Founding member of the State Freedom Caucus, just to mention.
MM: That's right. And Brent Bien, who's running for governor, as well as Representative Rachel Rodriguez Williams, who is chair of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. She's now running for secretary of state, alongside Representative Scott Smith, who's running for state treasurer, and Representative Tom Kelly, who is running for superintendent of public instruction.
These endorsements largely align with the right flank of the party, as well as the Freedom Caucus. Or someone like Representative Tom Kelly, [who’s] not a member of the caucus, but he regularly votes alongside its voting bloc.
NO: After these endorsements came out, Wyoming Public Media started receiving a bunch of press releases from different candidates reacting to the list. We got one from Kevin Christensen, who is running for the U.S. House. He did not get the party's endorsement in this very crowded field. He basically called the way the party made these endorsements a “purity test.” He said he had to share information about the donation history of what he has given and received, his party affiliation history and what he called multiple considerations of candidates' partisan political experience, including voting records. He called the party endorsement process “highly questionable." He said it gave the appearance of “pay-to-play” and “inappropriately disadvantaging” candidates with no prior partisan political experience.
MM: You make the point that not all Republican candidates have really embraced this endorsement process. In fact, Senator Eric Barlow, who's running for governor, even before these endorsements came out, he made a point to publicly come out and say, "You know, I've notified the Wyoming Republican Party that I'm not gonna participate in this," what he called a pre-primary endorsement process, and that he wasn't gonna return the party's platform questionnaire.
In fact, he said in a press release, "I am a Republican and I agree with the Republican platform, but in a contested Republican primary, the voters should decide."
But one thing we have seen in the U.S. House race, where we're seeing a lot of self-funding for candidates but also some super PAC spending, one of these super PACs, one that is funded by Secretary of State Chuck Gray's dad, is being used to support Secretary Gray in this U.S. House race. Shortly after those endorsements came out, that super PAC very quickly jumped on that and started advertising that endorsement to voters with text messages.
NO: Yeah, I wanted to ask, what is the value of getting the state party's nomination if the party isn't actually going to advertise it and spend money on it to get the word out?
MM: I think that's a great question, and I think it's one that remains to be seen, right? Because the party can make these endorsements, but if voters don't know about these endorsements or, really, if they don't know much about the process that the party went through to make these endorsements, those might be questions that voters have.
But I also think there's a larger question in this election about the value of an endorsement. I think that's one of just several things that voters take into mind.
For example, in the governor's race, President Donald Trump endorsed Megan Degenfelder, but on the other hand, you see the Wyoming Republican Party endorse Brent Bien. You can imagine that there are some voters out there that see these two endorsements and don't know what to make of them, don't know really what to do with them.
I think that once again goes back to this bigger question about the value of endorsements in this election and who it's coming from and whether or not that tips the scale one way or another in any particular race. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.
