CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Republican Party censured Gov. Mark Gordon at its state convention on Saturday — without debate.
Hot Springs County GOP delegate Phillip Scheel, also a county commissioner, made a motion to open a debate about the censure that had been drafted in the party’s Resolutions Committee on Friday.
“It might warrant good discussion,” Scheel said. “It might warrant good dissent.”
Only around 50 of the roughly 314 delegates from around the state stood up to support a debate on the topic, failing to meet the 75-person threshold needed to open the topic for discussion. It also showed that if the issue had gone to a vote, it would have likely been passed by a large majority.
Reaction
Secretary of State Chuck Gray told Cowboy State Daily he supports the move, which is a formal statement of condemnation by the state GOP against Wyoming’s Republican governor.
“This censure resolution brings some accountability,” he said. “Governor Gordon has enabled Biden and the most radical leftists in America who are trying to help illegal immigrants vote in our elections.”
The censure mostly focuses on the actions Gordon took during the recently completed legislative session, including his vetoes on two hot-button bills.
A spokesperson for the governor, who didn’t attend this weekend’s convention, said the party’s censure is concerning and that the governor stands behind his vetoes of what he calls “flawed legislation.”
“Our traditional, conservative Grand Old Party policies are the bedrock of a free and civil society,” said Michael Pearlman, a spokesperson for the governor. “However, the traditions, decorum and civility of the party’s actions should be of great concern to all. They merely hinder our ability to fight the harmful policies of the Biden Administration and future Democratic administrations that are hostile to Wyoming’s legacy industries, values and people.”
Pearlman also mentioned how the governor signed four bills that he believes increased Second Amendment rights and four bills aiming to provide property tax relief for Wyoming residents, in addition to supporting a constitutional amendment that will go before the voters this fall to add a separate taxation class for residential property.
Pearlman emphasized that Gordon vetoed the property tax legislation because he believed it gave a tax break to millionaires and billionaires “including those residents who just moved to the state and were part of the very reason that longtime residents saw their property taxes increase.”
That legislation, Senate File 54, would have exempted 25% of property tax assessments on home values worth up to $2 million.
“The censure — done without debate — infringes on the Wyoming values and voices that elected the Governor with the largest percentage of votes in the primary and general elections of 2022,” Pearlman said.
Scheel, who opposed the censure, said he did everything he could to “soften” it before it passed through the Resolution Committee on an 11-10 vote Friday. He argues it won’t serve the party any benefit as Gordon is almost certainly in his last term in office.
“It’s a huge loss of political capital this organization might have had,” he said.
He believes the party is squandering what good currency it has left with the office, a relationship he values in his county’s work with the governor’s office.
“We have a great relationship in Hot Springs County with the governor and the entire executive branch,” he said.
Rep. Jeremy Halvorson, R-Wheatland, is at the podium Saturday on the final day of the Wyoming Republican Party Convention at Little America in Cheyenne. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, left, and Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Frank Enthrone talk Friday on the second day of the state GOP convention at Little America in Cheyenne. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
Phillip Scheel, left, works with the Hot Springs County delegation to the state GOP Convention in Cheyenne on Saturday. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)
Why Censure?
Gordon’s relationship with the Wyoming GOP has soured significantly over the past year.
His no-show at the convention this year was significant as he spent nearly a whole day at the 2022 convention and gave a speech there.
Most of the division started with comments Gordon made last fall at Harvard University where he said he wants to reduce the state’s carbon output as a way to fight climate change. This drew a vote of “no confidence” in the governor shortly after.
After Gordon made his vetoes and passed the biennial budget in March, many members of the farther right faction of the Republican Party expressed outrage, calling for a special session to overturn his actions. This effort was rejected on a 50-43 vote by the Legislature.
The issue didn’t die there, however. It was revived when the Park County GOP passed the censure that was approved by the state party Saturday.
Gordon is the first governor to be censured by a state Republican Party since former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey was censured by his state GOP in 2021 for opposing former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
