Wyoming’s 2024 election season is quickly escalating to a new level of mudslinging in a number of hotly contested state legislative races.
That boiled over Thursday when incumbent state Reps. Cody Wylie and J.T. Larson, both Rock Springs Republicans, filed a lawsuit against the campaign arm of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus for sending out what they claim are deliberately false mailers and text messages.
The campaign messaging claimed Wylie and Larson had voted to keep former President Donald Trump off the election ballot.
The lawsuit was filed against the Wyoming Freedom political action committee, which supports the Freedom Caucus, a group of farther right Republicans in the Wyoming House.
In their complaint, the legislators accuse the PAC of defamation and false light, a legal privacy claim that involves an untrue or misleading portrayal of someone in public. They are requesting both a jury trial and injunction for what they say are libelous statements made with malice.
Further, the legislators also demand an order finding the defendants published false, defamatory statements about them, compensatory and punitive damages, permanent injunctive relief that prohibits the defendants from making further false statements, reimbursement for legal fees and costs, and any further relief as seen as proper.
They assert that would exceed $50,000.
Representing Wylie and Larson in the lawsuit is Rep. Clark Stith, R-Rock Springs, an attorney by trade. All three legislators are members of the Wyoming Caucus, a group of Republican legislators that formed in 2023 to oppose the Freedom Caucus.
A Leftist Move
Kari Drost, chairman of the Wyoming Freedom PAC, said she had not seen the court filing until provided with it by Cowboy State Daily on Thursday evening.
Drost, a Newcastle resident and chairman of the Weston County Republican Party, said at first glance the lawsuit looks like “lawfare” and “what the left is trying to do to shut up Donald Trump.”
“I guess the parties in this suit, and their attorney, are trying to do the same to me here in Wyoming,” she said.
The Freedom Caucus serves under the umbrella of the Washington, D.C.-based State Freedom Caucus Network.
Wylie said the purpose of the lawsuit is to take a formal stand against forces he believes are tainting Wyoming’s elections with misinformation.
“This is about election integrity, we don’t want these large pools of dark money being able to come into the state and influence our election cycles,” Wylie said. “This is exactly a defense of what everyone is talking about. There’s no transparency, there’s nothing else, this is just blatant lies to influence the Wyoming elections and to buffalo the people of the state.”
It’s In The Fine Print
The lawsuit centers around mailers and text messages sent out by the Freedom PAC earlier this month claiming that Wylie, Larsen and other Wyoming Caucus legislators voted “with the radical left to remove” Trump from the ballots.
The mailers refer to Larson as “Liberal Larson” and Wylie as “Woke Wylie.”
Both contain language asking who the legislators are representing, answering with, “It’s not us.”
Drost explained to Cowboy State Daily on Monday that this was in reference to certain House members’ support of a budget footnote made during the most recent legislative session that would have prevented Secretary of State Chuck Gray from using state money for out-of-state litigation without specific legislative authority.
The footnote came in response to amicus briefs Gray filed with the Colorado Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court opposing efforts to remove former President Donald Trump’s name from the 2024 election ballots.
Wylie declared a conflict and didn’t vote on the footnote, while Larson voted to keep it.
Stands By The Fliers
Drost told Cowboy State Daily her group stands by the statements made in the fliers and said the lawmakers were incorrectly trying to legislate through the budget.
“The secretary of state is in charge of election matters and the people of Wyoming clearly want President Trump on the ballot,” she said.
Wylie and Larson said these accusations extend past honest debate about votes and drift into the realm of slander. They have never taken a direct vote on whether to keep Trump on or off any ballot.
“If they were just picking apart being critical of our voting record, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Wylie said. “This isn’t trying to have a campaign splash, this is doing something bigger than that.”
Larson said when Drost refused their request Wednesday to stop sending out the mailers with the Trump claim attached, he said it became obvious they had to try another tactic.
The Freedom PAC mailers were sent all over Wyoming and targeted sitting legislators and contenders.
There’s also been mailers sent out by out-of-state-based groups Make Liberty Win and Americans For Prosperity that have raised accusations of containing lies.
Wylie said he doesn’t see the lawsuit as opposing the Freedom Caucus, but rather fighting out-of-state influences in Wyoming elections.
“Everybody should see that,” he said. “This is about right and wrong.”
Not Them-Us, It’s Right-Wrong
Wylie and Larson said the mailers are completely false in multiple ways, most glaring of which they say is that they’re both Trump supporters and voted for him in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
They also have said the reason they voted for the budget footnote had nothing to do with Trump, but rather retaining the sole right to file lawsuits with the governor’s office.
“We’re also doing it for our constituents, we want our constituents and the voters of Wyoming to have accurate information on how they’re representatives are voting,” Larson said.
As a result of the mailers, they both said they have had many residents call them and furiously ask them why they took the action they did.
“I’ve had it over and over again, especially in our elderly community,” Wylie said. “It’s hard for them to establish what is a truth and what is a lie.”
The case was filed in 3rd Judicial District Court in Sweetwater County, where it will be heard. It’s unknown when there will be a first hearing for the case.
Wylie said he’s not sure if Stith will work the case pro-bono, but if he doesn’t, he and Larson will pay him with their own private money.
Even though he wants a court to immediately address the mailers, Wylie also wants to make a statement for future Wyoming elections down the road.
“So, this doesn’t just become a game show, instead of an election,” he said.
Wylie said he plans to bring legislation in the upcoming session to put more scrutiny over dark money in Wyoming politics and create more reporting requirements for where groups get their money from, an effort he said was killed by the Freedom Caucus in the past.
“This is not a them versus us type of deal, this is a right and wrong type of deal,” he said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
