It’s easy to complain when you’re not in power, but when the tables are turned in politics, so do the expectations of the public.
Since the primary election Aug. 20, leading members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus have told Cowboy State Daily that they would like to see a measured approach in making changes for the 2025 session of the Legislature.
Not What They Said On The Campaign Trail
Candidates endorsed by the Freedom Caucus struck an aggressive tone along the primary campaign trail, promising to bring significant cuts to the state’s budget and property taxes, and vote more conservatively than their Republican House colleagues in the Wyoming Caucus.
Members of and candidates endorsed by the Freedom Caucus tend to favor strict following of Second Amendment rights, banning abortion and preventing certain foreign entities from owning land in Wyoming. Anything less was commonly presented as total opposition to these stances along the campaign trail.
“They conditioned voters to be really scared and really mad,” said state Rep. Cyrus Western, R-Big Horn, who opted not to run for re-election. “You can’t just turn the rage machine off.”
The campaigning paid off as the Freedom Caucus had a massively successful primary election night and now is nearly guaranteed to take over a majority of seats in the House, barring an all-but-impossible blue wave of Democratic wins in the November election.
Since election night, leading Freedom Caucus members Reps. John Bear, R-Gillette, and Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, the latter who recently announced his candidacy for House Speaker, have both said the group now needs to learn how to govern, striking a more measured tone.
“We’ve got to be thoughtful and considerate with how we do it,” Neiman told Cowboy State Daily in August. “I don’t want to obliterate the state. I just want to make it sustainable.”
Neiman will likely win the speaker gavel based on the Freedom Caucus majority, a responsibility that comes with picking all the committee chairman and their members.
What Does The Freedom Caucus Want?
Some candidates and legislators aligned with the Freedom Caucus have argued for as much as a 30% cut to the state budget, which would represent a historic drop to the government’s funding and likely layoffs of state employees.
Others have argued for significant property tax cuts and even getting rid of residential property taxes altogether.
Substantial property tax cuts would benefit individual homeowners, but have a detrimental effect on local governments and schools that depend on this source of revenue.
Western said anything short of a 50% property tax cut would be a bait-and-switch from the Freedom Caucus. This matches the proposed tax slash going before the voters in an initiative in 2026.
“You can’t cut your way to liberty,” he said. “They think you can just cut your way to liberty.”
The Gordon Factor
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, the new chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said pushing back against Gov. Mark Gordon’s policies will be the top priority.
She mentioned plans to codify rules proposed by Secretary of State Chuck Gray last winter that would require people registering to vote in Wyoming to prove residency if their form of identification didn’t already show it.
Rodriguez-Williams also said they plan to bring spending cuts that “in time” will result in real property tax reform.
“Gordon vetoed multiple bills that are important to the people of Wyoming, including property tax relief,” Rodriguez-Williams said. “He then endorsed a slate of candidates, 70% of which were rejected by the people of Wyoming. It's clear that the governor isn't where the people are at.”
Any bill passed in the House will still have to get through the Wyoming Senate for approval, which appears somewhat less conservative than the House and could serve as a hurdle for the Freedom Caucus’ most aggressive measures.
From there, the governor still gets to sign off on all legislation before it passes into law, unless the Legislature overrides his veto. The Freedom Caucus will not have a two-thirds majority on its own to override a veto from the governor.
How many bills the governor decides to veto will be one of the main points of interest for the 2025 legislative session.
This spring, Gordon drew significant attention for the large number of vetoes he made, some to bills the Legislature passed with an overwhelming majority.
Different Wishes
Laramie Republican state House candidate Paul Crouch said he wants to see a more transparent fiscal picture for the state.
He finds it nearly impossible to ascertain what the state’s total expenses and revenues are when diving into the state of Wyoming’s website.
“That’s what I would like to see a new batch of Republicans do,” he said. “We can talk about lowering property taxes all we want, but we can’t do that if we don’t know what our government needs to function.”
Bondurant resident Bill Winney, a Republican who supports certain members of the Freedom Caucus, said he wants to see a slow and measured approach to governance from the group.
“I would like to see a measured approach so you can go in and correct things and still be conservative,” he said.
Afton Republican McKay Erickson, who won his primary and has no general election opponent, was endorsed by Gordon in his campaign, but said he doesn’t affiliate with either the Freedom Caucus or Wyoming Caucus. Erickson agreed with Winney and said his constituents aren’t interested in a “wholesale change and rejection” of the status quo.
He also pointed out that cutting property taxes in Wyoming would do nothing to directly reduce the size of state government in Wyoming, while it would cut money for local schools and local governments, unless those groups are backfilled in another way.
Sheridan County GOP Chair Bryan Miller disagreed and said he wants to see drastic spending changes when considering the growth of the state budget over the last three years. Since 2019, spending out of the state’s general fund has increased from $2.9 billion to $3.4 billion, which is roughly similar to the rate of inflation during that time period.
Miller also wants to see changes to the legislative rules, making it harder for the speaker of the House to kill bills in his drawer, and the establishment of earlier deadlines for submitting bills so that the public has more time to inspect them.
“That way, the public can get a say and really study what a bill does,” he said.
And If They Don’t?
Western said if members of the Freedom Caucus fail to bring drastic changes in their first year with a majority, they’ll be breaking their campaign promises. When it comes to talk of moderation, Western doesn’t believe it “for two seconds.”
“Their whole mantra is, ‘We’re outsiders reining in spending in Cheyenne,’” Western said. “Now all of a sudden, they’d become the very thing they’re accusing others of. They’ve put themselves in a corner.”
Western believes if voters don’t see the changes the Freedom Caucus brings as significant, members of the group will have some serious questions to answer at the next election in 2026.
“If they don’t deliver that they’re saying, ‘You can’t trust us again,’” he said. “No matter what, at the end of the day you’ve got to do what you say you’re going to do, no matter what.”
He also believes certain people seen as loyal to the Freedom Caucus will eventually get pushed out by the group.
“If they don’t, they’ll be doing the very thing they accused us of,” he said. “It’s time to walk the plank boys.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
