A long-serving Wyoming senator and former Senate President continues to criticize the state’s governing Freedom Caucus.
Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, spoke about the Freedom Caucus Wednesday during a Wednesday appearance on the Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake Nichols.
Driskill, who was first elected in 2010 and served as the Senate president from 2023-2024, said the Freedom Caucus’s governance has led to many lawsuits against the state. He pointed to Freedom Caucus-backed bills that are now facing judicial challenges.
“We’ve probably expanded the AG’s [attorney general] office,” Driskill said. “It doesn’t matter where you look, we’ve got abortion lawsuits, education lawsuits, voucher lawsuits. We’re doing a great job of feeding the legal profession.”
Driskill said the lawsuits are the result of the Freedom Caucus’s rigid approach to governance.
“It’s just Katie, bar the door, we’re just going to go ahead and do it and then we’ll deal with the fallout when it happens,” he said. “We’re just going out there and throwing a bomb over the fence and hoping that it doesn’t blow the neighbor’s place up. And it’s coming to roost a little bit.”
The Freedom Caucus-driven Life is a Human Right Act, which is the 2023 version of the abortion ban Wyoming enacted as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, has been under legal challenge for years. After reviewing that law and the Wyoming Constitution, Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens concluded that abortion access is a fundamental right in the state.
The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office is challenging that ruling in the state Supreme Court.
Driskill was excused from the third-reading Senate vote on that act and so didn’t cast an aye or nay.
A school choice stipend program Freedom Caucus members also touted this year and in 2024 is also under judicial scrutiny, as is a new voter residency law.
Driskill said he was taught that the Wyoming Legislature needs to be deliberate and that, when in doubt, Legislature should err on the side of first, do no harm.
‘Leftwing Lawfare’
“He voted for it so why is he bitching?” House Speaker Chip Neiman told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s hard for me to get too shook up whenever Ogden starts down a road and we’re going to chew people up. People want the freedom to choose.”
Driskill voted aye on the 2025 school-choice program both as an Appropriations Committee member and a state Senator on its third reading. He also green-lit a voter residency requirement that’s now under judicial scrutiny in its third-read Senate vote.
“Competition breeds excellence is how I see it,” said Neiman, a Freedom Caucus member. “If Senator Driskill truly did not want that and felt like it was bad and headed in the wrong direction to go and was going to bring on a lawsuit, then don’t vote for stuff like that.
"I vote for stuff that people want and I vote for stuff that people deserve and that’s the freedom to be able to choose.”
The state’s in court to try to protect the interest of human life, he added. Human life begins when a person’s DNA is created because a unique individual is formed.
“Our founders got it right when they said life was first and then liberty, because without life liberty does you precious little good,” Neiman said.
Driskill’s comments were “curious,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement provided by Chairwoman Rachel Rodriguez-Williams.
Rodriguez-Williams is also a Republican state House Representative serving Cody.
“First, he voted for many of the WYFC-sponsored bills that are now the target of meritless leftwing lawfare,” the caucus statement countered.
“What’s more curious is that he’s now flip-flopped, taking the side of the woke Democrat attorneys seeking to throw out bills that passed with veto-proof majorities.”
Doubling Down
The state’s decision to cut property taxes — effective July 1 — has an impact on the local governments, Driskill said later in the interview. He said the tax cut was needed but added the Revenue Committee plans further cuts.
“It’s doubling down on a bad bet in my opinion,” he said. “We did what big government does and it breaks my heart. We gave a one-size-fits-all and some of the biggest cuts went to the richest taxpayers in the state of Wyoming.”
The cuts hurt poorer counties like Niobrara, Weston and Hot Springs, Driskill said.
“It’s actual cuts to them,” Driskill said. “It’s not a reduction in increase. It’s a cut to them.”
A museum in Hot Springs may close and Crook County’s is hurt, he added. Ambulances and firefighting services could be impacted in Crook County, Driskill continued.
The Freedom Caucus rendered a sharp critique of Driskill’s stance:
“Ogden is witnessing the power of the good old boys slipping away and he’s kicking and screaming all the while,” the Freedom Caucus statement said.
Driskill previously sparred with Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, the Freedom Caucus’s former leader, over the group’s governance.
Driskill also filed an election complaint and was successful in his effort to stop a county Republican Party’s donation to the Freedom Caucus’s political action committee.
Matthew Christian can be reached at matthew@cowboystatedaily.com.
