A 26-year-old Wyoming woman who as a teen helped improve access to thousands of acres of public lands for hunters has been tapped for a position in the Trump administration.
Lexi Daugherty, who grew up in Alta and is a graduate of Jackson Hole High School and the University of Wyoming, has been hired as associate director for policy at the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, according to her LinkedIn page.
She served as an aide to then-Majority Floor Leader Albert Sommers and Sen. Ogden Driskill, both Republicans, in the 2022 session of the Wyoming Legislature. She then helped Driskill with his 2022 campaign, and also ran campaigns that year for various candidates, her page says.
In 2023, she hired on as a “grassroots engagement director” for Americans for Prosperity until this month, when she took her new position in the Trump administration.
As her prior employer, Americans for Prosperity Wyoming State Director Tyler Lindholm described the new position as Daugherty communicating the Trump administration's policy priorities to state governments nationwide.
Still, the exact contours of the job remained unclear as of Friday afternoon, as the Trump administration had not issued a statement about Daugherty’s hiring.
Daugherty did not respond by publication time to a voicemail request for comment.
Nor did Jared Borg, special assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for State Governments.
The White House did not respond by publication time to a Friday request for comment.
The President Calls
When Daugherty broached the new job opportunity in recent weeks with Lindholm, he told her not to hesitate, Lindholm told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
“She called me when she got the job offer — she was still working for me,” said Lindholm. “I told her, ‘You need to absolutely take that. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When the president calls, you go.’”
Lindholm called Daugherty a “little superstar” and said she’s bright and motivated.
“This is a real hat tip that the Trump administration recognized her talent,” he added.
But No Horses
Lexi Daugherty’s father, Wyoming-based political consultant Jeff Daugherty, said his daughter is going to miss her horses.
She asked her job interviewer whether she could bring her horses to graze on the White House lawn in Washington, D.C., since it looked vast enough to accommodate them, Jeff related with a laugh in a Friday phone interview.
The administration said no, and said it hadn’t been asked that before, the father added from his daughter’s account of her interview.
Elk Hunting
In early 2015 at the age of 15, Daugherty won a $1,000 community service scholarship from Soroptomist International of Jackson Hole, but there was a catch.
The scholarship terms required her to donate half the winnings to an organization of her choosing, Bugle magazine reported.
A hunter throughout her childhood, Daugherty chose the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, since her passions were “conservation and hunting,” she told Bugle at the time.
She and her father were working with Wyoming Game and Fish's Jackson Region to improve access to a prime hunting spot comprising 6,400 acres of Bureau of Land Management and Caribou-Targhee National Forest land, and 123,896 acres of Jedediah Smith Wilderness and other areas stretching into Grand Teton National Park.
Daugherty had accessed the land to hunt elk with permission from a private landowner. But to most, the key access point into the public areas was unpassable.
The owners of the Coco Belle property abutting the land, Ben van Meerendonk and his wife, whom he affectionately nicknamed “Coco Belle,” loved the idea, Bugle reported.
The van Meerendonks worked with their homeowners association on easements and access, and ultimately donated a patch of land to cement public access to the region.
Daugherty's $500 re-gift became the earnest money for the Coco Belle parcel.
Echoes
State Sen. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, said Daugherty was his campaign manager in 2022.
That was when he won reelection to his state House seat prior to running for the Wyoming Senate in 2024.
She helped him stay organized, develop his messaging and strategy, and ensured the campaign went smoothly, Olsen told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday text message.
“She was absolutely amazing,” Olsen added. “Very bright and capable. I’m proud of her new appointment in the Trump administration. She has definitely earned it.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
