CHEYENNE — Infighting within the Laramie County Republican Party boiled over Friday over a scheduling conflict between competing GOP events.
Cowboy State Daily on Thursday reported that Republicans face a tough decision this month about whether to attend a major annual fundraiser hosted by the Laramie County GOP, or a Charlie Kirk memorial hosted by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Both events are slated for the evening of Oct. 17.
While several Freedom Caucus-aligned lawmakers said they did not view the Kirk memorial as overlapping the GOP gala on purpose, ensuing conversations with Laramie County leaders indicate the issue is part of broader rift among conservatives.
State GOP Treasurer Dallas Tyrrell told Cowboy State Daily he feels he's being “bullied” by county party leaders over the conflicting events.
Conversely, Precinct Committeeman Michael Heath said the scheduling conflict illustrates what he believes to be a sabotage campaign by Tyrrell to assist the Freedom Caucus.
Election Night
Tyrrell this year ran for Laramie County Republican Party chairman but lost to current chair Lorraine Quarberg by about seven votes.
Heath said that on the night of that election, all the content on the county’s Facebook page and email list was deleted.
Only two people, recently-appointed state Sen. Taft Love, R-Cheyenne, and Tyrrell, had access to that information, Heath said.
He claimed Quarberg refused to investigate who was responsible due to cyber-vandalism being considered a federal crime.
“Taft was not running for office in the state party,” Heath said. “I can’t tell you who did it. There was never an investigation.”
“[Tyrrell] lost the election to Lorraine, and Lorraine is the GOP party chair, right?” Heath added. “And then, because of that, he's trying to sabotage her. He and the 307 Coalition.”
His comments refer to the Conservative Coalition 307, which Rep. Ann Lucas, R-Cheyenne, incorporated in 2023, according to the Wyoming group's filings.
Lucas refuted Heath’s claim in a Thursday interview with Cowboy State Daily.
"Mike Heath has never been to a Conservative Coalition 307 meeting despite being invited many times,” she wrote via email. “He knows nothing about our group, which explains the deliberate falsehoods he spreads.”
“He can't even get our name right,” she added. “The fact that the media spends so much time printing the rantings of an angry man not in possession of any facts without any verification whatsoever is how we have come to distrust the media."
‘Temper Tantrum’
Heath argued that since Tyrrell’s election defeat, Terrell has been throwing a “temper tantrum” and taking out his frustration on the county party. One example, he said, involves the two conflicting GOP events on Oct. 17.
“It’s a temper tantrum, childish,” Heath said of Tyrrell. “You have to know Dallas to understand he does these kinds of things.”
Heath provided Cowboy State Daily with screenshots showing a conversation between his wife Linda Heath and Tyrrell via Facebook Messenger. Linda in that correspondence noted the conflicting event timelines and asked Tyrrell if he was involved in the planning process.
“You do realize your Turning Point Fundraiser is the same night as Red State Rendezvous?” Linda Heath asks in the screenshots.
“Of course I realize it’s the same night!” Tyrrell replies. “Thanks to Lorraine [Quarberg] I now know the expert way to handle anything I don’t like: complain, boycott, destroy, repeat.”
Tyrrell in his response accused Quarberg of using Turning Point “for her drama,” adding that he “can’t wait to carry on her ‘legacy’ in my own style!”
‘Bullying’
Tyrrell confirmed the validity of the Facebook Messenger screenshots to Cowboy State Daily, adding that in his view, the decision for the Heaths to share the messages amounts to “bullying.”
“I was raised to stand up to bullies, and that is exactly what I intend to do,” he said. “I will not be intimidated, and I will continue speaking the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be for those more focused on control than genuine leadership.”
He accused the Heaths of harboring a vendetta against him due to being the youngest member of the county party. Tyrrell also repeatedly denied having a hand in the organization of the Turning Point event or being involved in a sabotage plot.
“I have been a staunch supporter of the Laramie County Republican Party, and still am,” he said. “I donated to their event on the 17th.”
Tyrrell said he believes Quarberg shows open “hatred” for him and and that he repeatedly attempted to reach her to sort out their differences. Tyrell estimated he's called her about 20 times in the last month.
“I think Lorraine Quarberg is a great person, but she's unfit for the job,” he said. “It just boils down to that she won't return emails, email, she won't return any phone calls.”
Tyrrell denied association with the Freedom Caucus but said he believes collaboration is key in working to the benefit of constituents.
“You got to deal with people in the Freedom Caucus, you got to deal with people with whatever group they're with, and you got to deal with the Democrats to get things done,” he said. “And I that's just how I operate.”
Playing For The Same Goal
Linda Heath, who also serves as a Laramie County Commissioner and a precinct committeewoman, confirmed to Cowboy State Daily she was the recipient of Tyrell’s Facebook messages. She said the conversation is indicative of hypocrisy by Tyrrell.
She said that Tyrrell was previously responsible for organizing several high-dollar county party events which effectively bankrupted the organization. This, she said, shows he is working against county interests.
“In some of his comments that he has made, he says he supports the county party, yet with actions and statements like this, I find that very, very hard to believe,” she said. “It's disheartening that he feels that he has to use to use this kind of language.”
Linda Heath said she read Cowboy State Daily’s coverage of the conflicting events and comments left on social media about the story, and that while many called for one of the event organizers to change dates, it would be nearly impossible at this point.
"Well, which one's going to cancel?” she asked. “The LCGOP event was planned back in September. The venue has been reserved. Tickets have been on sale since first part of September, and this the Turning Point fundraiser has come up since the 10th of September.”
“And while I don't have any problems with Turning Point, I support them,” Heath added. “But, you know, we're playing, playing against each other for the same goal.”
Freedom Caucus
Heath said she suspects Tyrrell of being affiliated with the Freedom Caucus and working in its interest instead of the county party’s.
“There are a lot of people that I believe are in positions of leadership that are probably affiliated with the Freedom Caucus just because of who they hang out with, and is he one of them?” she asked. “I think he probably leans that way.”
Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R- Cody, denies an association with Tyrrell when reached for comment by Cowboy State Daily, but confirmed that he’d contributed to the Kirk event.
"The WYFC has not worked with Mr. Tyrrell but understands that he has contributed as a table sponsor to the Oct. 17 event benefitting TPUSA at UW,” she wrote. “For his generous donation, we are grateful. Only the members of the WYFC represent the ideas and actions of the WYFC."
In The Mirror
Linda Heath said that Quarberg has tried repeatedly to “mend fences” with Tyrrell and has been met with “a lot of pushback” from him.
Quarberg did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Cowboy State Daily.
While Linda Heath stopped short of calling for Tyrrell to resign his elected position as a committeeman, she called on him to take a hard look in the mirror to evaluate his dedication to the Republican Party.
“That’s his decision,” she said. “I’m not going to tell him what to do.”
What’s Wrong?
With the many accusations flying, those on both sides said they are at a loss with how to resolve the feud.
Linda Heath denied that she and her husband are “bullying” Tyrrell and said she just wants to find a solution to the infighting that has ruined their relationship. She also lamented having to involve the press in their dispute.
“I've been one of the ones that's been trying to get everybody to work together and quit all the infighting,” she said. “It disappoints me that this is what we're doing. We can agree on probably 80% of the issues out there, but we're getting tied up in administrative details that are causing a major disruption within the county party.”
Linda Heath said her dispute with Tyrrell is part of a larger pattern of allegiance to political groups taking precedence over productive legislation in county politics.
Group identities are starting to override policy considerations in the legislature, she said.
“I mean, they can bring amendments that would strengthen a bill, and because it didn't come from a Freedom Caucus member, quite often the bill or that amendment will get voted down,” she said. “To me, that's dysfunctional legislation.”
“If we can't have civil conversation and civil discussion, the legislative process dies, and that is not good for Wyoming, and it's not good for the people of Wyoming, and it is not good for any organization, political or not,” she said.
Linda Heath added there has long been “an abscess festering” in county Republican politics that requires healing.
“There's been what I would call a toxic undercurrent that has made it impossible to actually have a conversation,” she said.
Tyrrell lamented the same issues when speaking to Cowboy State Daily, adding that his dispute with the Heaths goes far deeper than their individual concerns.
“The deeper issue goes beyond scheduling conflicts, it’s about transparency and integrity,” he said. “The Laramie County Republican Party, is truly a total disaster.
Michael Heath said he believes the infighting is a symptom of a deeper rift that has been forming within party leadership “since about 2020.” He blamed a new generation of Freedom Caucus-aligned county leaders for sowing “chaos and division.”
Clarification - an earlier version of this story failed to acknowledge that Dallas Tyrell is the State GOP Treasurer.
Jackson Walker can be reached at walker@cowboystatedaily.com.
