The former Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives and lifelong cattle rancher is running to reclaim the Sublette-County-based House District 20.
Former House Speaker Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, made the announcement Thursday, hours after the seat’s incumbent Rep. Mike Schmid, R-LaBarge, announced he won’t run this year.
Sommers has a challenger already in Bill Winney, a 30-year Navy veteran of Bondurant and indefatigable legislative candidate.
The primary election is Aug. 18.
Sommers served in the House starting in 2013 and ran the chamber as speaker from 2023-2024.
It’s not a perfect tradition, but the House Speaker often runs for Senate or higher office once reaching the lower chamber’s highest post, and Sommers attempted that in 2024 when he met Winney and political newcomer Laura Taliaferro Pearson, of Kemmerer, in the Republican primary election.
Pearson won the Senate seat with 46.8% of their shared vote. Sommers took second at 42.8% and Winney third at 10.4%.
Pearson’s Senate term reaches its halfway point in January.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” said Sommers in a Thursday statement. “But over the past two years, after closely watching the direction of the Wyoming House — and hearing from many of you encouraging me to return — I’ve come to believe that House District 20 once again needs experienced, common-sense conservative leadership that will stand up for our people, our industries, and our natural resources.”
For The Water
Sommers told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview that one of his top objectives is to help Wyoming hold an edge in water-compact negotiations.
The 104-year-old Colorado River Compact is a crucial agreement regulating water distribution among seven states.
Following an unseasonably warm winter and a drought, Colorado River Basin states are approaching their third year of renegotiating the agreement.
Wyoming has been bracing for a potential legal fight.
“Water is probably be my No. 1 topic, followed just by good governance,” said Sommers. “Less political theater and theatrics (yet), good governance.”
Sommers was a frequent attendee of this year’s lawmaking session in the state Capitol, watching the House debates from the third-floor gallery.
“What I saw raised serious concerns,” he wrote in his statement. “Despite entering the session with a budget surplus, the Freedom Caucus-controlled House Appropriations Committee made decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
The food assistance was a denial, rather, for a new, half-federally funded school lunch program.
Gov. Mark Gordon announced Wednesday he’s working to “cobble” the program together through executive order.
The business opportunities appropriators addressed ranged from the controversial, proposed and failed effort to eliminate the Wyoming Business Council — which gives grants and loans to businesses and communities — to debates over whether the Professional Cowboys Rodeo Association or a rare earths project should receive government subsidies to bring projects to Wyoming.
In the end, those projects received government subsidies, with the blessing of the Legislature but against the wishes of the more conservative Joint Appropriations Committee.
Checkgate
“At the same time,” Sommers continued in his statement, “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated.”
He told Cowboy State Daily that he attended in part to testify against efforts to defund important local institutions.
The current House Speaker and Sommers’ successor to the post, Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, had brought a bill hinging tax supports for local recreation expenses on a vote of the people, which Sommers opposed.
That bill did not surface on the House floor.
As for Checkgate, that was a controversy that unfolded after conservative activist Rebecca Bextel handed out checks to at least four House members on the chamber’s floor after the body adjourned Feb. 9.
It’s a restricted space, which guests in general may only visit via legislative escort.
A special House investigative committee cleared the lawmakers of bribery and misconduct. A law enforcement investigation is still pending in the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office.
The House forayed into some emotional exchanges as lawmakers sorted through the fallout.
Sommers cast the lack of decorum of this session as unsettling.
“Leadership matters,” his statement says. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Hospitals, Water, Property Tax Relief
Sommers’ statement notes that he helped create the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley.”
He worked to route money to rural hospitals, including the Sublette County Hospital.
“As Speaker of the House, I prioritized responsible property tax relief,” he wrote, adding, “On the Appropriations Committee, I helped cut spending during downturns, save for the future, and invest wisely when revenues were strong.”
Sommers’ statement says he supports oil, gas, ranching and tourism; and is pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family and pro-education.
“I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly,” he wrote.
This was a point of contention while Sommers was House Speaker. He stifled some bills addressing social issues, such as a bill to require schools notify parents of major health changes in their kids.
He also rerouted a bill seeking to ban sex changes for kids to the House Appropriations Committee. The committee demoted the bill to the lowest priority tier of the House’s agenda, where it later died.
Lawmakers resurrected both bills in later years, and both are now law.
Sommers explained his choices at the time by addressing the chamber’s tough schedule, redundancy among multiple bills, and potentially unconstitutional over overreaching provisions in the controversial bills.
At the same time, his detractors criticized him heavily.
He promised Thursday to remain transparent and accessible, to provide regular updates on legislation, seek voter input “and clearly explain my votes.”
“I will continue attending local meetings and staying engaged with our communities,” he said.
“I believe the best government is the one closest to the people,” Sommers continued. “Local control isn’t just a principle — it’s how we ensure decisions reflect the needs of our communities. I will always stand for that.”
Bill Winney
Winney, 76, testifies at legislative hearings routinely.
A 30-year Navy veteran, Winney was in charge of large-scale budgets while working as a program coordinator at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Upon retirement, Winney could have easily devoted his time to more leisurely pursuits, but told Cowboy State Daily in 2024 that “it wasn’t in my heart” to do that.
Instead, he’s been closely observing and participating in the Legislature since 2005.
Winney has spent most of this time attempting to draw a bridge between his Navy and federal government experience and a multitude of Wyoming topics over the years at the Legislature.
He told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that his no. 1 issue if he wins the House seat this time would be more property tax reductions.
The Legislature passed a 25% residential property tax reduction in 2025 and now Wyoming voters face a proposed 50% property tax cut on the general election ballot. That’s after housing prices in many areas of the state soared post-COVID.
“That’s a big one,” said Winney of his objective.
He’s also interested in reviewing retirement income provisions for people on fixed incomes, he said.
“I’ve been walking around, in previous years, knocking on doors, talking to people,” he said. “And there’s been some houses I’ve come up to that are empty.”
Winney said some people had a mortgage, coupled with property taxes, and couldn’t make the payments.
“They literally just left the house empty, threw the keys on the kitchen table and you know, have an empty house,” he added.
As for Sommers, Winney said, “I don’t see him as being particularly conservative.”
“He’s a good man,” Winney continued. “I’ve known him a long time. But you know there’s the House — and the Senate — but the House for now is moving conservative. And I don’t see him as quite as conservative.”
Sommers in response to that urged people to review his voting record on his website.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
