A Cheyenne-based legislator of nearly 10 years who was gearing up to run for a sixth term reversed course Friday, announcing he will not run for reelection to the Wyoming House of Representatives.
With the announcement, Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, withdraws from the race about a month after announcing his reelection bid, and six days before the filing deadline for candidates opens.
He told Cowboy State Daily he hopes he made his announcement early enough to give other candidates time and availability to view their odds and put together a campaign.
“I’ve done 10 years, and I’ve done a good job, done a duty here,” said Brown in a Friday phone interview. “It’s time for me to ride off into different pastures and continue to do good work, just in a different way.”
He gave three other reasons for his upcoming retirement from the House:
• The prospect of buying a local business that is still under negotiations and not ready to become public.
• A desire to gain some more peace and stability in his personal life after a couple years of turmoil.
• Some distaste for what he called the increasingly toxic campaign trail.
‘Of The People’
Cheyenne resident Exie Brown is running for that seat for the second time.
He’s described himself as a candidate who fully supports the state GOP platform.
He told Cowboy State Daily last month that he appreciates the efforts of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, but is a “free, independent thinker” with strong conservative principles.
Landon Brown, a persistent critic of some of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ policies and methods, defeated Exie Brown by 17 votes in the 2024 Republican primary for their Cheyenne-based House District 9.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is a group of state House representatives generally representing the more populist wing of the Republican Party.
Wyoming is an overwhelmingly Republican state, and its main political divide is between pro-Freedom Caucus Republicans and anti-Freedom Caucus Republicans.
Landon Brown on Friday did not voice support for Exie Brown’s campaign, but rather cast the latter as given to personality-driven campaigning rather than straightforward policy disputes.
“I don’t want to get into personality conflicts even in the process of dropping out of the race,” said Landon Brown. “I don’t agree with the way he runs his campaign. I don’t have to get ugly with him.”
He added that if Exie Brown does win, he’ll have to learn the nuanced, technical aspects of the job such as how money flows into Wyoming’s Permanent Mineral Trust Fund.
And if Exie Brown does win, “I look forward to him being a representative — as he says — ‘of the people.’ And that includes me,” said Landon Brown.
‘Best In His Future Endeavors'
Exie Brown told Cowboy State Daily in his own Friday interview that he disagrees with Landon Brown’s characterization of his campaign.
He said his attacks on Representative Brown have focused on policy and on how the representative conducts himself as an elected official.
Exie Brown has also been outspoken about other issues, such as an administrative warrants controversy in the city of Cheyenne, residents’ ongoing concerns over data centers and their water consumption, and food freedom.
Exie also said he wishes Landon well.
“Honestly, I wish him, you know, nothing but the best in his future endeavors,” said Exie. “Whatever that is he’s going to do, I’m sure he’ll do well.”
Exie Brown called winning five elections a “heckuva accomplishment” and thanked Landon Brown for his service.
Landon Brown said he doesn’t have anyone to endorse publicly against Exie Brown at this juncture.
“Wyoming and her future matter deeply to me, and I remain committed to ensuring this seat does not fall into the hands of those pushing policies that I believe would move our state backward,” Landon Brown wrote in a Friday-morning statement.
“Wyoming’s future remains incredibly important to me, and while this decision was not made lightly, I am confident it is the right one for myself, my family and the opportunities that lie ahead,” he added.
Clashes
Exie Brown sat in the third-floor balcony of the Wyoming House of Representatives during this year’s legislative session, watching Landon Brown and others work legislation on the second floor below.
He published repeated critiques of Landon Brown during that phase and others.
In one post, Exie Brown derided representatives who voted against House Bill 141, the Fifth Amendment Protection Act, as opposing private property rights.
The bill would have banned housing mitigation fees like those that pervade Jackson and Teton County and help to make its housing market the most heavily restricted in Wyoming.
Landon Brown was among the lawmakers who voted against the bill. Ultimately, it cleared the House and died in the Senate.
“As you can see by the voting below who believes in protecting your private property rights and who does not,” wrote Exie Brown in a Feb. 24 post depicting the ayes and nays of the vote.
The bill carried baggage as well, however.
It was connected to a controversy Capitol insiders labeled “CheckGate,” in which a conservative activist who’d pushed for that bill’s passage handed out checks on the House floor two days before its introductory vote.
The pair clashed earlier this week, when Landon Brown questioned why Exie Brown so often raises issues embroiling local boards, and asked whether that's a better lane for Exie Brown.
"I don't meddle or attempt to impact local authority," Landon Brown wrote in a post.
Exie Brown fired back, pointing to past bills by Landon Brown, including a 2018 piece of legislation attempting to bar certain local restrictions on keeping chickens.
That Sentencing Hearing
Landon Brown on May 23, 2024, spoke in Laramie County District Court in favor of mitigating the sentence of former Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Gabriel Testerman, who had been convicted of sexual assault.
He addressed the court in his personal capacity, not as a state lawmaker.
He urged probation, called Testerman a “man of God” and “not the monster as it was portrayed today.”
The case’s specially assigned prosecutor, Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe, had rebutted Landon Brown’s statements but also told the court that Testerman has two personae that he presents to different audiences.
“There are two Gabe Testermans,” said Erramouspe at the hearing.
He pointed to obsessive, dominating behavior Testerman reportedly exhibited toward his ex-wives; in contrast with the numerous letters Testerman’s friends and loved ones sent to the court attesting to his good character.
Landon Brown has since apologized and taken accountability repeatedly for what he’s called his lapse of judgment in that hearing.
His critics still attack him with the incident, he said Friday.
“Certainly, the political attacks that have come after me lately, the discussion around, you know, Gabe Testerman going to prison and people still trying to bring that up continuously — I’ve made my bed,” he said, while discussing some of his more personal reasons for not running again. "I’ve lain in it and apologized for it. And people still want to come after me for it."
Exie Brown told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that a political action group with which he didn’t coordinate attacked Landon Brown over the Testerman incident in 2024.
As for himself, Exie Brown said he will give his opinion on that incident if people bring it up while he’s going door to door, but he hasn’t hammered it outright as a campaign issue.
These Ten Years
Landon Brown has served in the House since 2017.
He’s chaired the House Transportation, Highways & Military Affairs Committee since 2023.
He’s also chaired the Select Committee on School Facilities and served as Vice-Chair of the Management Audit Committee.
He’s sponsored and co-sponsored numerous bills, most of them focused more on local and state issues than national hot-button topics.
In this year’s legislative session, he and others defended the University of Wyoming from a proposed $40 million cut to its state block grant.
