“This is not a purity test,” says a letter to Republican candidates for Park County partisan offices, warning them that if they don’t commit to back at least 80% of the state Republican Party platform, they won’t receive an endorsement or support from the party.
The state GOP passed a set of new bylaws in April which requires county and state committee iterations of the party to vet candidates for office on their commitment to the platform and “demonstrated loyalty to the Party’s principles.”
The Park County GOP’s vetting committee chair Richard Jones dispatched his vetting letter and survey to multiple candidates this week. Responses are due next Wednesday.
“We ask you to complete the questionnaire, and that you complete it honestly,” says Jones’ letter. “This is not a purity test. It is a questionnaire to see where you align with our Platform.
"Also, this Platform is a reflection of the majority of Wyoming Republicans.”
The letter urges candidates against opting out of prompts they deem irrelevant to the offices they’re seeking.
“We wish to know where you stand regarding the Platform, not the role of the position you are seeking,” it says.
Candidates are split on whether the test is necessary, appropriate, and whether it is or isn’t a “purity test.”
“I support this,” said Karin Richard, a candidate for Park County Commission. “The Wyoming Republican Party, it stands for something. It stands for timeless truths — these truths are to maintain and protect and defend life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness.”
Richard added, “The Wyoming Republican Party isn’t demanding a purity test … it’s protecting the integrity of those foundational principles.”
Jones, who is also running for a Park County GOP precinct committee position, did not return a voicemail request for comment by publication.
Then Why Do It?
Former state Park County GOP precinct committeewoman and current candidate for the position, Sandy Newsome questioned why the party would bother dispatching a test at all if it’s not a “purity test.”
Newsome is also a former state reprsentative.
She said she didn’t receive the questionnaire at all — and she checked her spam folder. Other candidates have also said they didn’t receive it, she added.
“They want to say (it’s not a purity test) but that’s not true in my mind,” said Newsome. “Then why do they care? Why would they send that out … if it’s not to pigeonhole someone because of their responses into some group?”
Newsome defined herself as a Ronald Reagan Republican, and said the current GOP platform, while it tries to tackle vital issues, is poorly written and confusing in some areas.
For example, the first plank says all people are endowed with the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness “from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.”
That language is a problem for Republicans who support the death penalty, noted Newsome.
The last two times Wyoming lawmakers proposed bills to abolish Wyoming’s death penalty — to the Senate in 2021 and the House in 2020 — the legislators who killed the bills on their introductory votes were all Republicans.
Newsome said that at a candidate forum in late May, current Republican state Sen. Dan Laursen, who’s now running for a seat on the Park County Commission, voiced discomfort with a plank strongly in favor of property rights.
“He spent his career doing water projects for the state, and sometimes you need an easement; sometimes you need to condemn some land to do an irrigation project,” Newsome related from what she recalled of Laursen’s answer.
Laursen did not respond by publication to a voicemail request for confirmation and comment.
Newsome emphasized that while the party seeks to threaten withholding its endorsement or financial backing, it can’t keep people off the ballot.
To her, she added, the people of her precinct — not the party — are the judge of whether she’s worthy to serve.
‘Buncha RINOs’
Jimmy Rush is campaigning to become Park County Clerk. He told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview that he agrees 100% with the party platform and has no problem with the questionnaire.
He countered Newsome’s point about how the platform’s “natural death” wording, in its plank touting the right to life for every individual, is inconsistent with support for the death penalty.
“Well, I think that (plank) covers abortion,” said Rush, adding that he supports the death penalty and wishes the state were tougher on crime.
“I think that falls more into a legal area,” Rush said. “Once you break the law, you lose your rights. Once you get convicted as a criminal you lose your rights.”
Convicted criminals retain many rights such as the due-process right of appeal and rights against cruel and unusual punishment within their prison sentence or other punishment. Convicted felons lose civic, voting and gun rights.
U.S. Supreme Court precedent allows states to enforce the death penalty and thereby remove a convict’s right to life, but only after a rigorous legal process and under limited circumstances.
Rush pointed to Park County candidates who have re-posted a Facebook post Newsome published deriding the test. He called the re-posters unoriginal.
“I think it’s a bunch of RINOs making a bunch of noise, because they’re scared to death that some absolutely true, patriot conservative Republicans are finally running for office,” he said, adding that he’s campaigning on transparency promises.
“RINO” is a pejorative acronym that means “Republican in name only.” It’s become prevalent in recent years as the divide between at least two factions of Wyoming Republicans deepens.
On the one hand, Democrats do switch to Republican voter registration so they can vote in the state’s GOP primary elections.
On the other hand, many Republicans who’ve been hit with the “RINO” label accuse their attackers of glossing over nuanced and grey-area issues, especially pertaining to hyper-local governance.
More About The Platform
The platform has remained substantially the same for the past eight years, Richard told Cowboy State Daily.
The party touts the platform as a collection of “timeless truths.”
Cowboy State Daily covered a platform committee at this year’s state GOP convention in April, where party delegates rejected new planks rooted in more transient issues, like the advancement of artificial intelligence, and rejected a plank calling Wyoming a Christian state — after a heated debate about biblical principles and free will.
The principle behind the platform’s plank No. 23 is a hot topic now.
“The Wyoming Republican Party opposes any federal takeover or interference of federal, state, or local elections,” the plank says.
Numerous federal courts are now contemplating whether the U.S. Department of Justice can, under federal law, demand sensitive information about registered voters in the states.
And More About The Party
The state GOP is suing the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office over a law barring the party from financially backing one Republican candidate over another ahead of the primary election, which is Aug. 18.
That law has been interpreted over time to mean the party can't endorse candidates during the primary election cycle either, state GOP Chair Bryan Miller told delegates in April.
The party says it has a First Amendment right to endorse and publicly vet Republican candidates.
That case is ongoing.
Jones' letter says that, "Failure to achieve, or commit to, a minimum 80% support negates any candidate from receiving an endorsement at the primary election and party support, financial or otherwise, during any general election."
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
