In the arena of political criticism, a new political action group has declared war on the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Casper-based attorneys Emily Madden and Scott Ortiz co-founded the Common Sense Republicans for Wyoming political action committee (PAC) in March. The PAC has raised six billboards across larger Wyoming towns urging people to “STOP The Freedom Caucus Agenda” and vote in the Aug. 18 primary election.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus cast that as a statement against popular conservative ideals like lower taxes, voter ID, protections for female athletes and school choice.
“They never define the ‘agenda’ they oppose because it’s popular,” says a June 4 post by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Former Caucus chair and current member Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, posted a selfie-style video Friday saying "(I'm) out here in front of this billboard because the people who put it up seem to think we don't like it. We love it. It's got our name all over it, and we like talking about our agenda." Bear also listed popular conservative ideals and claimed, "I guess these folks are against all that."
But the Common Sense Republicans for Wyoming PAC countered, saying the billboards actually criticize more local, more harmful policies - not the national hot-button topics the Freedom Caucus has emphasized for years.
“They have great national talking points, which is why they were so popular in the first place, but you can't make American First if you leave Wyoming behind,” said Madden in a Monday email. “Gutting funding for schools, police, fire, EMS, hospitals, UW, and the Business Council, that's just saying you don't believe Wyoming's best days are ahead.”
The Wyoming Business Council is a state agency that gives grants and loans to businesses and communities. Its supporters call its work important economic development, and its detractors call it an overgrowth of government.
“We welcome people to take a look at the website and the videos. We are pro-Wyoming; we believe our best days are still to come,” said Madden.
The Battle Raging On Facebook
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is a controversial and populist-leaning group of state House Republicans. It contains about 25 known members, but its position often prevails in the 62-member House of Representatives.
Common Sense Republicans’ billboards highlight the divide between the WFC’s more populist faction and other Republicans. That divide has wracked multiple primary election cycles now, as the GOP primary election in August is generally more decisive in deep-red Wyoming, than the general election held in November.
The caucus’ member Rep. Paul Hoeft, R-Powell took to Facebook June 23 to counter the PAC and tout caucus’ members’ support of residential property tax cuts, election security measures, “immigration accountability,” protection of women and girls’ public spaces, and what Hoeft called legislation in defense of the family and the Second Amendment.
“Don’t let the folks that are working in the shadows, chippin’ away at the things that matters to you most,” said Hoeft in his video.
The PAC fired back in its own series of Facebook videos starting June 24.
Madden rebutted the suggestion that she and Ortiz are in the “shadows,” and pointed to the PAC’s website, which identifies Ortiz and Madden, shows a photo of them and shares a mission statement.
Hoeft had called Freedom Caucus members the elected “grass roots” helping their constituents.
Madden countered, noting that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus receives staffing and help from its national umbrella network, the State Freedom Caucus Network.
But First, Who Are These People?
Madden told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview that she was born and raised in Torrington, Wyoming; graduated from the University of Wyoming law school and cherishes the state deeply.
Both Madden and Ortiz have been registered Republicans since at least 2012 when the Natrona County Clerk’s Office adopted its newest registration system, Clerk Tracy Good confirmed Friday.
“Scott and I got involved because during the 2026 budget session we saw a lot of policies, of the Freedom Caucus, that were detrimental to the Wyoming that we know and love,” said Madden. “For Scott it really hit home with him, with the local services impacted by the property tax cuts.”
The Freedom Caucus, and other Republicans, backed multiple residential property tax cuts and relief laws passed over the past three years. Property taxes fund local communities and public schools.
The cuts have impacted different communities differently. The Carbon County Library System said it took a 53% operating budget reduction this year.
Meanwhile, the state’s wealthiest county, Teton, still funds its services without levying maximum property taxes, and a recent report from the State Board of Equalization concluded that some properties in Teton County benefit disproportionately from a property tax increase cap that the Legislature passed in 2024.
“For me,” Madden continued, “it was the University of Wyoming and the judiciary.”
Freedom Caucus members on the House Appropriations Committee in January advanced a proposed $40 million cut to UW’s state block grant. The full Legislature rejected that proposal.
The committee also held an executive discussion to consider winnowing the Wyoming Supreme Court from five justices to three, WyoFile reported. Lawmakers did not run legislation about that, however.
“For him and I both, we’re Wyomingites,” said Madden of Ortiz. “And those policies are not supporting or allowing the Wyoming that we grew up in – or that we want to live in – to thrive.”
Ortiz told Cowboy State Daily that he’s been a “Reagan Republican since the ‘80s,” was raised in Wyoming and is a product of the UW law school.
Street Cred
The Freedom Caucus has called both Ortiz’s and Madden’s GOP credentials into question, calling Common Sense Republicans for Wyoming a “Leftist trial attorney PAC” and pointing to past social media posts by Madden in which Madden indicated support for Democratic candidates.
For Ortiz, the “leftist” attorney charge is laughable.
“It’s hilarious they call me a leftist attorney,” he said, adding that he’s been representing Wyoming trucking companies, energy companies, and other red-blooded entities around the state. “It ruins their credibility because anybody that knows me would laugh out loud.”
Ortiz said his daughter has, in fact, laughed at the charge.
“She doesn’t even think I’m a moderate,” he said.
“I love that once we point out you can be a conservative Republican and totally disagree with everything the Freedom Caucus is doing, they just resort to name-calling,” Ortiz added.
In The Past…
Regarding Madden, WFC Chair Rachel Williams, also known as Rep. Rachel Rodriguez Williams, sent Cowboy State Daily a statement calling Madden a supporter of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The State Freedom Caucus’ Network’s Wyoming director Jessie Rubino, who has also coordinated floor maneuvers with Freedom Caucus members, sent the statement on Williams’ behalf.
“She’s free to support these people of course, but proves that she’s out of step with the majority of Wyomingites and should raise questions about her self-proclaimed label as a ‘common sense republican,’” says the statement.
In response, Madden said in a Friday email: “This election is about what is happening to Wyoming today. Wyoming’s biggest threat is not a democratic candidate who lost. It’s the Freedom Caucus.”
The PAC does not focus on federal or presidential races; only state races.
Madden said she’s excited to engage with anyone about her opposition to the caucus, and to discuss policies and issues directly impacting Wyoming.
“And that includes the Freedom Caucus policies that threaten the future of our state,” she added.
“I hope that someday the Freedom Caucus will stop with the ideological purity tests and talk about real laws and the real consequences of their policies,” Madden added.
Rubino sent Cowboy State Daily screenshots showing what appear to be posts by or involving Madden, in support of national Democratic candidates.
Rubino is also an attorney in Wyoming.
“Throwback to inauguration 2016 when I got a bunch of tickets because we thought Hillary would win,” says the caption under a photograph of Madden and another woman, reposted under Madden’s Instagram handle.
Another photograph depicted under Madden’s Instagram handle shows a KTLA5 News shot of former President Joe Biden clasping Vice President Kamala Harris’ fist overhead, as if in victory.
Another post shows a meme which casts arguing with Trump supporters as irrational.
As of Monday, Cowboy State Daily has not gained viewing access to Madden’s Instagram account.
Break It Down
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus touted the tenets of its agenda again in Rubino’s Friday text-message copy of Williams’ statement.
“Representative Hoeft’s response speaks for itself. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus believes in robust public debate in furtherance of the truth, especially during election season,” says Williams’ statement. “In fact, the caucus welcomes more billboards like these – we see them as invitations to showcase our ‘agenda,’ one that is popular with 80% of Wyoming Republicans, and includes tax relief, election integrity, and keeping illegal aliens off our highways.”
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus has backed these measures. But it hasn’t spearheaded all of them nor carried them all alone.
Property tax relief became a hot-button issue starting in about 2021.
Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton (not a Freedom Caucus member) sponsored a proposed constitutional amendment in 2023 that, after the voters passed it in 2024, separated residential property tax into its own category so it may be assessed differently. This greenlights more expansive property tax reform or relief.
Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper (not a Freedom Caucus member) sponsored a controversial, widely-publicized piece of legislation in 2024 that, had it passed, would have eliminated property taxes on most single-family homes and backfilled the local coffers’ shortfall with a 2% sales tax hike.
Two known WFC members, Reps. Allen Slagle and Bill Allemand, backed Harshman’s bill as cosponsors. The other co-sponsors were non-Freedom Caucus Republicans and one Democrat, Rep. Mike Yin.
The bill died on its third reading in the House.
That same year Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo (not Freedom Caucus), successfully championed a bill that now caps property tax assessment growth to 4% of the prior year’s assessment.
No known Freedom Caucus members co-sponsored that bill.
But Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper (Freedom Caucus), successfully advanced an amendment putting associated land under the tax cap.
Freedom Caucus members picked up momentum on the issue in 2025, however, by voting overwhelmingly in favor of a 25% property tax cut that became law that year.
Illegal Aliens On Our Roads
The prevalence of non-English proficient truckers exploded into the media in 2025 and powered both state and federal legislation in 2026.
In 2025, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, sponsored a bill specifying that other states’ issued driver’s licenses for “unauthorized aliens” aren’t valid in Wyoming. Her co-sponsors were all Freedom Caucus members and WFC-aligned counterparts in the Senate.
That bill became law.
This year, the Legislature passed a law authorizing Wyoming police officers to cite non-English-proficient commercial truckers.
The bill was resoundingly popular, garnering aye votes from all 31 members of the Senate, and all but one Democrat and one Republican in the House.
That bill was a product of the Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee, which non-Freedom Caucus members and Cheyenne-based Reps. Landon Brown and Sen. Stephan Pappas chair.
‘Election Integrity’
The WFC led multiple successful election reform efforts starting in about 2023.
Caucus member Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, successfully championed a bill that remains controversial: barring party affiliation changes after the candidate registration period opens for the primary election.
That means a person wanting to vote in the major parties’ primary election must claim his or her party registration before the candidate filing window opens.
The bill followed years of sometimes-confirmed concerns by Republicans, that Democratic-minded people register as Republicans to sway the GOP primary.
In 2025, Bear, led a successful bill requiring people to provide proof of both U.S. citizenship and 30 days’ Wyoming residency to register to vote.
All but two non-WFC House Republicans voted in favor of the bill as well.
Border Security
Ortiz said WFC’s walk doesn’t always match its talk.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) has been anticipating budget shortfalls for years, including under this term’s WFC leadership of the House.
And WYDOT oversees the Wyoming Highway Patrol, which enforces federal commercial trucking rules and patrols the state’s highways. The patrol leads enforcement of non-English proficiency among commercial truckers and its troopers often respond to incidents that turn into bigger, federal immigration cases.
“They talk about border security,” said Ortiz of the Freedom Caucus. “OK, well Trump spent a lot of money on law enforcement to secure the border. Wyoming Highway Patrol helps secure the border in Wyoming.”
Ortiz said WFC has cut funding for WYDOT.
The truth is more complex.
WYDOT last fall asked the Legislature to grant the agency $27 million from the state’s checking account for the next two-year budget cycle within $282.75 million total.
Gov. Mark Gordon recommended some alternate sourcing but supported the agency's bottom-line request.
The full Legislature ended with nearly $1 million less in appropriations, at $281.9 million.
Gordon had also urged across-the-board raises for executive branch employees.
The Freedom-Caucus-controlled House Appropriations Committee resisted that. But multiple Joint Appropriations Committee members – including Freedom Caucus members – called for targeted raises for multiple categories of WHP troopers.
In the end, the full Legislature passed across-the-board raises for executive-branch employees anyway.
Meanwhile, Harshman tried to transfer $100 million of Wyoming’s mineral severance taxes to loan DOT money for various construction projects, but the Caucus-led House rejected that effort.
Bear, on the other hand, successfully ran an amendment to limit WYDOT’s funding to one of the state’s two jets for executive officials.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
