CHEYENNE — A couple of unusual events that occurred recently may signal a change in the outcome of the Republican Party primary election this month.
First was the illegal Republican Party central committee vote for primary candidates that chose Brent Bien as their favorite for governor over Megan Degenfelder.
Degenfelder, the current State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was endorsed twice by President Donald Trump.
That endorsement did not help her with this group of Republican Central Committee members.
While you can dismiss that limited ballot that violated current state law regulating political party involvement in the primaries, another sign of insurrection popped up in Hot Springs County.
That is where four GOP candidates are running for the state House District 28 seat being vacated by Rep. John Winter of Thermopolis.
Winter is one of the early founders of the Freedom Caucus.
His legacy will not be carried on by his successor.
The four men seeking his seat say they will not join the Freedom Caucus if they are elected, according to a story in Cowboy State Daily.
The candidates are Marshall Keller, Allen Hogg, Carlin Jones and Roland Luehne.
“I don’t believe I should be taking orders from a caucus,” said Keller, according to earlier sources. “I believe I should be listening to my constituents.”
Now you can say these are just blips - slight aberrations - that do not signify a major shrift.
Yet that shift is also occurring nationwide as Trump’s performance rate drops in the polls.
Coupled with the Freedom Caucus’s less than splendid record in the last legislative session, it is possible we are in another period of change.
Wyoming voters, in my experience, have shown a marked tendency to be independent.
So their embrace of the Freedom Caucus was a surprise.
While I believe the new developments must be a sign of something going on that will not help the Freedom Caucus or the MAGA movement, I was not sure how significant it is.
So I called an expert, Phil Roberts of Laramie, Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Wyoming, who specializes in Wyoming history.
“I think it’s starting to crack,” Roberts said in a phone interview last week.
He believes there are a lot people who will not vote for the MAGA agenda again.
Voters this year have their choice between a candidate who has pledged loyalty to the President and his administration — or to the candidate who has pledged loyalty to the people.
In all the history of Wyoming, voters have never elected a governor or other top officials who had pledged loyalty to a president, Roberts said.
In other words, a Trump endorsement could be a negative this election.
Roberts believes the Freedom Caucus has had its day and will lose seats in this election.
He also predicted that Harriet Hageman will lose her bid for a U.S. Senate seat.
Roberts said Hageman was elected to the U.S. House in an unusual year
She ran against the unpopular incumbent Liz Cheney.
The daughter of the late former vice president Dick Cheney and his author-wife, Lynne, she voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump and won the wrath of the Republican Party.
Trump endorsed Hageman, who defeated Cheney in a landslide.
Meanwhile the Cheyenne TV station last week showed a campaign ad with President Trump urging voters to elect Megan Degenfelder for governor.
Trump said she is a “patriot.”
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
