Political action committees (PACs) attacking Republican candidates in Wyoming’s primary election are twisting some facts and misrepresenting others.
And they’re spending hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars to do it.
The half-million-dollar Wyoming Way Action PAC has been attacking Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a U.S. House candidate, for his record on the State Loan and Investment Board, alleging that fields of wind turbines are “taking over Wyoming because of Chuck Gray" - which is an exaggeration.
The $1 million Protecting Wyoming Values PAC, funded exclusively Gray’s father, Jan Charles Gray, as of July 29, has been attacking Gray’s opponent Steve Friess by casting him as having a “never Trump” agenda.
That claim falls out of the bigger context of the Friess family’s long alignment with the president.
That PAC also asserted Friess was born, married, and raised his family in Connecticut, which Friess says is altogether false.
And the $1.4 million Wyoming’s Turn PAC produced a falsehood against Sen. Eric Barlow this week by asserting he sponsored a gas tax hike in 2020, when in fact he voted against the bill it references.
First, Chuck Gray
The claim that Gray is making wind farms take over Wyoming is an exaggeration.
As secretary of state, Gray voted in favor of leasing state lands for at least three wind-farm projects. Those three measure 640, 2,400 and 3,079 acres.
But amid a broader campaign against what Gray called “woke wind,” he later opposed around 37,128 acres of wind farms slated for state lands. Those pertained to two far more controversial wind leases, one of which has landed Wyoming in court.
Wyoming measures about 62.34 million acres, and about 2.4 million of that is state land.
“Its (sic) just more dishonesty from the Jackson Friess group,” wrote Gray in a Friday text message.
“I was the only member on the State Board of Land Commissioners who voted against and stopped the woke wind leases in Converse and Niobrara Counties,” said Gray. “The first time Governor Gordon threatened to fight me in January was because of my work to stop the woke wind lease.”
Gov. Mark Gordon had asked Gray to “step outside” at that meeting. In the seconds before the confrontation, however, Gray was speaking dourly of Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, who’s also a former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice.
Just before Gordon asked Gray to step outside, the governor warned him against casting “aspersions” against Kautz.
Gray has weathered attack ads from another opponent, Reid Rasner, who says Gray has registered Chinese-owned companies. The secretary pointed to headlines from 2024, when he stripped North Korean businesses of their licenses.
“I've spent a much larger percentage of my life than Friess in Wyoming,” said Gray.
He said his parents divorced and he was under a custody arrangement he couldn’t control as a boy, and split time between Wyoming and California.
“For Friess to attack that, when he spent none of his youth living here, is hypocritical and dishonest,” said Gray.
The PAC attacking Gray’s California roots is funded in part by Friess’s mother, Lynn, though not registered to Friess.
Next, Steve Friess
The ad against Friess asserts he “stiffed” President Donald Trump “while bankrolling never Trumpers like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney.”
Friess gave money to Cheney in 2013 during her U.S. Senate run, but not when she became a “never Trumper” starting in about 2021, Federal Election Commission filings show.
His donations to Cheney happened “before she went insane,” said Friess in a Friday phone interview.
Friess gave money to Romney during the latter’s presidential run in 2012 – another campaign that pre-dated the pro- and anti-Trump Republican divide.
The Friess family donated to now-Rep. Harriet Hageman in 2021, fueling her successful 2022 U.S. House run against Cheney.
As for Trump’s most recent election, “I might have forgotten to write a personal check, but we hosted a fundraiser that raised $6 million,” said Friess. “So I think I’m OK there.”
The False Claim
Wyoming’s Turn PAC launched a mailer this week accusing Barlow, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, of sponsoring legislation to hike gas and diesel taxes. It footnotes the 2020 House Bill 63.
The Revenue Committee sponsored House Bill 63, and Barlow was not then a member of it.
Barlow voted against the bill, and it died on introduction.
The flier also indicates that Barlow opposed rolling back the gas tax hike in 2013.
In that year, rather, Barlow had tried to weaken a proposed fuel tax hike, House Bill 69, by cutting its proposed tax increases in half. The House rejected Barlow's amendment, and in the end he voted against the bill. It passed despite his nay.
Barlow's spokeswoman Rebekah Fitzgerald said he's "constantly trying to be thoughtful in the way that he brings legislation. But ultimately when it came down to it, he voted no on raising taxes."
"So the disingenuousness of the claims continues," she added.
One of his three Republican opponents, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, weathered an attack ad this month that had cherry-picked her former lobbying work and juxtaposed it with her employer's bankruptcy leaving Campbell County in the lurch for taxes.
Christensen
Now Gray appears to be attacking another of his opponents, Kevin Christensen, directly.
Citizens for Chuck Gray, which is a candidate committee directly linked to Gray, ran an attack ad accusing Christensen of being “too liberal for Wyoming,” according to a video of the ad Christensen sent Friday to Cowboy State Daily.
“Christensen trashed President Trump, and Christensen stands against conservatives, siding with RINOs like Liz Cheney, trying to squash Trump’s agenda,” says the ad.
The ad plays Trump’s voice saying “Chuck Gray. Great job, Chuck.”
Christensen, a U.S. Army veteran of Casper, said this is the first attack ad against him of which he’s aware.
“I feel that Mr. Gray is nervous,” said Christensen.
He also said he’s never donated to, spent time with, or known Cheney.
Christensen did criticize the president in April after Trump posted an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure with light streaming from both hands and other religious imagery surrounding him.
“I felt that as a person of faith, I couldn’t stand by and not provide comment on that,” said Christensen. “I felt that was inappropriate and wrong, and I stand by having made that post.”
He said he supports Trump and believes Americans should not want to see their president fail or wish him ill. But he also said no president is above critique.
Christensen called for all candidates to focus on the issues rather than attacking other candidates.
Gray has been asserting for days that polling shows him in first place and Christensen in second. He announced it on the debate stage at a Wyoming Public Television Debate last week in Sheridan, and has posted at least two selfie-style videos to social media, repeating the claim.
Gray has not published the complete poll.
Christensen said he’s been gaining support, and his word-of-mouth endorsements statewide have been exponential.
Friess, meanwhile, has launched an advertising campaign asserting that the “two-man race” is between himself and Gray.
Just Who’s In This Thing?
Wyoming political strategist Bill Cubin weighed in Friday.
When Gray first claimed Christensen was in second place, “That didn’t’ make sense to me,” said Cubin.
“I think Chuck might have said that to kind of throw people off the scent of Steve Friess,” he added.
But the recent attack ad lends the claim more credence, Cubin added
“If they’re putting money behind it, it’s a real thing,” he said.
As for a two-man race, Cubin said it’s not that simple. Wyoming Republicans tend to galvanize into three groups, not two.
Those are the never-Trumpers, the semi-critical Trump supporters, and the people who “would walk on cut glass” to support the president, said Cubin.
If the attack ad against Christensen launched this week, however, “it feels really late in the game to be able to sink an ad like that,” he added.
Gray texted, “It's important for the truth to be told. While the media has been repeating the lies of Jackson elitist Friess and his PACs funded by his billionaire friends, Kevin Christensen has actually been in second place in multiple polls.”
More than 21% of Gray’s donations came from Jackson residents as of July 29, FEC filings show.
Gray said he’d be happy to debate Christensen anytime, as long as Cowboy State Daily is not moderating.
More About The PAC
The Wyoming Way Action PAC, which attacks Gray, had raised $596,613 as of July 29 and spent $345,016.
Its sole contributor as of July 29 was the Outrider PAC, a $1.14 million outfit that runs on money from numerous donors including:
- Conservative donor and Goldwater Institute Board member Randy Kendrick ($50,000)
- Friess’s Victory Fund ($23,460.34)
- The Restoration of America PAC ($500,0000). That’s a Florida-based group that’s been operating since about 2015, so it’s difficult to pinpoint how, and from whom, money filtered through it to support Friess or oppose Gray.
- Cody philanthropists Peter and Christine Kuyper ($5,000 each)
- Dan and Cynthia Starks, philanthropists and founders of the Dubois Museum of Military Vehicles ($5,000 each).
- Friess’s mother Lynnette Friess ($55,000)
- George Seay, founder of Annandale Capital and conservative politico.
The Outrider PAC isn’t only helping Friess. It’s contributed to South Carolina congressional candidate Mark Smith, South Dakota gubernatorial candidate Dusty Johnson, and other Republicans.
Conservatives for American Excellence has been attacking Gray by pointing to his California roots. That’s a bigger PAC with a receipts tally this election season of $11.4 million. Not all of its spending goes toward Wyoming’s U.S. House race.
It has spent $7.4 million since January 2025. And as of June 30, all of that had gone toward races in other states.
The Gray-Backing PAC
The Hometown Freedom Action Network PAC that has been attacking Friess has been around since at least 2012 – long before this race took shape.
It’s raised $211,340 this election cycle. Its funding and spending are an estuary of out-of-state PACs, people and entities.
Friess’s spokesman Tim Edson was much blunter than Friess.
He said Friess has run a positive campaign around an optimistic vision for Wyoming and is therefore “poised to beat Chuck Gray.”
“Chuck is losing, so he's lashing out with blatantly dishonest negative ads in a desperate effort to make Steve Friess as despised by the people of Wyoming as he is,” said Edson.
Though at least one of the PACs supporting Gray is backed with Gray’s father’s money, the PAC is not registered to Gray.
“It won't work because voters recognize that Chuck Gray is a self-promoting career politician and phony conservative who would backstab President Trump if he got to Congress,” said Edson.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
