CHEYENNE- One of the repercussions of the Freedom Caucus rout in last week's Republican primary election is the interim work of the Legislature.
These are the studies assigned to legislative committees to work on between the sessions.
Right now their studies are in preparation for the 2027 general session - the long one, 40 days.
Attendance to interim committee meetings has often been spotty during the spring and summer months.
After this decimating election, members who failed to be elected may not show up.
The Legislative Service Office, at any rate, will have a lot of extra training next year for the unusually large class of newly-elected members.
This amazing election was hashed over pretty thoroughly last week. I expected some Freedom Caucus defeats, but not nearly the magnitude of what happened.
To my knowledge, the only people who predicted it were Phil Roberts, retired University of Wyoming history professor, and fellow Cowboy State Daily columnist Rod Miller.
They were better than any professional pollsters.
Basically, the voters recognized that the Freedom Caucus approach was not working for them. The Freedom Caucus mucked up our property tax program, tried to move the University of Wyoming back decades, and attempted to cripple the Business Council, although a study of that operation was not a bad thing.
I objected to the Caucus because of its exclusiveness and its extreme ideas. The members prayed together, sat together and voted together as a bloc.
That is why the late Sen. Alan Simpson called caucuses a cult.
They had no respect for Wyoming institutions like the Legislature.
Furthermore, the Freedom Caucus leaders never explained what they were trying to accomplish, other than cut program and costs to limit government.
It was a totally negative message.
If the Freedom Caucus does rebuild and takes more seats in the Legislature, which I doubt will happen any time in the near future, I hope they will be more clear on their vision — if they have one.
When the new Legislature convenes in January, it will be missing more than a dozen or so Freedom Caucus members. The last number I saw was that they only had 10 members left in the House
The Legislature also may have lost diversification.
Its only African-American member, Sen. Lynn Hutchings , a Cheyenne Republican, did not seek re-election.
She retired after serving 42 years in the Wyoming National Guard.
During the last session her only assignment was to the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee.
She served two years in the House and eight years in the Senate.
She did not respond to an e-mail I sent for comment.
Back to the election, historian Roberts said he was surprised the national media did not pick up more on Wyoming’s vote. Wyoming, after all, is the reddest red state, which elected Donald Trump to be president in 2024 with 71 percent of the vote.
The national media points out that Trump also endorsed Harriet Hageman, who won easily.
Trump’s loss of endorsed candidate for governor Megan Degenfelder was the the first of several last week in state primaries.
As an article in MSN online reported, Wyoming voters rebuffed Trump’ before — in 2018 when his pick was Foster Friess over Mark Gordon in the gubernatorial primary.
Gordon went on to win two terms as governor.
It was different this year.
“This defeat landed amid a genuinely rough national stretch for Trump's coattails,” MSN reported. “Gubernatorial candidates he endorsed had already lost primaries this year in Iowa, Minnesota and Georgia. South Carolina is murkier: Trump's original pick there, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, lost her runoff, but Trump had also added a late endorsement of the eventual winner, Alan Wilson. So depending on how a given outlet scores that race, Wyoming's Degenfelder becomes either the fourth or fifth losing gubernatorial pick of the cycle."
Roberts thinks this election could be a “game changer” for Wyoming.
Could be.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
