Constitution Party gubernatorial nominee Rebecca Bextel derided her Republican opponent Sen. Eric Barlow throughout a presentation at the Sheridan Chamber of Commerce forum Monday, and cast Gov. Mark Gordon as unintelligent.
“I think we’ve proven that you don’t’ have to be smart to be governor. We do have Governor Gordon, and we’re gonna have four more years of that,” said Bextel. “I’ve got more balls than Governor Gordon ever had.”
Some in the audience applauded.
Bextel has framed her candidacy as an “insurance policy against Eric Barlow.”
She accused Barlow on Monday of being a “Democrat,” and she referenced how she changed her party affiliation to Constitution so she could challenge him under the minor party’s banner.
“I never wanted to be a governor; it’s not something I had planned out,” said Bextel. “But knowing what’s at stake with our great state, and where my girls are gonna live and my future grandchildren are gonna live, I just had to be the backstop.”
Here We Go
Barlow weathered high-dollar attacks from supporters of one of his Republican opponents, Megan Degenfelder, during the late phase of the primary election cycle.
The ads falsely accused him of pushing for fuel tax hikes and oversimplified his voting record on social and immigration issues.
A group opposing him and touting Degenfelder spent more than any Wyoming-only, state-level PAC that cycle, at $1.4 million.
Barlow won every county in Wyoming to secure the GOP nomination.
“If anyone is confused about which political party they belong to, it sure isn’t me,” said Barlow in a Tuesday email.
“I am a Republican. Republican voters in my community have elected me to the Legislature six times, and Republican voters across Wyoming just confirmed I am the kind of leader they believe the state needs for their next Governor.”
Barlow noted that his voting record is public, “and has been thoroughly examined over the last year.”
Barlow said it appears “the outside messages and mudslinging will continue for the next seven weeks.”
He vowed to run a clean campaign.
“As in the Primary, these attacks won’t come from me. I am running for Wyoming, not against anyone.”
The Lone Presenters
Barlow was not present at the chamber forum Monday, but sent a statement saying he could not attend, thanking the chamber for the invitation, and detailing his background and views.
It was a common theme across the chamber’s statewide race forums. Many candidates did not attend, leaving lone presenters in the races for governor, U.S. House, secretary of state, and U.S. Senate.
Those were Bextel, House Libertarian nominee Shawn Johnson, Republican secretary of state nominee Robert Short, and Democratic Senate nominee James Byrd.
Most absentees sent statements lamenting they could not attend, but the absent GOP House nominee Chuck Gray, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Kenneth Casner, and Constitution Party nominee for secretary of state, Tamara Trujillo, did not.
Bextel ran unsuccessfully in 2025 to become chair of the Wyoming Republican Party, and is a well-known activist and donor who made headlines this winter for handing out campaign donation checks on the state House of Representatives floor.
At the forum Monday she directed viewers to a website through which she’s soliciting potential inconsistencies in Barlow’s public statements.
About Policy
Regarding policy, Bextel said Wyoming should “grow off of” its primary traditional energy, tourism, and agriculture industries.
Instead of building data centers, she said, Wyoming should be making a commercial meat plant for local livestock. She said she doesn’t want the state to acquire federal lands. And she said property taxes should be “zero,” and people should not be priced out of their homes.
She said she’s going to stop the issuance of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens and get Wyoming out of the refugee resettlement program.
Wyoming law already bars issuance of driver’s licenses to anyone in violation of immigration law, and it invalidates out-of-state licenses issued to illegal aliens.
Gordon's spokeswoman Amy Edmonds said "we are not aware of anyone issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens in the state of Wyoming. the law prohibits it."
The state also has no formal refugee resettlement program, Edmonds confirmed Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.
Former Gov. Matt Mead wrote to the federal government in 2013 expressing interest in resettlement efforts, but reversed course later, both the Washington Post and the Independent reported.
Mead wrestled in 2013 with President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program. Wyoming at first denied driver’s licenses to young immigrants who are authorized to live and work in the U.S., then reversed course.
Mead in a spontaneous 2014 YouTube interview denied granting licenses to illegal aliens,.
Barlow’s Record
Bextel brought the narrative back to Barlow again in her closing statement, urging people to look at his 14-year legislative voting record.
“He voted eight times in six years to expand Wyoming Medicaid,” she said. “All three times he’s voted to prohibit banning sanctuary cities.”
While technically correct, Bextel’s sanctuary city comment overlooks that Barlow voted in favor, in 2025, of a sanctuary city ban that is now law.
He voted against sanctuary city bans in 2018 and 2020, citing the rushed budget sessions of even-numbered years. In 2025 he voted against a much broader immigration bill containing a sanctuary city provision, which numerous Wyoming sheriffs and two-thirds of Senate Republicans also opposed, while voting in favor of the narrower sanctuary city ban.
“This gets into (scrutinizing) people that actually have to work in the Legislature – it gets wonky,” said Barlow in a Wednesday phone interview.
Bextel said Barlow voted to “allow boys in girls sports in 2022 and 2025.”
Barlow voted against resurrecting a fairness in girls sports bill he’d kept in his drawer, as House Speaker, in 2022. Again, he cited the rushed budget session where the Legislature is expected to pass a budget.
Barlow had voted in favor of a 2025 bill protecting girls sports. He also voted in favor of a 2023 fairness bill. Both of those became law.
Pressed for clarification on her 2025 comment, Bextel noted that Barlow voted no on a concurrence vote, meaning he voted against the House’s changes to the bill.
The House’s major change to the bill inserted definitions of “male” and “female” and added a civil lawsuit mechanism to it.
Bextel told Cowboy State Daily that Barlow’s no-vote followed an amendment “removing the loop holes” from the bill.
Barlow testified on the floor that day, however, that the loophole's closure wasn’t tight enough, and the bill needed improvement. Had a majority of senators voted no with him, the bill would have gone to a concurrence committee for more workshopping.
That year, Barlow had voted in favor of the “What Is A Woman Act,” which applied biological definitions of “male” and “female” throughout all Wyoming law.
Barlow told Cowboy State Daily that while he sponsored Medicaid expansion legislation early in his legislative career, he does not believe now is the time for that move.
He pointed to the Trump-backed Rural Health Transformation Program that is pushing millions into Wyoming rural health care.
“Men should not be in women’s sports, period,” said Barlow. “And, I don’t think this is a time for… Medicaid expansion, period.”
More About Barlow
In the forum, Bextel also derided Barlow’s vote on a tax cut for Wyoming’s wildlife management agency.
“We hear a lot about funding gaps and that kind of thing, but what’s interesting is, Eric Barlow just voted to not make fish and game have to pay half of their property tax,” she said. “So he’s gonna give fish and game a $475,000 cut which pays all these municipalities all over the state. Why do they get a reduction when your grandmother can’t?”
The wildlife agency which is called “Wyoming Game and Fish,” is not largely dependent on the public money the Legislature doles out to agencies. Much of its revenue comes from targeted taxes, like fishing and hunting license sales, gun and ammunition taxes.
The Legislature, with Barlow’s aye vote, passed Senate File 26 this year to give the largely self-funded agency a limited property tax cut.
Every member of the state Senate voted aye on that bill, while it faced a tighter vote, 34-27, in the state House of Representatives.
Bextel characterized the Wyoming Business Council as a “scam,” saying “the government needs to get out of the way. It is not our job to create jobs. We are there to protect your constitutional rights.”
The Wyoming Business Council is a controversial arm of the state government, which narrowly escaped being defunded this year, that aims to boost business and economic gains in Wyoming with public money.
Some lawmakers are pushing for a more locally driven program whereby towns and counties gather consensus and apply to the state for infrastructure-related grants.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
