Well, that headline might be a tad bit of hyperbole. Maybe. But this election year has not been kind to the the body politic of the Wyoming GOP.
The Grand Old Party in the Big Empty is not dead, but it IS in the emergency room getting treatment for some gaping wounds. The post-election triage will reveal how many of those stab wounds were self-inflicted in some sort of twisted and protracted suicide attempt.
The first cuts, but maybe not the deepest, came during the 2026 primary election and they have not yet scabbed over.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus emerged as the driving political force within the GOP, but its carcass was left to bleed out in the gutter when the voters of Wyoming overwhelmingly rejected their strange ideology during the Tuesday Night Massacre on 8/18/26.
The GOP’s risky experiment with goofball right-wing populism blew up in their face. The real grassroots spoke and the weeds were painfully yanked out.
Then the Wyoming Republican Party broke with precedent (and with state law) and endorsed a candidate in the primary race for governor. Their chosen candidate, Brent Bien, came in last in the voting.
How’s that for reading the room?
The GOP stabbed itself again by refusing to endorse Sen. Eric Barlow, the Republican candidate who carried all 23 Wyoming counties in the primary, in his general election campaign.
When asked on the Cowboy State Daily morning show why the party didn’t endorse Barlow, state party chair Bryan Miller said with a straight face that party by-laws prevented them from endorsing any candidate, conveniently forgetting their endorsement of Bien in the primary.
Ouch!
The icing on the elephant is Rebecca Bextel, who a few months ago was a big-time GOP fundraiser, but abandoned the party for the fringe Constitution Party. From that platform, she waged a cringe-worthy campaign against the Republican nominee, Barlow.
Enough GOP county committee people slipstreamed behind her and supported her against their own nominee to raise a bunch of eyebrows.
Remind me...how do you spell RINO?
………...
Okay, I pick up my pen again after the election results are in, and it’s a good news, BAD news story for the GOP.
Republicans Harriet Hageman and Chuck Gray won seats in the U.S. Senate and House respectively. But the GOP lost control of the entire Congress, so Gray and Hageman will be sworn in as members of the minority.
They can thank Trump, who endorsed them both, for that outcome.
Closer to home, the GOP swept all five of the top offices in state government. But none of the Republicans elected carry a whiff or a taint of the Freedom Caucus into office. None of them are cheerleaders of the hard right-wing populist ideology that permeates the state party these days.
Governor-elect Eric Barlow won 70% of the statewide vote, and carried every county with a larger margin than he did in the primary. Numbers like that tell me that Barlow is much more in touch with the grassroots folks of Wyoming than is the party that refused to endorse him.
All Bextel’s quixotic and chaotic campaign accomplished was to ensure major party status for the Constitution Party in the next election.
She got less than 20% of the vote. I’m guessing that’s roughly the number of disgruntled, hair-on-fire Republicans who supported her against their own party’s nominee. In other words – RINOs.
That marginal cadre should coalesce around Checkgate Becky and take over the Constitution Party. Then they could shake their curmundgeonly fists at the sky and growl “Get off my lawn!” to their hearts’ content. That would improve the Wyoming GOP immeasurably!
Finally, Prop 1, strongly supported by the state GOP hierarchy, went down in flames, as did the GOP endorsed candidacy of its sheepdog, the aforementioned Brent Bien. The GOP’s lack of muscle these days is on full display.
So, let the healing begin!
The Wyoming Republican Party must do some honest soul-searching and ask itself why it is so out of touch with its constituency. It must make the changes necessary to re-align itself with what Wyomingites are thinking, and stop trying to tell us what to think.
Otherwise, the bleeding will not stop.
There’s a very appropriate line in Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men” that sums it up...If the road you chose led you to this, of what use is the road?
Rod Miller can be reached at RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
