Though Jackson businesswoman Rebecca Bextel has been a vocal advocate for the Republican Party over the years, she’s now asking voters to reject the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Eric Barlow, and support her instead.

Bextel is running for governor under the banner of the Constitution Party. However, she contends she represents true Republican values while Barlow — a longtime state Republican lawmaker — is actually a “Democrat.”

Speaking at a campaign event in Cody last month, Bextel encouraged the roughly 50 attendees to “stand up and say, ‘No, I’m not going to just vote for somebody’” who appears on the ballot as a Republican.

“What they’re counting on is [that] you care more about the Republican Party than your family, your children, your state, your country,” Bextel said, adding, “I don’t love the Republican Party that much. Certainly not when they’ve not lifted a finger to help me in my daily life.”

Bextel said people are tired with the GOP because there’s not much difference between an establishment Republican and an establishment Democrat.

“They’re all in it together, and then we’re the ones that just keep electing them into office,” she said. “We have to take responsibility for that.”

During the nearly two-hour event at the Cody VFW, Bextel spoke about her priorities and positions, which include reduced regulations, lower taxes, protecting Wyoming’s water, ensuring the public is quickly informed about data center proposals and working to eliminate Flock surveillance cameras.

Bextel also heaped criticism on a long list of targets. That included calling the Wyoming Business Council a scam and saying its CEO Josh Dorrell “does not need to be living in Wyoming”; describing the former leader of the Casper area’s housing authority “one of the most crooked people out there”; calling Teton County commissioners “almost demonic” and accusing media outlets of defaming her in their coverage of the campaign checks she passed out on the Wyoming House floor last winter (a saga that became known as “Checkgate”).

But she trained most of her fire on Barlow. She said his voting record on topics ranging from sanctuary cities to transgender athletes makes him a Democrat.

“If he gets in there, folks, as sure I’m standing right here with ya’ll lovely people in Cody, we will never get this state back,” Bextel said.

Criticism and a response

Specifically, she asserted that Barlow will expand Wyoming Medicaid and put 55,000 able-bodied, childless adults on the health care program and that he and others will “be putting up low-income housing scams and importing people from other places to live there.”

“Those are voters,” Bextel said.

Asked for a response to the comments, Barlow said through a campaign spokesperson that his past votes on Medicaid proposals — which included support for expansion — were “based on what they would mean for Wyoming as a whole and who needed it. Like mothers of children, the deaf, the blind, and the disabled.”

“Just this year, I voted for legislation that says Medicaid cannot be expanded beyond current eligibility without approval from the Legislature,” Barlow said. “As governor, my focus will be making healthcare more accessible and affordable for the people of Wyoming and keeping healthcare available in our rural communities."

On his campaign website, Barlow adds that he advocates for “exploring partnerships to address housing and other community opportunities.”

Low-income housing projects have been a particular area of focus and criticism for Bextel. She argues that those and other government-funded projects — such as grants awarded by the Business Council — unfairly benefit a select few.

“I have definitively proved in Jackson Hole, in a low-income apartment scam, where you can have $475,000 in assets and move into low-income housing,” Bextel said. “I’m apparently the only one who ever read the rules.”

Checkgate

For many voters, the first time they heard of Bextel may have been in connection with the “Checkgate” saga that dominated the Legislature’s 2026 Budget Session. The controversy erupted after a Democratic lawmaker shared a photograph of Bextel handing a $1,500 check to state Rep. Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs, on the House floor, after the body had adjourned for the day. The check — and others that were provided to three other conservative lawmakers in the House — came from a donor in Teton County.

Lawmakers later issued a report saying that the conduct was “undesirable and must never occur again,” but Bextel continues to defend her actions.

“My whole thing was, where was I supposed to find Rep. Darin McCann? In his hotel room that night? Wouldn’t that have been a story,” Bextel said. “His desk is the capitol.”

She also criticized media coverage of the case, saying she was “very much defamed,” and criticized the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office’s reportedly ongoing criminal probe into the incident.

Government help and cuts

Bextel told the audience she grew up poor in Alabama before building successful businesses in Jackson. Having known what it’s like to, say, have a credit card declined at the grocery store, Bextel said she wants to do what she can as governor to help people. While she doesn’t support “handouts,” she voiced support for aiding those with disabled children, describing it as “the only Democrat, left-leaning thing you might ever hear me say.”

It’s an issue close to Bextel’s heart, as one of her daughters has a rare, significant disability.

“I believe that we should help those that cannot help themselves,” Bextel said. “Why do we always have money for the consultant studies? We got money for the developers. We got money for all the freebies, but we can't help the disabled people …”

In general, Bextel said her budget recommendations would feature reductions, starting with less money for consultants. Bextel suggested that having fewer people working for the state government and producing things instead could boost Wyoming’s gross domestic product.

One attendee suggested cutting the budget for the University of Wyoming, but Bextel said she is “trying to stay away from the university.”

“I think that one of the reasons the Freedom Caucus just got handed [a loss] is now the message is, ‘They’re trying to take money from your kids’ education,’” Bextel said.

She said that the message was wrong, arguing the caucus was simply questioning why the university had requested a budget increase in the face of declining enrollment.

While Bextel also questioned UW’s request, “I’m trying to stay away from that,” she said, adding, “Trust me, I will do the right thing.”

An ‘imploded’ GOP

Barlow, who’s seen as a more moderate or traditional Republican, appeared to be among those who benefited from the primary election’s anti-Freedom Caucus flavor.

The sitting state senator from Gillette won August’s three-way Republican primary by collecting about 45% of the vote. Barlow bested two candidates who were seen as more conservative: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder — who had the backing of President Donald Trump — and Cody veteran Brent Bien, who received 29.6% and 23.6%, respectively.

Bextel had said she would support either Degenfelder or Bien if they won, and called it sad that the two split votes. Had Republicans elected her as the state chairman last year over Bryan Miller, Bextel said she would have gotten Bien and Degenfelder together and said, “We’re not getting out of this room till one of you drops out, or we’re going to have Eric Barlow.”

She argued that the Wyoming Republican Party has “imploded” and that it may not be hard for GOP voters to look past her Constitutional Party label. Former Wyoming Republican Party Chair Frank Eathorne endorsed Bextel over the weekend.

Bextel also warned last month that people would spread lies and potentially even kill her ahead of the election, telling the Cody audience that “an entire way of life of corporate enrichment is on the table right now.”

Bextel faces both Barlow and Democrat Kenneth Casner in the Nov. 3 general election.

She is set to return to Park County next week — hosting a town hall at the Powell Library from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 24, followed by a stop at Rocky Mountain Manor from 12:30-2 p.m.