Bitter infighting between more moderate and more conservative Republican lawmakers cast a pall over much of last winter’s budget session. The battle spilled into campaign season, where legislative candidates and outside groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars blasting one another with a steady stream of negative messaging.

But now that Republican voters have spoken — broadly endorsing a set of more conservative representatives in the Aug. 20 primary — there are hopes that the 2025 Legislative Session will represent more of a reset than a reload for another round of fighting.

Powell Republican Paul Hoeft, who is set to become the next representative in House District 25, said he and other conservatives were wary of the infighting within the GOP and wanted change.

“There’s still going to be those differences [in the Legislature],” said Hoeft, who bested more moderate state Rep. David Northrup (R-Powell), “but I’m hoping that we can get to some common ground instead of ‘who’s in charge.’”

Sen. Tim French (R-Powell), another member of the more conservative camp, said he felt the Legislature’s more moderate leaders played “power games” on budget negotiations and other topics last session. But if his camp gains more influence in the 68th Legislature, French said their focus will be on producing good legislation — not turning the tables on the moderates.

“We’re going to do our darndest to stop the fighting and the bickering and the whatever,” French said after last month’s election, “because the people have elected everybody in the state, all 93 of us, to go down there and do good work for them — not to go down there and fling mud at each other and fighting, power struggles and all that.”

Whether next year’s session will represent an improvement remains to be seen. Although the Senate hasn’t formally fallen into competing caucuses like the House, the upper chamber appears set to remain fairly split between more moderate and more conservative lawmakers, with conservatives potentially holding a narrow edge.

“It will make for a contentious at least next two years,” said Sen. Ed Cooper (R-Ten Sleep), who fended off a more conservative challenger in the last month’s primary.

Freedom Caucus picks up wins

The balance of power within the Legislature won’t be settled until November’s general election, as there are several contested races on the ballot. But barring some upsets, lawmakers aligned with the further right Wyoming Freedom Caucus are poised to take control of the House while more conservative members could continue to hold a slim majority in the Senate.

If that happens, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R-Cody), said it would represent “an excellent opportunity for Wyoming to see what it’s like when conservatives have the majority and we’re able to really carry out the appropriate role of government.”

“We want to bring real change to the people, but also appropriately fund, you know, our law enforcement, our public schools, … our infrastructure and water,” said Rodriguez-Williams, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.

The caucus has called last month’s results “an unmistakable mandate” for conservatives. In total, 32 of the 46 legislative candidates endorsed by the group won their Republican primaries last month — including French, Hoeft, Rodriguez-Williams and House District 24 contender Nina Webber.

Lopsided funding

The four local candidates weren’t underdogs, but they were heavily outspent. Between them, Webber, Rodriguez-Williams, Hoeft and French spent just under $31,000 on their campaigns. That was about a third of the roughly $93,675 spent by their four opponents, who each had support from Gov. Mark Gordon and his Prosperity and Commerce Political Action Committee (PAC), among others. Of the 49 Republicans promoted by the governor’s committee, 19 won their races.

Of course, the candidates’ campaign finance reports don’t paint a complete picture, as they don’t include the tens of thousands of dollars that independent political groups spent on filling Wyoming voters’ mailboxes, computer screens and phones with campaign messages. For example, the Virginia-based Make America Win PAC reported spending $5,870 on mailers, calls and texts attacking Northrup and promoting Hoeft — more than Hoeft himself spent on his campaign.

Make America Win was just one of several groups to get involved in the local races, but the others generally didn’t specify how much money they spent on each contest, making it impossible to calculate the total amount of cash poured into the four Park County contests. For example, the Lingle-based Wyoming Way PAC — which targeted Rodriguez-Williams and Webber with negative texts — simply reported spending $87,800 to oppose 14 candidates around the state.

Shifting more right

Beyond the wins collected by conservative candidates, Hoeft suggested the election and negative campaigning could prompt some incumbent lawmakers to also shift to the right.

“I think maybe some of the moderates may be more emboldened to be a little bit more conservative,” Hoeft said, “because it can be pretty daunting; there’s a lot of negative stuff out there.”

He described the shift as stemming from Wyomingites seeing things at the national level and in other states “not going so well, and we’d like to insulate ourselves from that.”

Rodriguez-Williams similarly said that voters “want to preserve Wyoming” and want results.

“... the public statewide said, ‘Yep, let’s go conservative here,’ but they're also watching,” French said, predicting many of the lawmakers will be voted out “if we don’t produce.”

“We’ve been given a big opportunity by the people,” he said, “and we don’t intend to squander it.”