Dalton Banks

Timothy Mills

Gary Welch

Tim Beck

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Rep. Jaimie Flitner, R-Greybull, who served in House District 26 since 2017, is not seeking a third term, and four Republican candidates have stepped up to fill the open seat. 

Dalton Banks, who works for the Town of Cowley, retired U.S. Air Force veteran Timothy Mills, Big Horn County Republican Chairman Gary Welch, and Lovell rancher Tim Beck have all filed to run in the district race. 

Banks was born and raised in Cowley. At his current job, he’s a public works operator, but he has previously worked in ranching and farming, as well as at Northwest College.

At the center of his candidacy, he said, is a desire to ensure agriculture, education, and small businesses in the community have the support they need from the state and county governments. 

“We need to make sure that resources allocated by the state or county sustain these,” Banks said. 

Dalton said he’s been contacted by elected officials and people in the community who encouraged him to run for Flitner’s former spot. 

“The people called, and I answered,” Banks said. 

Banks had previously run for Big Horn County Commissioner, in a race with a dozen candidates, losing to Dave Neves and Felix Carrizales. As a younger candidate in that race, Banks ran on a platform that argued he would bring a younger, fresher voice to the commission. 

“Instead of sitting back and letting others make decisions that will affect my generation, I decided that I would step up,” Banks wrote on a social media post for that campaign. 

Gary Welch wants to bring experience in law enforcement and a commitment to conservative values to the position. He said he’s been contemplating running for the position for the past four years. During that time, he said, he’s been discussing issues in the district with area legislators and how to address the problems. 

“I know some of the problems that need to be taken care of,” Welch said.

Welch said he has always been active in the communities he’s lived in. Besides chairing the Big Horn County Republican Party, he said he was active in the party in Utah when he lived there for a time. 

“I fight to protect our rights, and I stand solid for the party platform,” Welch said. 

In the U.S. Army, Welch served in military intelligence. He’s a former highway patrolman and was previously the chief of police for Byron. He currently works as an operator in Yellowstone, maintaining the highways that run through the park.

“I see what we need to do in Wyoming,” Welch said. 

Timothy Mills said that in the U.S. Air Force and Army National Guard he served in leadership positions, and throughout his career in construction, he held many supervisory positions. This background, he said, will grant him the skills needed to be effective in the Wyoming Legislature. 

Mills supports the Convention of States Project, which seeks to bring about an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will restrict federal spending, limit the federal government’s power, and impose term limits on its officials and members of Congress.

Mills said the government overreach, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, raised his concern about the problem. The vaccine mandates are particularly troubling for him. 

“Even though I am vaccinated, I … disapprove of them making it mandatory,” Mills said. 

Mills ran against Flitner in 2016, coming in second in a three-way primary, with nearly 21% of the vote. 

“I believe I offer proactive leadership, decision making abilities and the dedication it takes for this job,” he said on a social media campaign page for that race. 

Mills was born in Basin and currently lives in Shell. With the exception of his four years in the Air Force, he’s lived in Wyoming his whole life. 

Tim Beck, a Lovell rancher, is running on a platform with four core principles: honesty, integrity, loyalty and wisdom.

“My core belief is absolute honesty, painful as it may be sometimes. If we acknowledge the raw truth, then we can set about solving the problem,” Beck states on his website. 

Beck explained in a March profile that he believes government regulations have “stymied a lot of the creative processes in our society.” He aims to return to citizens the responsibility and privilege of taking care of themselves.

Beck has been involved with the Big Horn County and Wyoming Farm Bureau for the past 20 years — which got him interested in state policy — alongside roughly 30 years volunteering with Big Horn County Search and Rescue and 20 years of service on the Big Horn County Weed and Pest board.

Beck was raised in Basin and attended Northwest College, where he played basketball. He graduated from Valley City State University in North Dakota and obtained his master’s degree in education from Wayne State College in Nebraska.

For the past 15 years, he’s run the family’s ranching operation, raising Angus cattle and Boer goats.

The four candidates will square off on the Aug. 16 primary ballot, with the winner in that race running unopposed in the November general election.