Paul Hoeft

State Rep. Paul Hoeft planned to seek another term in the state House in this year’s elections. But when retiring Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, approached Hoeft late in the winter Budget Session and asked if he’d be willing to serve as his replacement, “I didn’t hesitate,” Hoeft recalled, adding, “I felt that it was the right thing to do.”

Last week, Hoeft made the decision public, announcing that he’s running for Senate District 19. The lawmaker is set to face off with fellow Powell Republican and former state Sen. R.J. Kost in August’s primary election — along with any other GOP candidates who jump into the race.

Senate inaction

In the recent session, Hoeft said it was frustrating to watch the Senate quietly kill a number of the bills he helped pass out of the House.

“We were running their bills and they weren’t running ours,” Hoeft said, “so that didn’t seem quite right to me.”

He specifically mentioned the death of measures intended to tighten up Wyoming’s election procedures.

“Many of the folks at home, … especially in Park County here, sent us there [to Cheyenne] requesting those kinds of things — making sure that our machines are working right, and that we can also do a hand count and a wide variety of things that they were concerned about,” Hoeft said.

He also expressed support for the leaner version of the state budget that was crafted by Laursen and other members of the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee. Though the proposed cuts were eventually scrapped by a majority in the Senate, the committee draft would have removed $40 million from the University of Wyoming and eliminated the Wyoming Business Council.

Hoeft feels UW has “gotten everything they want; they lack nothing,” and said the cut represented only about 4% of its budget. As for the Business Council, he doesn’t believe taxpayer dollars should be used to stimulate the economy.

“I think we get more longevity out of it when people have their own personal money in the game,” he said.

Along those same lines, he’s wary of “constantly increasing Medicaid reimbursements” to medical providers.

“I’m a ‘privatize everything’ kind of guy,” Hoeft said. “I think the reason some things get so expensive is because they’re using other people's money to pay for it, and so there's less oversight in that.”

He said more competition is good and wants to find a way to allow residents to shop for health insurance across state lines.

Freedom Caucus member

Hoeft is a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which he describes as a fiscally conservative group of representatives who make decisions as a group. However, he emphasized that every vote is his own.

“Nobody told me how I had to vote,” Hoeft said. “Those are my votes, and I’m
responsible for those votes, and I can be called out for those votes — ‘Why did you vote a certain way?’ — and I’ll answer that question.”

Freedom Caucus members and allies currently control the House after finding broad success in the 2024 election, but their positions and tactics have also drawn criticism from some.

Kost, who hopes to reclaim the seat he lost to Laursen in 2022, has said he wants to “bring back some normalcy” to the Legislature.

Hoeft has heard similar comments and, “my interpretation of what they mean by normalcy is, ‘do what we’ve always done,’” he said. “Well, I think that we need to do something different than what we’ve been doing and right-sizing government for the size of state we have.”

He believes the state could soon be facing a budget shortfall and should focus more “on the things that we all use together.” He specifically mentioned a “desperate” need to hire more state troopers and ongoing maintenance of the state’s highways.

Hoeft also said the state should do a better job with the large amount of money it spends on education, including by shoring up career and technical education for in-demand jobs like plumbers.

“We’re always talking about keeping our young people here and I believe that would be one way to do it,” he said.

However, Hoeft is wary of the data centers popping up in the state, saying “we need to have an honest conversation about the future and where we're headed with these.”

Different constituents

Hoeft brought one bill during the Budget Session, which would have prevented taxpayer funds from being used to lobby the Legislature. The measure, which failed introduction on a 27-33 vote, came from the concerns of many constituents, he said.

In his current position in House District 25, Hoeft represents just the Powell area, but Senate District 19 also includes northern Big Horn County, covering Powell, Garland, Byron, Deaver, Frannie, Lovell, Greybull and Shell. Hoeft said he intends to listen to what folks in the eastern part of the district need.

“It will be different,” he said, “because I know lots of people in Powell, and I know just a few in Big Horn County.”

The filing period for House and Senate seats and other partisan offices runs from May 14-29, with the primary election set for Aug. 18.

(Editor's note: This version corrects the filing period.)