Park County Republicans elected a new slate of party leaders this week, who called for moving beyond internal squabbles and focusing on growing the party.

New Chairman Vince Vanata of Cody said the local Republican Party has “led the charge on a variety of issues throughout the state” and “we need to continue that momentum by being effective, by being bold and by having an informed central committee.”

Vanata later noted that there are differences among the 80-plus members of the party’s governing body, but said they need to capitalize on the things they all agree on.

“I believe it’s important that we all work together,” he said, “and under my leadership, I believe that we will be able to do that.”

Division within the GOP — generally between the party’s more conservative and moderate factions — is nothing new, and past officer elections featured similar calls for unity. But Monday’s elections followed errors that derailed the party’s nominees to replace former Park County Assessor Pat Meyer and belated notices that forced the officer elections to be postponed for a couple of weeks.

Outgoing Chairman Martin Kimmet, of Clark, who’d led the party since 2017, told the body that he’d “made many mistakes” during his tenure “but I was humbled to have served you.”

Just before handing the reins over to Vanata, Kimmet added that he “would like if we can all get together, move this party forward, put past differences aside.”

The two men had recently sparred over the way Kimmet handled the process of selecting potential replacements for Meyer, who retired mid-term. After Kimmet and others discovered that three ballots had been miscounted during the party’s nomination process, Park County commissioners decided to turn the decision over to a judge; she then passed over the party’s three nominees and picked Deputy Assessor Terry Call.

Vanata, who was then state committeeman, faulted Kimmet for not involving the rest of the party’s officers, while Kimmet suggested the other officers should have provided more help.

Kimmet will continue serving the body, as he was chosen as the next state committeeman; he turned back a challenge from former party Chair Larry French of Powell by a vote of 47-34.

Jimmy Parks of Cody ran against Vanata, falling by a 45-36 vote. Parks said he believed the “goofiness” that led to the March 13 officer elections being postponed at the last minute could have been avoided if the executive board had been on the same page — and he said that “we should be able to work together.”

Beyond causing issues internally, Parks suggested that the conflict keeps some people away from the party.

“I think if we can get rid of some of the drama that goes on, that we can be more effective and we can start pulling those people [in],” he said.

Bob Ferguson of Meeteetse, who was reelected as vice chair, similarly said he’d like the party to do more outreach to those outside their regular meeting attendees. That included calling for a reinvigorated party presence on social media.

“I think it’s so important in this day and age to get our message out to the rest of the people,” Ferguson said, remarking earlier that, “right now we’re kind of our own echo chamber.”

He also noted that there are splits among Republicans at the state government level.

“So I think having division is something to be accepted, but we can do it with civility,” Ferguson said.

He defeated a challenge from former Chair Tim Mahieu of Cody, 46-35.

New State Committeewoman Nicole Forsberg of Clark also hit on the theme of working together, pledging to be “positive and unifying.” The body elected Forsberg over incumbent Karen Jones of Cody by a vote of 55-26.

Meanwhile, Lia Tracy of Cody was unanimously elected as the party’s next secretary and Renee Alphin of Cody was unanimously reelected as treasurer.

As for his goals as chairman, Vanata said he’d like to offer more training opportunities on everything from Robert’s Rules of Order to get-out-the-vote efforts; set up every-other-month luncheons with guest speakers; sponsor a Turning Point USA chapter to engage young Republicans; and create a plan for the 2026 elections.

Party members opened their meeting with a moment of silence for former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson of Cody and Gene Spiering of Powell. Both men, who died last month, were members of the party’s central committee.