After electing state Rep. David Northrup (R-Powell) to five terms in the Wyoming House, Republican voters opted to part ways with him on Tuesday.

Of the more than 2,000 Republicans who voted in the House District 25 race, over 60% cast their ballots for challenger Paul Hoeft, putting him on track to become the Powell area’s next representative.

“I’m, of course, saddened to see I lost the race,” Northrup said Wednesday morning, “but the electorate has spoken.”

Hoeft received 1,251 votes, according to unofficial results, comfortably ahead of Northrup’s 808-vote total (39.2%).

“I thought it was going to be a little closer than it was, but … I had a lot of really great people come out of the woodwork to help me,” Hoeft said Wednesday, calling the experience “very humbling.”

He ran as a “dyed-in-the-wool conservative” who’s been bothered by what he’s seen from the state government and by rising property taxes.

“I think some of the things that I talked about in my campaign struck a chord and it resonated with the folks,” Hoeft said.

The longtime auto service technician said he and others like himself want to take the state in a more conservative direction, which he described as “returning to our roots.”

Hoeft added that the battles in last winter’s Budget Session seemed to reflect “a tremendous power struggle.”

“Even in our local Republican Party, there’s far too much infighting, and I think people were wary of that,” he said. “So they’re looking for a change, and that’s why we saw a shift.”

At the start of his campaign, Hoeft pledged to “try and stay away from any kind of negative campaigning.” However, a number of independent, outside groups aggressively went after Northrup. The incumbent said he “strongly” believes the negative mailers and messages played a role in his loss, adding that “almost all of it is not true.”

For example, Northrup took issue with a line in a mailer sent by Park County Patriots that said he voted “against lowering property taxes.”

“That’s just nuts,” Northrup said, noting that, while he opposed some approaches to tax relief, he voted in favor of several others.

He was also targeted by slick mailers from Make Liberty Win, a Virginia-based group. One asserted that Northrup had a “radical gender agenda” that includes “allowing men in women’s sports” — even though the lawmaker played a critical role in advancing a 2023 bill that bans transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

“That’s what happens when what they call ‘dark money’ comes into politics,” Northrup said, “and we get to see out-of-state money influencing what’s happening in Wyoming politics.”

He added that, if he’d been in Hoeft’s stead, he would have disavowed some of the outside groups’ tactics.

Hoeft noted that he had no control over those messages. At an Aug. 5 debate, he admonished voters to do their own homework instead of relying on mailers and statements by the candidates.

Hoeft said he questioned some of the information put out during the campaign, but in many cases, whether they were accurate “depended on your view of things.” He also questioned their effectiveness.

“I’m sure some of those negative ads can sway some people,” Hoeft said, “but by and large, most of the people in the primary I find to be very engaged, and they’re not easily swayed by those things.”

In his view, the state’s overall election and his race “went towards folks that were very engaged and were very concerned about the direction we're going,” Hoeft said.

Northrup represented House District 50 from 2013 through 2020, when he made an unsuccessful bid for Senate District 18. Voters then returned Northrup to the Legislature in 2022, in the newly redrawn HD 25. Campaign finance reports show he raised $22,050 to Hoeft’s $3,070.

Following Tuesday’s night’s loss, Northrup said he got up Wednesday and went back to work on his Willwood farm, adding, “I now have my winters freed up.”

He wished Hoeft good luck.