Rachel Rodriguez-Williams

Following a contentious primary campaign, Republicans in House District 50 decisively voted to return Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R-Cody) to the Wyoming Legislature.

According to unofficial results, Rodriguez-Williams collected 1,778 votes (62.4%) to defeat challenger David Hill (1,060 votes, 37.2%) in Tuesday’s Republican primary. Although she’ll face voters again in November’s general election, Rodriguez-Williams appears destined for a third term in the House, as there are no other declared candidates.

“I’m super excited to be able to serve again for two more years, and I’m just humbled by the fact that the people of House District 50 trust me and they’ve given me the opportunity to represent them again in the people’s house,” Rodriguez-Williams said Wednesday.

She’s a founding member of the more conservative Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which saw significant gains in Tuesday’s Republican primary. Rodriguez-Williams described it as “a huge movement towards electing conservatives.”

“I think that the people are awake and they’re following state politics more closely,” she said, “and they’re interested in being represented by legislators that are willing to work for them and not special interest groups.”

While several area races were hard-fought, the HD 50 race got particularly chippy. For example, at a debate earlier this month, Hill charged that Rodriguez-Williams was doing the bidding of out-of-state interests while she charged that the attorney was only looking “to advance his career.”

The contest also drew a significant amount of interest from outside political groups. Several launched attacks on Rodriguez-Williams. The Wyoming Way PAC, for example, sent text messages calling the lawmaker “anti-business,” “anti-veteran” and “anti-Wyoming.”

On Wednesday, Rodriguez-Williams expressed frustration with the “false information” in the race, giving the anti-veteran allegation as an example. The charge stemmed from her opposition to creating a $40 million trust fund for a state-run suicide hotline. However, Rodriguez-Williams said that, while she opposed the creation of a “slush fund” for the 988 hotline, she voted to directly fund the call center and noted that it’s just one part of the state’s suicide prevention efforts.

“I think that what we saw [in] this campaign was a lot of twisted messaging,” she said.

Asked for his take on the negativity in the race, Hill said that “outside groups are definitely hurting Wyoming.”

And for his part, he expressed frustration with Rodriguez-Williams calling him a “Cheney Republican,” charging that she “kept telling that lie up through election night.” (At this month’s debate, Hill said he did not support then-U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney in 2022 and voted for current U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman.)

Hill also extended congratulations to Rodriguez-Williams and wished her “nothing but the best, because I want to see Wyoming prosper.”

“... I hope the Legislature can overcome some of the divisiveness that we’ve seen and work towards solving real problems in conservative, responsible ways,” he said in a text. “I hope she goes back to some of her pre-Legislature roots and actually does something to help address mental health in Wyoming.”

(At the debate, Rodriguez-Williams said she supports mental health care and defended her record, also noting her past work in suicide prevention.)

Hill significantly outraised the incumbent, according to campaign finance reports. While Rodriguez-Williams received $19,521, Hill collected $33,847 — including $15,000 from several political action committees around Wyoming.

While the candidates and outside organizations spent tens of thousands of dollars on mailers, ads, texts and other campaign techniques, Rodriguez-Williams indicated that the voters of her district did their own research, including by directly reaching out to her with questions.

“Voters were engaged,” she said, adding, “They were educated. They did their homework.”