The billboards first started showing up in Cheyenne around last fall, put up by a group called Honor Wyoming. They were designed with a Western rodeo motif that chide some legislators as rodeo “clowns” and praise others as “top hands” based on their voting records.
By the time the 2024 legislative session rolled around, the group’s efforts were in full swing, flooding Facebook with advertisements taking positions on certain hot-button bills, and at times pushing misleading information about them.
The group also had a few lobbyists working the halls of the Wyoming Capitol during the last legislative session and in attendance at a February meeting of the Wyoming Republican Party in Lovell.
As first reported by the Jackson Hole News and Guide, the group spent more than $81,000 in the past six months on a social media campaign, according to a Meta report on advertisements on the platform.
What Do They Say
The group’s website proclaims on its header that Wyoming has a “political integrity problem.”
It’s a common theme espoused among some of the more conservative political circles in Wyoming that some Republican legislators are not adhering to the party’s platform with their votes.
Whether or not this is the case is a matter of opinion, but the group ranked all 93 members of the state Legislature on a scale having low, questionable or high integrity based on their adherence to the U.S. and Wyoming constitutions and their adherence to party platforms.
State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, was branded as a “low integrity” clown by the group. It’s a call-out not unlike that used by other shadowy conservative ranking sites like WyoRino.com, which labels legislators it doesn’t like as “RINOs,” a phrase meaning Republican on name only. WyoRino has so far been anonymous without anyone claiming to be behind the group despite numerous Cowboy State Daily requests for more information.
“The sites do nothing more than attempt to divide us instead of unite us,” Brown said. “While I recognize their points of view, it’s unfortunate to cherry-pick bills, mischaracterize votes and spread anger about our politicians who are trying to represent their people just as much as anyone else is.”
Who’s Behind It?
The Honor Wyoming website lists Jimmy Anderson and Kerry Powers as among the group’s “leadership” on its about us tab. Each is identified as a “board member.”
In a nonprofit tax filing form submitted for Honor Wyoming Inc. on Tuesday with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office, some valuable information about who’s behind the group appeared.
Its lead officer or director is listed as John Guido. In another document, Guido is listed as the executive director of the group. A search of two popular databases, Whitepages and Spokeo, show nobody in Wyoming named John Guido.
According to the Idaho Capital Sun, a man named John Guido helped orchestrate extremely similar political campaigns in Idaho in 2022 for a group known as Citizens Alliance of Idaho.
The Idaho group’s tactics run on a playbook similar to Honor Wyoming, featuring a slick website with modern graphics and beautiful landscape photos, with a stated goal of striving for political integrity. Even a video featured on the website follows a nearly identical script to one on Honor Wyoming’s, narrated by a similar gravelly-voiced cowboy persona.
Guido and his wife were listed as two of the three directors of this group, according to the Capital Sun.
He was also listed as a director for an organization called Respect Idaho that had addresses listed in Sacramento, California, according to filing documents. A section of the Citizen Alliance website lists Respect Wyoming as one of its authors.
Guido declined an opportunity to speak directly with Cowboy State Daily for this story after being contacted by someone else on behalf of the news organization.
The tax filing for Honor Wyoming also lists Anderson, Powers and Blair Maus as its officers. Powers and his late wife Clara chaired former Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill's campaign for her 2014 gubernatorial run.
According to Laramie County assessor documents, the Cheyenne address associated with the organization belongs to Kevin Lewis, one of the lead staffers under former Superintendent Hill.
Lewis is a managing member of Fidelity Registered Agents LLC along with attorney Drake Hill, husband of the former Wyoming schools head.
When Lewis was asked by Cowboy State Daily if Drake Hill, who James has been involved with in various conservative causes over the years, is working with Honor Wyoming, Lewis responded that, “I’m not going to answer that question.”
Similarly, Maus has been associated with a number of conservative-leaning causes in Teton County, such as an effort to block what she and others see as an ongoing attempt by the town of Jackson to shut down its rodeo grounds in favor of affordable housing. This is a cause Honor Wyoming has also taken up in various ad campaigns.
An email obtained by Cowboy State Daily sent out by Honor Wyoming, organizer Rebecca Bextel shows the extent of the group’s efforts on multiple platforms. In her email, Bextel says Honor Wyoming helped generate nearly 2,000 emails from constituents to Wyoming legislators during the legislative session, and more than 6,000 people have joined its mailing list.
On a local level, Bextel said the group generated more than 3,000 emails to the Jackson Town Council, which she referred to as “socialist.” She also criticized her local Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, who she called “a wolf in sheep's clothing” for not being a true Republican in her mind.
According to Facebook ad data, Honor Wyoming has split its ad campaigns between two groups, Honor Wyoming Inc. and Honor Wyoming Foundation, with the Inc. source making most Facebook payments.
Why It Matters
Some of Honor Wyoming’s ads were viewed by as many as 500,000 times, according to the Facebook data.
Brown said that when groups like Honor Wyoming are spreading misinformation without a clear source behind it, it creates a concerning dynamic. Although Honor Wyoming’s actions are clearly political in nature, it hasn’t registered as a political action committee, which is required for all electioneering activity in Wyoming.
“The vast majority of people in the state of Wyoming don’t hang in politics the way some of us do, and these ads and campaigns do nothing to advance cohesion except for one point of view, and that is not what our country was founded on,” Brown said.
Lewis compares his group’s efforts to Wyoming Gun Owners, a Second Amendment group that was sued by the former Wyoming secretary of state for failing to file as a PAC for a radio ad. The group subsequently won the case.
“They’re just doing the freedom of speech thing, and I don’t see any problem with that,” he said.
But Lewis said it’s because of lawsuits like these that makes groups like Honor Wyoming reticent to disclose the identity of people working for and donating to them. He mentioned how other groups like the National Rifle Association often protect its members’ identities.
Lewis also said he doesn’t know who runs Honor Wyoming, although he has met Guido and spoken with him on the phone.
Otherwise, “I’m clueless,” he said.
Lewis was an unpaid lobbyist for the group during the 2024 legislative session and registered with the Secretary of State’s office for it. He wouldn’t disclose who’s paying for the Honor Wyoming efforts or who signed him up to lobby. Lewis said given his past political activities, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that he’s involved with the group.
“Everybody knows I lean in that direction,” he said with a laugh.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
