Fremont County Republicans Boot Chairman Over Poll Watchers, Critical Letters

The chairman of the Fremont County Republican Party has been booted from his leadership position.

Scott Harnsberger, a former Fremont County treasurer who was elected chairman of the county Republican Party in 2023, was voted out by a 23-12 margin Tuesday night.

“I was basically fired by the party,” he said.

The biggest reasons why Harnsberger was removed as chairman were for letters to the editor he wrote criticizing certain local Republican candidates for not participating in a few debates, and his failure to assign GOP poll watchers to Fremont County for the primary election.

In his letter to the editor, Harnsberger noted that Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, and House candidates Tina Clifford and Joel Guggenmos refused to participate in a League of Women Voters debate. He also expressed concern they wouldn't listen to voters once elected.

“I have never seen a group of individuals running for office that were ‘too conservative’ to answer questions in front of voters about education funding, property tax reform, rural healthcare and state spending!” he wrote in a July 22 letter to the editor published by Cowboy State Daily

It was Ottman who made the motion to remove Harnsberger, who left the meeting after being removed.

Fremont County Vice Chair Ginger Bennett, the most recent former chair of the party, took over as chair and ran the meeting after Harnsberger was removed.

Ottman and Bennett did not respond to Cowboy State Daily’s requests for comment.

Harnsberger, who also served as the county party chair in the late 1990s, said that while he’s disappointed, he doesn’t regret voicing his opinion and has “respect for people who get involved in the process and make things happen when they want to happen.”

“Even though I may not agree with it, it’s the process,” he said. “If you get elected as a precinct person you need to show up.”

Political Winds

Harnsberger believes his ouster was politically motivated, but added “that’s politics” and “that’s just the way it goes.”

He beat Bennett in their county party’s 2023 leadership election, a win that was part of a small wave of more moderate to center Republicans who took back GOP leadership positions that spring.

Bennett and the four candidates are aligned with the more conservative wing of the party.

Although Harnsberger admitted he’s less likely to support Republican hardline conservative candidates like these and those associated with the hardline conservative Wyoming Freedom Caucus, he still would be likely to vote for them in a general election setting.

Called Out For Debates

The Fremont County lawmakers Harnsberger criticized had said they wouldn’t participate in the debates out of concern for certain political stances the League has taken, which they say oppose their conservative values. The League of Women Voters chapter in Fremont County teamed up with the Fremont County Democratic and Republican parties for this event.

“We are not confident that the League is nonpartisan as the League claims,” a letter to the group put out in a Riverton Ranger newspaper ad in July. “We will engage in other organized forums this election year.”

Harnsberger said the letters he wrote in opposition to the group’s stance on the debates were viewed by some members of the party as his endorsement for their Republican opponents in the primary election. Political parties are traditionally not allowed to support candidates in their primary elections, but that tradition has been ignored with increasing frequency in recent years.

“My whole goal was to get candidates out in front of Republican voters to help us make up our minds on who we want to support,” he said.

Low Participation

Harnsberger said he could not recall a time when a sitting chair had been removed from their position.

He also pointed out that only about 30% of the party’s more than 90 precinct committee members were present at the meeting to participate in the vote.

“The folks that supported the Freedom Caucus candidates, the precinct people, showed up, they made sure their people were there,” Harnsberger said. “They went through a process and basically got what they wanted.”

A similarly low rate of turnout was seen in the August primary election, where Freedom Caucus members made enough gains where they are nearly guaranteed to take over a majority in the Wyoming House.

Harnsberger takes a similar lesson from both elections.

“There’s a group of individuals that are participating at every opportunity in the political process and the majority of people are not,” he said. “The people that show up get things done. That’s just the way the process works, if you don’t show up you may not get what you want.”

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.