Guest Column: Freedom Caucus Chipping Away At What Makes Wyoming Great

When I was first elected in 2018, a few people gave me the same advice: “Welcome to the legislature. Don’t change Wyoming.”

I took that seriously. To me, it meant: don’t mess with the things that make Wyoming special.

Wyoming has a deeply rooted libertarian ethic: we value our freedoms, we value our communities, and, as we’ve been reminded over the past month, we treasure our public lands.

But the so-called “Freedom Caucus” is trying to change all of that.

Big Government, The “Freedom Caucus” Way

In 2024, the Freedom Caucus won a majority of seats in the Wyoming State House, and since then they have been slowly chipping away at the values that make Wyoming great.

Right now, the “Freedom Caucus” is busy passing laws that tell you how to go about your personal life.

They’ve passed laws that control how you parent your kids. They’ve passed laws telling your small business what it’s allowed to do. 

They are now aiming at passing laws to silence your local community elected officials – the people closest to the community – because those community members aren’t telling the Freedom Caucus what they want to hear.

This is about control. They want the government telling people how to live their lives.

Even if it doesn’t affect you directly, it still matters — because these laws affect the freedom of your neighbors, your community.

Changing the Rules to Hold Power

Over the last few years, some judges have made rulings against legislation passed by the Freedom Caucus — bills that violated our state constitution.

Based on these rulings, the Freedom Caucus now sees judges as their enemy. Now they want to rewrite the rules so they can put people on the bench who will listen to their agenda, not the Wyoming Constitution. That’s not how our system is supposed to work.

Last year, they also brought a bill (HB102) to make the Attorney General an elected position — turning a legal role into a political one.

Why? Because they didn’t like the Governor’s choices for the position. Instead of respecting the balance of power between the three branches of government, they would rather replace any branch that disagrees with them.

It’s Control, not Freedom

Wyoming has always been a place where people live and let live. We might not always agree, but we’ve respected each other’s freedom.

The Freedom Caucus uses the word ‘freedom’ to try to sell themselves to you, but their actions show the opposite. They want more control, fewer checks and balances, and less room for people to live their own lives.

Let’s Keep Wyoming Free

The Wyoming that the Freedom Caucus is trying to create is not the Wyoming I know.

We cannot let them change what Wyoming is. Wyoming’s real strength is in our freedom — not in controlling others, but in trusting people to live their lives and make their own choices.