Republican legislative primary outside Cheyenne reflects Wyoming GOP’s divide

A primary election in southeast Wyoming symbolizes much of the turmoil within the state’s Republican Party, as one candidate hews to more moderate politics while the other bends toward the far right.

The candidates for House District 43 in Laramie County are nearly 20-year incumbent Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) and challenger Ann Lucas, who was endorsed by the Freedom Caucus.

Both see their candidacy as needed.

“I really just keep thinking that I’m done and I want to get on with my life, but I know who will replace me, and I just am not going to subject my constituents or Wyoming to more ignorance,” Zwonitzer said in a Cheyenne coffee shop.

Lucas answered questions via email, citing time constraints, but was offered an in-person interview.

“I am worried about the Wyoming we are leaving to our children and grandchildren,” Lucas wrote. “My husband and I are retired and I have the skillset, interest and time to dedicate to this. I don’t believe a citizen legislature should be a lifelong career.”

Zwontizer was one of the youngest people elected to the Wyoming Legislature when he first won in 2004, and is now one the most tenured in the statehouse at age 44. Formerly a Laramie County Community College faculty member, Zwonitzer recently started working with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming.

Cheyenne-born, he told WyoFile that some of his legislative priorities are supporting the mineral and legacy industries that Wyoming’s state budget relies on for revenue, addressing Wyoming’s high health care costs and ensuring access to quality health care. Having worked at a hospital and now in insurance, he feels he’s seen both sides of the equation. He also chairs the House Labor, Health & Social Services Committee.

“If you can’t pay your health care premiums, you can’t find good health care, and you lose the hospital, it’s over,” he said. “We’re really at the precipice, we will lose a hospital. And I don’t think people realize how dire it is.”

Lucas is originally from Chicago, and says she didn’t move here with the Air Force in 2002 to change the state, but instead liked it here and decided to stay. She’s a retired vice president of a local credit union, an industry she worked in for 40 years, she states on her website.

Her legislative priorities include: standing up to federal overreach, property tax reduction, reducing the rate of government spending growth and establishing electronic voting in the House and Senate “so all legislative votes are recorded.”

Lucas didn’t answer whether she’d join the Freedom Caucus upon election, but said, “I’ve made no secret of my conservative beliefs … I know of no voters who favor protecting parents’ rights, children’s safety, and our God given rights, who disagree with the bills our conservative legislators have attempted to pass, whether they are Wyoming Freedom Caucus members or not.”

Lay of the land

House District 43 covers an area in Laramie County southeast of Cheyenne, including a corner of the city. With about 9,500 residents, population density is low in the district — like much of Wyoming — with large-lot subdivisions, according to Justin Arnold, the Laramie County planning and development program manager.

“[House District 43 is] pretty sparsely populated, so rural residential would be most of your electorate in that area,” he said.

The area, which already faces water and sewer constraints, is also home to large industrial developments, including the Cowboy Solar Project and a Microsoft data center campus.

There were 3,149 registered voters in that district as of July 18, with 76% registered as Republican. Registered Democrats and unaffiliated accounted for about 12% and 10% of voters, respectively. (Other minority parties make up the rest.)

The race

While Zwonitzer’s run in the House has been long, the margins on his recent wins have been tight. In 2022, he won his primary race by 171 votes. Back in 2020, he won by just 149 votes.

If those previous challenges are any indication, he likely has a fight on his hands this year, especially against Lucas. The Freedom Caucus has had an increasing pull in Wyoming with around 10 new legislative members voted in during the 2022 election, according to the caucus’ chair Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette).

Their membership grew enough to block bills from being introduced in the House during the budget session this year — a power it wielded several times.

Zwonitzer says the Freedom Caucus isn’t knowledgeable enough about how state government runs, pushing ideological bills that are poorly written or ignore long-term challenges in the state. If fellow Republicans vote against their bills, the Freedom Caucus can exploit that in their next election bid.

“I think [that] is really the most dangerous thing we’ve seen in Wyoming in 50 years, is just having this new group of legislators who are bent on tearing government down and keeping people angry,” he said. “[Lucas] is just part of this kind of growing cancer of the Freedom Caucus that wants to talk about the same four social issues and be on the attack.”

When asked about criticisms that the Legislature focuses too much on national hot-button issues and too little on local concerns that affect the majority of Wyoming residents, Lucas turned to the handling of COVID-19, vaccine mandates and “adult level sexual material” in school libraries.

She felt these are both national and local issues that affect Wyoming businesses, schools and kids.

“Wyoming workers lost jobs and suffered financially. Wyoming businesses closed and never reopened,” she said. “Wyoming children have suffered declining test scores. That is as local as it gets.”

And as for her comparatively new status as a legislative contender, Lucas said she has what it takes.

“I think if government is so complex that someone with a business and accounting degree can’t understand it, that means government has already grown beyond its intended scope and size,” she said. “I am well suited to the Legislature and have skills and experience far greater than that of my opponent when he was first elected [at age 22].”

Gender identity

On her campaign website, Lucas said, “[Critical Race Theory] and sexual and gender identity-based education in our schools are some of the biggest evils our children face, and I will write the bill to put a stop to it.”

“Men are now taking women’s sports titles, scholarships, and even invading women’s spaces like the sorority at University of Wyoming,” she told WyoFile.

When asked what a bill that ends education on facets of racism and gender would entail, she reiterated her stance in opposition to gender identity as a social movement and critical race theory. Previously, Wyoming Freedom Caucus members tried and failed to pass legislation banning schools from teaching critical race theory. Zwonitzer was one of 24 nays that killed the bill.

The only openly gay member of the Wyoming Legislature, Zwonitzer has a track record of opposing bills affecting the LGBTQ community. This year, however, he voted in favor of a bill that banned most forms of gender-affirming care for children, excluding therapy.

After a failed attempt to amend the legislation championed by the Freedom Caucus, he ultimately voted yes. The bill largely went after gender-affirming surgeries for minors, which don’t happen in the state, he reasoned.

“It was against the medical code, it would never happen in Wyoming as it was,” Zwonitzer said. “But again, it’s something we can get everybody angry about and push.”

Still, he acknowledged that some children who were on puberty blockers wouldn’t be able to use that treatment anymore — unless they receive it from an out-of-state provider.

Abortion and other topics

Both Lucas and Zwonitzer oppose abortion under most circumstances. Still, Zwonitzer said, continuing to push bills that prohibit abortions while previous bans are tied up in court isn’t the right way to go.

“The Freedom Caucus said, ‘Oh, we have to bring a pro-life bill every year,’” Zwonitzer said. “By them bringing another pro-life bill and us changing the whole law, it’s delayed us from actually being a pro-life state for another biennium … It is that level of insanity that you say you want to get to ‘X,’ but all of your actions are really just a campaign ploy.”

When asked about what she’d want to do as a legislator in regards to abortion access as bans are tied up in court, Lucas reiterated her stance opposing abortions, supporting pregnancy crisis centers and the availability of birth control.

Beyond policy, the candidates’ attitudes about Wyoming’s divided GOP differ too.

When asked about the rift in the statehouse between the Freedom Caucus and its moderate counterpart the Wyoming Caucus, Lucas said, “What you call a rift, I call debate.”

“That’s the entire reason for a legislature. That’s also the reason for separation of powers and federalism. Government is not supposed to be united,” she said.

For Zwonitzer, he says he’s aligned with the Wyoming Caucus, but that there’s no formal membership in the conglomeration of anti-Freedom Caucus lawmakers. Their mission is to hold the Legislature back from falling off a cliff of mismanagement, he said.

“So the hope is, either we’re gonna go over the cliff or we’ll get a couple more members and we can truly move Wyoming forward again,” he said.

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