August 20 Wyoming House of Representatives primaries taking place amidst conflict between factions in the Republican party

There are 42 contested primaries for the Wyoming House of Representatives on August 20, 2024. An incumbent is running in 33 of those primaries, and nine of those primaries are open, meaning an incumbent is not seeking re-election in those districts.

Ballotpedia identified the Republican primaries in districts 7, 9, 24, 30, 43, 50, and 57 as battleground primaries. The primaries in districts 24 and 30 are for open seats, while incumbents face primary challengers in districts 7, 9, 43, 50, and 57.

The 2024 elections are taking place in the context of a conflict among House Republicans. While 57 of 62 House members are Republican, 26 vote with the Freedom Caucus, and 12 officially identify with the Freedom Caucus. This is a significant increase from 2017 when five members identified with the Freedom Caucus. According to the Cowboy State Daily’s Lee Wolfson, “While Republicans have a supermajority in Wyoming, there’s a growing division between the Freedom Caucus and others in the party who say they’re too far right. Conversely, members of the Freedom Caucus have said these more centrist Republicans as being ‘liberals’ and couch them as adversaries who side with Democrats. There are 25-26 Republican members of the Wyoming House who are politically aligned with the Freedom Caucus. That leaves about 31 other Republicans and the five Democrats. Based on those numbers, the Freedom Caucus could gain as few as three seats to claim a majority of the Republican seats in the House. It would have to gain at least five or six seats to take a full majority.”

According to WyoFile’s Maya Shimizu Harris, “In recent years, Republicans in Wyoming’s GOP-dominated Legislature have calcified into two distinct factions. That’s particularly the case in the House of Representatives where, last year, a group of lawmakers called the Wyoming Freedom Caucus staked their claim after partnering with a Washington, D.C.-based organization — the State Freedom Caucus Network — that aims to establish similar groups across the nation…. The partnership provides the group with a state director — Jessica Rubino, the spouse of Secretary of State Chief Policy Officer and Hageman nephew Joe Rubino — to research bills and provide vote recommendations.”

Over the past two years, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus has supported legislation to lower taxes, eliminate gun-free zones, ban abortions, ensure the state has closed primaries, and prohibit certain medical procedures for minors. Because two-thirds of the chamber must approve measures for them to be included in the budget, the Freedom Caucus has sufficient numbers to block measures from being proposed in the budget.

Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. John Bear (R) said the group “will not be deterred from exposing waste at all levels of government, nor the loss of our society’s moral compass by so many in the name of progress. It is what our voters sent us to Cheyenne to do.”

Freedom Caucus opponents formed a group called the Wyoming Caucus. State Rep. Clark Stith (R), a member of the Wyoming Caucus, said, “The most striking feature of the House Freedom Caucus this last session was they were voting in lockstep in accordance with text-message instructions that they would receive…The interesting effect of that is that it, to some extent, forced the remaining members of the House to become slightly more organized.”

Some Democratic representatives expressed alignment with the Wyoming Caucus during budget negotiations. Rep. Karlee Provenza (D) said, “Team Wyoming and the Democrats were voting on how to spend government money to benefit the people of Wyoming, knowing that some money has to be spent. The other side doesn’t think any money should be spent on anything and that churches and private organizations should save us.”