Mailers, canvassing and Facebook — Wyoming politicos share what won primary elections

By his own count, Rep. Bob Nicholas said potential voters in his Cheyenne House district received roughly 14 separate negative mailers about him ahead of Wyoming’s primary election.

His Republican opponent was responsible for some of the mailers, while others came from out-of-state groups, Nicholas said, but altogether “none of them were accurate, and they were all inflammatory.”

And yet, Nicholas retained the Republican nomination, earning about 61% of the vote against challenger Kathy Russell, who was endorsed by the hard-line Republican Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

Nicholas took an all-of-the-above approach to campaigning, he said, deploying digital ads and combating those mailers with his own. He also knocked on almost every door in his district, some twice.

“I still believe it’s the most effective mechanism that’s out there, and people just really like it,” he said, adding that his opponent also canvassed door-to-door.

Asked then what made the difference, Nicholas said, “if I knew, I’d can it and sell it.”

As a longtime incumbent aligned with the traditional Republican Wyoming Caucus, Nicholas’ victory was far from assured, as the primary election largely belonged to the Freedom Caucus.

“Some races that we thought were a long shot came through and were victorious for us, and yet we had some gut punches, too,” Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette) said. “We lost four really good legislators, and that was a disappointment, but the overall win was tremendous.”

Fifteen Freedom Caucus-backed newcomers won their primaries, several by ousting longtime incumbents who leaned more moderate. Meanwhile, more than a dozen Freedom Caucus-aligned incumbents held onto their statehouse seats. Three more will return to Cheyenne if they can defeat Democratic challengers in November.

But with the dust settled on the primary, different opinions have emerged about what lessons can be gleaned from the results. Some see the election as having ushered in a new era of ugly campaigning, the likes of which led to a defamation suit in Sweetwater County.

“The big takeaway is negative campaigning works and attacks work,” Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) told WyoFile. Zwonitzer lost his bid for an 11th term to Ann Lucas, a Freedom Caucus-backed challenger.

“The campaign advice that many of us followed who lost was a continued way of thinking that you never attack your opponent. You stay above it. You don’t mention your opponent by name, and you focus on the issues,” Zwonitzer said. “[Almost] everybody who did that lost.”

Others say the results — and the voters — conveyed a different message.

“I really believe that this is the people taking the House back,” Bear said.

There is, however, one point of consensus — candidates now have to take an expensive, full-court-press approach if they want to win in Wyoming.

“How you’re gonna reach every voter is going to take all hands on deck,” Liz Brimmer, a longtime Wyoming political strategist, told WyoFile.

She pointed to the need for digital and physical advertisements, as well as door knocking, plus the fundraising required to afford it all. That’s what it takes to “engage on all fronts,” Brimmer said.

She also flagged voter participation in this election, which yielded the lowest voter turnout in Wyoming in eight years, though it was similar to the 2016, 2012 and 2008 primaries, which also lacked a gubernatorial race.

“I do think people need to do an honest dive into the vast number of people that didn’t vote,” Brimmer said.

“It doesn’t matter which faction you’re with, somehow your message didn’t resonate enough to engage them. So that has to be looked at.”

PACs and mailers

Political mailers took on a new significance this election, according to Nicholas.

“We’re all learning what this new status quo is, I mean, obviously, because [the mailers] were successful,” Nicholas said. “And I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them.”

At least one out-of-state group that inserted itself heavily into Wyoming’s elections is expected to return.

“Principled conservatives will walk away with a governing majority in the House, but we look forward to even greater victories [in] 2026 and beyond,” Barrett Young, executive director for Make Liberty Win, wrote in an email to WyoFile.

The Virginia-based group, funded mostly from Texas, spent around $370,000 on mailers, text messages and phone calls this election, according to filings with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office. Several of its mailers gave voters the wrong dates for the election and misrepresented challengers as incumbents. One even used the photograph of a Virginia man to portray a Wyoming candidate of the same name.

“Make Liberty Win will be back, bent on flipping the Senate and the Wyoming Governor’s Mansion for Liberty,” Young wrote.

The group, which mostly supported Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, ultimately had mixed results. About 55% of the candidates it backed prevailed.

The Wyoming chapter of Americans for Prosperity, another PAC that spent money on mailers and door hangers, found greater success. Seventy percent of its endorsed candidates — which included Republicans from both caucuses — won their primary contests.

“We’re thrilled to see these outstanding candidates clinch victory in their primary races after a highly competitive primary season, the likes of which Wyoming has never seen before,” Wyoming Director Tyler Lindholm, himself a former Wyoming lawmaker, said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the Prosperity and Commerce PAC, which was primarily funded by Gov. Mark Gordon, saw only about 40% of its supported candidates win.

That PAC took a similar approach to the Wyoming Caucus PAC by contributing directly to candidates, while the Freedom Caucus PAC primarily worked through McShane LLC, a Nevada-based consulting firm known for its bare-knuckle tactics, to support candidates.

Strategy

Bear said contracting a consultant was intended to streamline the campaign process and ensure effective spending.

“What really was the strategy was to try to inform the voters in those districts directly versus going through [their] campaign, which we just didn’t feel was as effective,” Bear said.

Ultimately, the Freedom Caucus PAC paid McShane about $152,000 for consulting, digital advertising and mailers, among other things. Meanwhile, Bear said, Freedom Caucus candidates also canvassed, some more than others.

“I’m canvassing right now,” Bear said during a phone call with WyoFile. “I don’t have an opponent, but I’m going door-to-door and talking to my constituents, because it’s the best way to build that relationship.”

While Bear thanked McShane for bringing “data and their trademark aggressive tactics” to Wyoming on Facebook, Bear rejected the characterization of the PAC’s campaigning as negative.

“Voting records being shared with the voters is not negative campaigning, it’s just sharing the facts,” Bear told WyoFile. “And if a particular legislator has something to hide, then calling it uncivil or [an] attack is really, really illustrative of what kind of a legislator they are.”

Targets of the mailers see things differently, including Reps. J.T. Larson (R- Rock Springs) and Cody Wylie (R-Rock Springs). They filed a defamation suit against the Freedom Caucus PAC for mailers that accused them of voting to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot. The Wyoming Legislature has never in its history voted on whether to keep or remove Trump from any ballot.

Despite the mailers, both Larson and Wylie won their reelection bids after major canvassing efforts.

“If you want to beat a negative campaign, that’s how you do it, door to door,” Rep. Barry Crago (R-Buffalo) told WyoFile.

Crago, a member of the Wyoming Caucus, beat out Freedom Caucus ally Rep. Mark Jennings for Senate District 22.

“I think we’re in an era where you have to use all available mediums,” Crago said.

“We did everything. We did radio, we did mailers, we did newspaper [ads], we did digital, which includes Facebook and other types of online advertising,” Crago said. “But at the end of the day, you still got to go door to door, which is the hardest thing to do, because it’s just, it’s time. You got to find the time to be able to do it.”

The general election is Nov. 5.

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