The leader of one of Wyoming’s most powerful lawmaking committees voiced frustration Tuesday about three attack campaign mailers his Republican primary election challenger sent to several Cheyenne residents.

Kathy Russell, challenger for Cheyenne’s state House District 7, distributed three mailers recently about her opponent, longtime Cheyenne Republican incumbent Rep. Bob Nicholas, who co-chairs the Wyoming Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

Russell also is executive director for the Wyoming Republican Party.

The mailers claim that Nicholas wants young children reading early reader-level books that teach LGBTQ friendly themes, that he’s selling America’s future to China, and that he “stood with Democrats to allow gender transition surgeries on Wyoming children” and to make Wyoming taxpayers pay for them.

Nicholas countered in an angry Tuesday press release, calling the mailers a dishonest smear campaign and pointing to an incorrect citation on one that linked to a bill in Texas, not Wyoming.

“Honesty in thought and action are the first qualifications for state office,” reads Nicholas’ press release. “Unfortunately, Russell’s negative campaign is intended to misinform and spread falsehoods.

“It’s clear Ms. Russell believes she must misrepresent the facts and the truth to get elected,” it continues. “Hopefully she will not be rewarded for these patently false and outrageous lies.”

Unpack This

The mailer referencing library books says Nicholas wants kids reading such titles as “My Princess Boy” and “Not He Or She, I’m Me.” It cites its claim via a hyperlink to a Texas child abuse bill.

Nicholas has never been elected to the Texas Legislature, so could have never voted on that bill. His press release calls Russell’s mailer a “new lie the size of Texas.”

Russell told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday phone interview that the Texas bill reference was an unfortunate typo, stemming from a nationwide graphics consultant possibly cutting and pasting her design without taking out the inaccurate reference.

Nicholas had typos of his own in his counter-release, Russell noted.

His statement inaccurately calls the contested zone House District 8 instead of House District 7. Nicholas has served multiple terms in the state House, formerly in District 7 before boundary lines were redrawn.

The statement also says the Texas bill pertained to grade-school library books, when it instead targeted child abuse.

Speaking to the issue of potentially inappropriate books in schools, Nicholas told Cowboy State Daily that he tends to vote against state-law measures that would infringe the rule-making power of local school boards and other localized powers.

“It’s a local issue. It shouldn’t be a statewide issue,” Nicholas said. “We shouldn’t be looking down at (school boards), it should be the other way around. We’re going to help people and allow locals to do what they want to do.”

Sex Changes For Kids

Another of Russell’s mailers claims Nicholas fought to make Wyoming taxpayers pay for gender transition surgeries for Wyoming kids.

Nicholas’ press release says that’s not true and that he supports banning gender surgeries on minors.

Nicholas voted in favor this year of Senate File 99, a ban not only on gender surgeries for children, but the prescription of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors. The bill became law July 1 after passing both legislative chambers with strong majorities.

It gives state officials the authority to penalize doctors for performing such treatments on kids.

Nicholas voted against introducing a similar but narrower bill, House Bill 63, which would only have banned sex-change surgeries for kids. He told Cowboy State Daily he expected a filibuster on that one and thought it might jeopardize lawmakers’ chances of passing a sound budget bill during the shortened budget session of the even-numbered year.

“You know they (Russell’s supporters) take one vote and they turn it into an extrapolation of my beliefs on issues, versus whether it’s a good bill or a bad bill,” said Nicholas.

He noted that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a coalition of state lawmakers with an emphasis on social-conservative state laws, also voted against introducing HB 63 because they preferred SF 99.

Russell conversely said Nicholas has displayed a pattern indicating he’s comfortable with child sex-change surgeries happening in Wyoming. For example, Nicholas advanced a “do not pass” vote on a 2023 version of SF 99, which sent the bill to the bottom of the legislative pile, where it ultimately died.

He said that bill had some issues. At the time, the Appropriations Committee worried it could kick Wyoming insurance recipients off the insurance marketplace by making local insurers noncompliant with national standards.

About China

Another of Russell’s fliers says Nicholas is “selling America’s future to China” and that he “voted to allow foreign communists and terrorists to buy Wyoming land.”

Nicholas voted against 2023 House Bill 116 and he voted against reassigning 2024 Senate File 102 out of a committee where it later died.

House Bill 116 would have required the registration of any foreign people, governments or companies buying land in Wyoming for purposes other than setting up a home, and could have divested those entities of their land if they failed to register.

Nicholas told Cowboy State Daily the bill may run afoul of a Wyoming Constitution provision promising “aliens” the right to buy land in the state.

That section says that, “no distinction shall ever be made by law between resident aliens and citizens as to the possession, taxation, enjoyment and descent of property.”

As for the more recent SF 102, Nicholas said it may violate the Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars governments from taking people’s possessions without reimbursing them. That bill did not pass.

It would have given entities of foreign and adversarial nations that own land near Wyoming critical infrastructures, such as an Air Force base in Cheyenne, four months to sell their land or risk surrendering it to a state-run auction.

Bill sponsor Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, told Cowboy State Daily prior that she believes her bill is constitutional. The U.S. Constitution’s purpose is not to protect foreign adversaries like China, she said.

“I am still shocked that such important bills did not make it through the Legislature,” said Steinmetz. “I believe the citizens of Wyoming want us to take action on this critical issue of national security.”

Nicholas said he agrees with that latter claim, but wants to craft a bill that will lead to that result without violating either the Wyoming or U.S. constitutions.

He is now chairing a committee that’s on its third draft of a foreign-ownership restriction bill that references the concern of Steinmetz’s bill: protecting critical infrastructure from foreign adversaries’ encroachment.

Russell told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that she stands by her mailers and what they claim.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.