After the Wyoming GOP voted to defy a state law prohibiting the party from backing one Republican over another before the primary election, statewide candidates are split on whether they would accept such an endorsement.
Some told WyoFile they agree with the party’s decision and will seek out an endorsement, while others said they oppose a political party breaking election law. A few said they were taking a wait-and-see approach.
“Jury’s still out on this one for me,” Wyoming State Auditor Kristi Racines said Wednesday.
For years, the Wyoming Republican Party has argued that because it is a private organization, state laws that govern its organizational structure and prohibit it from endorsing or financially backing candidates in opposed primary election races are unconstitutional.
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At its convention in Douglas last weekend, the party took things into its own hands, voting to adopt bylaws establishing a process for vetting, endorsing and spending money to support candidates ahead of the primary.
Park County’s Tim Lasseter hydrates during the Wyoming Republican State Convention on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Douglas. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
Supporters of the new bylaws point to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1989, which struck down California’s ban on political party endorsements, ruling that the law violated the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and association. Opponents, meanwhile, raised concerns at the convention about the bylaws breaking the law, litigation costs and unintended consequences.
The new bylaws are widely expected to spark lawsuits, while the Wyoming Republican Party has said it plans to file its own legal challenge against the state.
In the meantime, the new bylaws lay out a process for evaluating candidates based on “commitment to the Wyoming Republican Party Platform, demonstrated loyalty to the Party’s principles, legal eligibility to hold office, and for incumbents, their voting record.”
The state party will consider candidates running for Wyoming’s state-elected officials — including governor, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, treasurer and auditor — as well as congressional candidates. Otherwise, county parties “may vet all other races on their respective County Ballots,” according to the new bylaws.
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The state party, as well as each county party, “shall each create and oversee a Candidate Vetting Committee empowered to review and recommend approval or disapproval of candidates based on established criteria,” the bylaw states. “The Committee shall provide candidates an opportunity to respond to concerns prior to issuing a recommendation.”
Candidates
Brent Bien, who is running for governor, told WyoFile the bylaw changes are “a long time coming,” pointing back to the 1989 ruling.
“I think we just got to make sure we get those folks that truly believe on the Republican side of the equation, who truly believe in the platform and what Wyoming stands for,” Bien said. “And I just don’t think there’s been any enforcement mechanism to do that.”
At the convention, Bien was a clear favorite among many attendees who wore his campaign buttons and t-shirts. Still, Bien said he wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get the party’s endorsement.
“I didn’t get Trump’s endorsement,” Bien said. “And some of these legislators around the state, you know, they haven’t endorsed me.”
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Bien’s take isn’t shared by all the gubernatorial candidates.
“Contested primaries should be decided by voters,” Gillette Sen. Eric Barlow wrote in a statement. “The role of the state party is to unite Republicans around shared values and help grow the party, not decide elections before voters have had their say.”
“Under current law, the state party should not choose sides in Republican primaries, and I will not ask them to start now,” he wrote. “My job,” running for governor, “is to earn the trust of Wyoming voters directly.”
At the convention, supporters of the bylaws said the party had tried to get the Legislature to change state statute. Barlow directly pushed back on that argument.
Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, at the Wyoming Legislature’s 2026 budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)
“As a legislator for the past 14 years, this issue has never come before us,” Barlow said. “If it had, it would have ensured all Wyomingites could weigh in and decisions would have been made openly and transparently — not in the courts and not a few months before an election.”
Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is running for U.S. House, told WyoFile he supports the new bylaws.
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“I will participate in the Party’s vetting process and will seek their support because I’m the only candidate in this race with a proven record of standing up for conservative principles — even when it wasn’t popular with the media and the insiders,” he wrote in a statement.
As secretary of state, Gray is Wyoming’s chief election officer and oversees statewide election administration. Asked if he wanted to comment in his official capacity on the Wyoming Republican Party’s decision to defy state law, Gray did not respond by publishing time.
U.S. House candidate David Giralt took a more cautious approach when asked for his opinion on the new bylaws.
“I trust Wyoming Republicans to make good decisions for our party, and I’ll let the process play out,” Giralt said. “I’m focused on getting in front of as many Wyoming voters as possible and making the case for why I’m the right person to represent this state in Congress.”
Kevin Christensen, another U.S. House candidate, said he wanted to see how fair, transparent and consistent the process played out before weighing in.
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“The Wyoming people are the ones that make the determination in the primary, not the party,” he said. “That being said, if this is about supporting candidates and determining who is really a Republican and who’s just putting an ‘R’ next to their name, that seems like that would be consistent with being the Republican Party.”
Jillian Balow, yet another candidate for U.S. House and former superintendent of public instruction, said she “would be honored to accept an endorsement and money from the state party only if it is in accordance with Wyoming and federal law.”
“The contingency of our party at the convention knew the changes they made defied state law and they curtailed delegate discussion to pass new by-laws anyway,” Balow wrote in a statement. “Some delegates were appalled, some were gleeful, and many were silent, because they were silenced. This is not the way Wyoming does business.”
U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner also pushed back on the new bylaws.
“As a pro-Trump conservative, I always expected the political establishment to try and stop our campaign,” he wrote in a statement. “But, after making over 200 stops across our communities, one thing is clear: people are tired of the political games.”
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Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan, looks over a bill from the House floor. Kelly announced his intentions to run for Wyoming superintendent of public instruction this week. (Joseph Beaudet/The Sheridan Press)
Sheridan Republican Rep. Tom Kelly, who is running for superintendent, said while he opposes “the idea of parties having the power to disallow anyone from running under their banner,” he thinks “parties should be able to express publicly which people they would like to represent them.”
Though he’s not actively seeking endorsements, Kelly said he would accept support from the state party.
“Financial backing? Absolutely,” Kelly said. “Contrary to a popular false narrative, I have no wealthy D.C. donors bankrolling me.”
And if the party endorsed one of his opponents, Kelly said he would tell them, “Congrats. I should have done a better job presenting myself.”
WyoFile reached out to other statewide Republican candidates, including those running for governor, secretary of state, superintendent, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. They did not respond by publishing time.
Update: This story has been updated to include comments from Reid Rasner.
A flare up of a disease that’s especially lethal to wolf pups took a toll on Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park wolf numbers in 2025, reducing biologists’ counts to a level last seen when wolves were still reestablishing following the species’ historic 1995-96 reintroduction.
“It was the lowest number of wolves in 20 years,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf biologist Ken Mills told WyoFile. “That was definitely during the population creep stage, so they were still establishing in the state.”
All signs point toward canine distemper being the primary reason Wyoming’s statewide wolf population plunged to a minimum count of 253 wolves and 14 breeding pairs at the end of 2025, Mills said.
Distemper was detected in 64% of animals in the northwestern Wyoming zone where wolves are classified as “trophy game.” While adults can survive the contagious virus, which is a measles-like affliction in canines, it’s “quite lethal” for pups and only an estimated “31 to 34” of the 87 documented born pups lived to the end of the year, a survival rate of just 37%, according to Game and Fish’s 2025 wolf monitoring report.
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In the past, distemper was a density-dependent disease that surged when populations were high, Mills said. It last flared up in 2018, which wasn’t long after a two-year period where wolves were protected from hunting by the Endangered Species Act and populations — and conflict — were higher.
The 2025 flare up was the first time Mills documented lots of distemper when wolf numbers were not particularly high. The occurrence has him searching for alternative explanations.
“Could it be cyclical? Yeah,” the Pinedale-based biologist said. “However, these are potentially eight-year cycles, and it takes a lot of time to collect data and understand what’s going on.”
There’s cause to believe that distemper will abate in Wyoming wolves this year. When Yellowstone wolves have experienced outbreaks, the event lasts a year and then there’s recovery, Mills said. And the Wyoming population now has more antibodies and resistance built up and so is in good shape to recover itself, he said.
But in 2025, distemper hurt Wyoming wolf numbers, which was a first.
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Before that, “we really haven’t had a canine distemper outbreak that has caused a population-level effect,” Mills said.
In 2024, Mills and his biologist counterparts detected 330 wolves and 24 breeding pairs statewide. The estimated 253 wolves and 14 breeding pairs in 2025 means the raw wolf count tumbled by 23% and the reproductive segment fell by 42%.
Of those, 132 wolves in 22 packs that included 10 breeding pairs dwelled in the mountainous portion of northwest Wyoming in the “trophy game” area. There were nine wolves in three packs and no breeding detected on the Wind River Indian Reservation. And in the zone where Wyoming manages wolves as predators — where they can be killed by any means without limit — there were 28 wolves in five packs, including one breeding pair.
The remainder of Wyoming’s wolves — 84 wolves running in seven packs that included three breeding pairs — dwelled in Yellowstone National Park, according to the state’s monitoring report.
The park’s public affairs officers, whose office has been inundated with inquiries about a recent grizzly bear attack, did not respond to WyoFile’s request for an interview before this story published.
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The overall number of Yellowstone wolves has dipped into the 80s twice before, in 2012 and 2018. But by other measures, 2025 was a tough year that the park population had not experienced since the reintroduction era. The distemper outbreak appeared to be “synchronous” in Wyoming and Yellowstone, and pup production and survival was also dismal in the national park, Mills said.
“Seventeen pups survived in Yellowstone,” he said, “which was the lowest they ever recorded.”
Outside of Yellowstone, Game and Fish will consider the lower wolf population when its biologists and wardens are setting fall 2026 hunting seasons (hunting isn’t allowed in the park, though park wolves frequently leave ). That proposal isn’t public yet, but Mills anticipates that there will be a “surplus” of animals and a wolf hunting season, even if mortality limits are reduced.
Wyoming’s relatively few wolves have enabled the state to manage with precision and a degree of predictability, although the surge of distemper interrupted a long run of population stability. Still, the unexpected disease outbreak left Mills feeling good about Wyoming’s plan for managing its wolves.
“We set up the population objective of 160 wolves to be able to accommodate an event similar to what we experienced, and still meet our minimum recovery criteria,” Mills said.
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That recovery criteria includes 10 breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone in Wyoming’s trophy game area. Mills’ 2025 surveys detected exactly 10 packs with pups in that zone.
“We met the minimum,” Mills said. “It actually worked exactly as we intended.”
CASPER, Wyo. — Two Wyoming residents died and a third was injured in Arapahoe, Wyoming, on Friday after their vehicle went airborne and struck a pole, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
The crash was reported around 10:39 p.m. May 8 near Goes In Lodge and Mission roads south of Riverton. According to the WHP’s investigation, the Dodge passenger vehicle was driving at a high speed north on Mission Road and failed to make a left-hand curve, driving off the road.
“The Dodge drove up the roadway embankment toward Goes In Lodge Rd and vaulted approximately 154 feet,” the WHP said. The Dodge rolled end-over-end about three times, struck a utility pole while airborne and came to rest on its wheels, where it caught fire.
23-year-old Wyoming residents Kalvin Yellowbear and Rosario Lopez were killed in the crash. Another passenger was injured. No seat belt use was indicated for the deceased.
Speed and other factors are under consideration by investigators, the report said.
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There have been 40 highway fatalities so far in 2026, the WHP said, compared to previous years to-date:
34 in 2025
27 in 2024
46 in 2023
This story contains preliminary information as provided by the Wyoming Highway Patrol via the Wyoming Department of Transportation Fatal Crash Summary map. The information may be subject to change.
County 17 publishes letters, cartoons and opinions as a public service. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of County 17 or its employees. Letters to the editor can be submitted by emailing editor@oilcity.news.
Dear Gillette,
I am writing this letter because I am fed up with being forced to make impossible decisions just to live and work in Gillette.
We are constantly told that Campbell County is a great place to build a life, but the reality on the ground is exhausting. We are facing a double penalty here: a dwindling, high-cost economy and an almost non-existent dating scene. I am tired of having to choose between paying outrageous rent for a basic apartment or moving away from friends and community because I cannot find a genuine, long-term partner.
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The dating pool in Gillette feels more like a shallow puddle. Many of us are doing everything right — working hard, staying stable — yet we are coming up empty-handed due to limited public social spaces and transient culture that isn’t conducive to long-term relationships.
It is disheartening to see the “Wyoming Advantage” disappear while we are stuck in a dating desert. Rising costs and limited supply make housing a heavy burden, with residents struggling to find affordable options. Skyrocketing fuel, utility and grocery prices have put families under extreme financial pressure.
I am tired of sacrificing my personal happiness and financial stability to live here.
We need more than just industrial growth; we need quality of life that allows us to find love and build a future here, not just by a paycheck.
Kevin McNutt Gillette
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