CODY—Joe Martinez and Phillip Scheel sat in the back row of the Cody Auditorium, apart from the action that unfolded Saturday as the Wyoming Republican Party elected new leadership.
It was a beautiful spring morning, but the two Thermopolis men had driven over that morning to spend the day inside, watching the party conduct its business.
Martinez and Scheel watched the roll call. All 74 state central committee members — each county GOP’s chair, committeeman and committeewoman — were either present or represented by a proxy voter. Those members sat at the front of the room at tables designated by county.
The two men listened to remarks by Republican elected officials praising the Trump administration, and emotional farewell speeches from party stalwarts preparing to leave the organization’s top posts. They watched as party treasurer Bob Ferguson presented outgoing Chairman Frank Eathorne with a deluxe lever-action rifle, engraved with his name on one side, the mantra “ride for the brand” on the other.
They watched the party unanimously reelect Secretary Donna Rice, who ran unopposed. They watched an election snafu resulting from miscounted ballots, which was resolved with a revote for vice chair. Ferguson won that race over Ginger Bennett.
And they watched as the party voted to elect Bryan Miller over Rebecca Bextel to replace Eathorne as chairman. Both candidates align with the further-right block of the party that gained traction under Eathorne, so the election was seen as unlikely to impact policy.
Martinez and Scheel also watched as their Republican peers voted to sideline them.
In March, the Hot Springs County GOP elected Martinez and Scheel its chairman and state committeeman respectively. But the validity of the election was quickly called into question when a complaint was filed with the state party, alleging that ousted precinct committee members had a right to vote due to a party bylaw. Soon after, Martinez and Scheel’s victories were overturned.
The two men then filed a lawsuit, alongside the county’s new vice chair and secretary, alleging the state party interfered in their local elections.
Martinez and Scheel both appeared Saturday to reiterate that point. When the meeting opened for public comment, Martinez stood up from his chair to speak.
“I’m here because on March 17, our county did elections and they did it by law. And I just believe that we as a body are to follow the law. And we should be the ones up there representing Hot Springs County, myself and Phillip Scheel as state committeeman,” Martinez said.
The party considered allowing Martinez and Scheel to cast provisional ballots, but the proposal failed in a voice vote.
The dispute represents the latest development in a years-long debate over the extent to which the state should govern political parties — private organizations that sometimes make decisions with public implications. Eathorne expressed optimism at Saturday’s meeting that the court would treat the Hot Springs County complaint as a First Amendment issue.
“As this litigation goes forward, this case will be about the government’s authority or not, over a private organization,” Eathorne said.
“This can be an exciting outcome for all of us,” he said.
How did we get here?
In March, an attorney for the Wyoming Republican Party advised several county parties to disregard state statute and a Wyoming Supreme Court ruling when considering who should be allowed to vote in local party elections.
Instead, the attorney advised county Republicans to follow a contested party bylaw since the matter involves a private organization.
“I understand some have alleged county officers who are no longer precinct persons may not vote in your upcoming elections,” attorney Brian Shuck wrote in a letter. “They argue that, if there is conflict between a GOP bylaw and a state statute, the statute controls. I disagree.”
Shuck’s advice was centered on the fact that the dispute involves a private organization, which was also at the heart of a 2021 case in Uinta County.
In that case, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that the bylaw “violated clear and unambiguous language” of state law. But because the high court did not decide whether the state law violated the party’s constitutional right to freedom of association, Shuck told county parties the bylaw — and ultimately, the U.S. Constitution — supplants state statute.
However, Hot Springs County instead stuck to the law and the high court’s decision when it held officer elections. But sometime after the meeting was adjourned, Cheryl Aguiar filed a complaint with the state party.
Aguiar, former chairman of the Hot Springs County GOP and now a state committeewoman, disputed the validity of the county party’s elections and asked that the “provisional ballots” be counted.
The Wyoming Republican Party’s Dispute Resolution Committee sided with Aguiar. A revote including the provisional ballots followed in Hot Springs County, resulting in a new chair, Brady Harvey, and a new state committeeman, Russell Lewis.
Saturday’s meeting
It was Harvey and Lewis who cast votes in Saturday’s leadership election in Cody, but not before some pushback. During roll call, former Sweetwater County GOP Chairman Elizabeth Bingham raised a point of order.
“I move that the state central committee not accept the officers from Hot Springs County who were elected in the second, unauthorized election due to the improper use of provisional ballots and the lack of proper authority to conduct a revote,” Bingham said.
After the motion failed, Bingham made a second attempt by proposing an amendment to the rules of procedure for its officer elections. More specifically, the amendment would have allowed Martinez, Scheel and Aguiar to cast provisional ballots, which would have been set aside and kept private until the ongoing litigation is resolved.
While the amendment was drafted by Shuck, Bingham said she supported it as a placeholder.
“I’m not trying to be difficult. I promise, guys, I truly do believe we will not prevail in this lawsuit. I just want us to have that protection,” Bingham said. “It really is simple.”
Aguiar pushed back on having any provisional ballots after supporting their use at the local level.
“The fact that there is a lawsuit out there that will intimidate this body to circumvent our bylaws and my right to vote on a secret ballot is disgusting,” she said.
While the amendment didn’t fix the larger issue, Sublette County Chairman and former Speaker of the House Albert Sommers stood in favor of its adoption.
“The problem is that we are choosing to violate the state law. Any private organization, if they violate state law, runs up against the law,” Sommers said. “And so I’m going to stand in favor of this amendment and really against violating state law.”
Goshen County GOP Chairman Kirk Haas disagreed.
“We’re magnifying the issues that have developed in Hot Springs County,” Haas said.
Ultimately, the amendment failed.
Hmmm, is that a cardboard Trump watching over the committee members at that meeting? Seems a little weird to me.
It sure looks like it. Wonder if attendees had to kick their heels together and give it a musk salute before they took their seats?
These are just growing pains changing from a democracy to a dictatorship.
If their “private organization” didn’t have any impact on anyone else I wouldn’t have a problem. However, that is not the case when they have a huge impact currently on how this state is being run. This goes beyond a “private organization” and they should have to follow state law…but we also know the GOP isn’t much for laws or court orders anymore.
I guess the Wyoming Republican Party considers Wyoming laws and State Supreme Court decisions as only “suggestions”?
Thankfully, they get to carry guns.