Wyoming campaign costs are soaring as two factions of the Wyoming Republican Party vie for control of the statehouse. At the same time, a national political action committee has poured roughly $370,000 into the state’s politics this year.
Legislative hopefuls in competitive races have already spent tens of thousands of dollars leading up to Tuesday’s primary, according to recent filings. In some instances, though, their campaigns are facing stiff competition — or significant help — from federal political action committees that are now required to report their spending in Wyoming.
That includes the Virginia-based PAC Make Liberty Win, which has spent about $370,000 both supporting and attacking state politicos. Some of its mailers have spread misinformation — including the wrong dates for early voting.
More outside funding could spur the need for even more in-state funding to combat it. As the high cost of becoming a moderately paid, part-time legislator balloons, some are urging lawmakers to strengthen the guardrails on the campaign finance system.
Make Liberty Win
In 2023, lawmakers passed Senate File 40 – Federal political action committees-reports, which required federal PACs spending money on state and local races to report those expenditures to the secretary of state.
“National PACs that engage in federal races must file reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), but as of 2023 there was no parallel requirement for them to file at the state level when engaging in state races,” the Equality State Policy Center noted in its report on campaign finance.
The legislation to shore up that loophole went into effect last July.
“Expenditures by political candidates and contributions to their campaigns can have an outsized impact on election outcomes, especially in a state like Wyoming, where races can be won with only a handful of votes.”
Equality State Policy Center, Wyoming Campaign Finance report
And this summer, lawmakers started seeing attack mailers making claims they say are false, and even posting an incorrect photo of a lawmaker. Many of them were paid for by the PAC Make Liberty Win.
A Virginia man threatened to sue after the PAC used his face on a mailer for a Wyoming politician of the same name.
Federal Election Commission reports show Make Liberty Win raised about $8.7 million, nearly all coming from Texas donors. No donations were listed from Wyoming.
Now, filings with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office show just how much the national PAC is paying to support and attack Wyoming legislators.
For example, it spent $14,600 on mailers opposing Sen. Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne) who’s now the sole candidate. It spent another $10,400 on mailers against Wyoming’s longest-serving state lawmaker Sen. Charles Scott (R-Casper). Mailers going after Rep. Tony Niemiec (R-Green River) and Rep. Bill Henderson (R-Cheyenne) cost the PAC more than $9,000 each.
Meantime, it also spent more than $9,000 for mailers supporting candidates like Reps. Bill Allemand (R-Midwest), Jeanette Ward (R-Casper), Tony Locke (R-Casper) and candidate Jacob Wasserburger for House District 11.
And that’s not counting what the PAC spent on phone calls and texts.
To see who the group supported or opposed in your district, go here.
Bucks deluxe
Back in 2012, the average cost of a state senate campaign was about $9,000 and a house campaign was less than $7,000, according to analyses by the Equality State Policy Center, a nonprofit group in Wyoming that advocates for fair elections and transparent government. The highest spending races that year were about $30,000.
What was once the exception is now the rule.
In this year’s Senate District 22 race (in northern Wyoming), if the two candidates spend everything they’ve raised so far — and they’re well on their way — it’ll produce the highest average cost for a Wyoming legislative campaign since records started in 2010, and likely, ever. That’s a week before the primary and months before the general election.
Rep. Barry Crago (R-Buffalo) has raised $81,000 and spent about $61,000, according to his candidate committee’s report to the secretary of state on Wednesday. His opponent Mark Jennings has raised another $34,000 and spent $25,000.
Another big fundraiser is Darin Smith, who’s running in the crowded Republican primary race for Senate District 6 in southeast Wyoming. He was both incumbent Anthony Bouchard’s and former President Donald Trump’s pick for the seat, and he raised about $85,000 — $55,000 of which came from a loan to himself. He’s spent about 60% of it so far. The next highest fundraiser for Senate District 6 is Kim Withers, collecting about $39,000, though no one in the cohort of six candidates has raised less than $10,000.
In fact, as of Wednesday, few politicians in tight primaries have raised less than $10,000 — with more spending and fundraising likely throughout the week. These newly released finance reports can also be updated or changed.
Steps forward
The Equality State Policy Center’s report on how campaign costs were increasing for both state and federal races found a clear and consistent increase across most sectors, even while excluding PACs.
“Expenditures by political candidates and contributions to their campaigns can have an outsized impact on election outcomes, especially in a state like Wyoming, where races can be won with only a handful of votes,” the nonpartisan policy center wrote. “In recent years, campaign spending around the state has risen sharply, especially for a number of contentious seats.”
Policy Director Marissa Carpio said the group has been asked to do another report with this year’s data, which she expects to happen after the general elections. But Carpio says from what she’s seeing so far this year, the trend of increased spending is continuing.
At the same time, the group is advocating for legislators to re-examine campaign finance and clarify its language, she said.
“We actually submitted an interim topic to the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, trying to get them to take a look at campaign finance,” she said. “The committee decided to focus on other issues … like electricity, taxation and some big topics, and kind of push the election issues to next year, which makes sense since it is an election year.”
The policy center also recommended that the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office create an accessible and clear way to report campaign finance violations, that state agencies adopt stronger enforcement policies for those violations and the “Wyoming Legislature dedicates funds to district attorneys to prosecute those who violate the state’s disclosure laws.”
Correction: This story has been updated to state that Make Liberty Win sent mailers in support of candidate Jacob Wasserburger, not Sen. Jeff Wasserburger, as originally stated. – Ed
This only underscores the regrettable fact that a winning candidate for high office can be purchased in Wyoming for pennies on the dollar compared to other states. Wyoming is the Family Dollar store of retail politics. ( Price seems comensurate with quality, too )
Exquisite reporting, Ms. Beck. Based on this report’s apparent implication, it appears one PAC doubled the contributions raised by all of these legislators on their own. Is that correct, Madelyn? Apparently paraphrasing the Trump approach to regulators: “If you can’t win on the merits, buy the election.” Why? Read Project 2025, it isn’t just about the federal government, the wannabe rulers will need state legislature support too. Thanks for this fine reporting.
Some additional perspective is warranted. There are well over 100 different PACs and Organizations listed on the Wyo SOS website involved in our elections through the years. I hesitate to keep picking, but Gov Gordon and family have given nearly $390k in 2024 towards our Legislative elections either through his PAC PAC or personal contributions to candidates. Other members of the Executive branch have also given sizable funds towards specific Legislative candidates.
I’m sure it’s all technically ‘legal’, but is there an outside ‘separation of powers’ issue here with such direct Executive branch financial influence into the Legislative branch elections? The conflicts of interest are immense and thus drives why the Executive branch would want to mold the Legislative branch as much as possible so as to stack the deck for future agenda / bill support.
This year’s election cycle has been nasty, the norm when it comes to power and influence across the millennia. But major influence both outside the State and inside our government exacerbates an already enflamed election effort. The Elections Committee may want to weigh in this cycle if appropriate guard rails need to be bolstered. This is like a marriage on the rocks. We need to understand the issues from both sides rather than focusing on our unfavored side only.
Arizona and Colorado used to be hard-red states. Wyoming is next to flip, and the billionaires are pouring money in to stop us from turning Blue. Wyoming votes Red because the people are brainwashed from their first day in school that Patriotism and Rebublican are synonyms, and every news-outlet is controlled by conservative billionaires. But with the Internet, Wyoming-citizens are slowly realizing how the wool has been pulled over their eyes, and that Republicans represent the opposite of what the citizenry actually values.
Thank you, Ms. Beck and WyoFile, for this good coverage. We citizens also need to be responsible for educating ourselves and using critical thinking to assess the truth of mailers and political propaganda. The mailers we see in Park County tend to be nonsensical and sensationalistic, using crazy fonts and scare tactics to grab attention. The substance is usually weak, silly, misleading, and / or false. They would be comical if our democracy wasn’t such a serious thing! National PACs funding these include ones run by the multi-billionaire Koch brothers team, so being aware of this may help us make our decisions.
They did not teach you critical-thinking in school, on purpose.
Your other post was a bit disingenuous as Wyoming is not even close to turn “blue after the railroads moved all the union members out of the state, but this post is critically on-point. The Project 2025 folks HATE critical thinking, and would prefer that never come up agsin. However, that turn in the Wyoming education system is quite recent, possibly in the time of the turn of the millenium. The previous generations were taught to think, act and speak for themselves, to let no politician to make any claim without challenge.
Any comment on Governor Gordon and his PAC PAC being the highest contributor to the State elections this year injecting nearly $200k into the races supporting those anointed to follow orders as the Executive branch does its best to stack the Legislative branch with yes men/women?
These PAC’s need to be taxed on this money.