Conservative activist hands checks to lawmakers on Wyoming House floor. Controversy erupts.

CHEYENNE—After the House adjourned Monday evening, Jackson resident and conservative political activist Rebecca Bextel walked onto the chamber floor. The buzz of the first day of the Wyoming Legislature’s 2026 budget session had quieted. Only a few lawmakers remained at their desks. 

What happened next would spark a confrontation in the same chamber two days later. Bextel, according to interviews, a photograph, security footage and her own statements later on social media, handed checks to several Republican lawmakers.

The checks were campaign donations, and came from a separate Teton County donor, according to Rock Springs Republican Rep. Darin McCann, one of the recipients. 

“Not from her, from one of her buddies up in Teton,” McCann told a reporter Wednesday morning after leaving a committee meeting in the Capitol. McCann declined to disclose the amount of the donation, but said “several of us” received checks from Bextel. 

He said he is a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

“Rebecca has a lot of contacts that want to see a conservative Legislature, a real conservative Legislature, not a fake Legislature,” McCann said.

It didn’t take long for the exchange to become the chatter of the Capitol. Then, Wednesday, quiet rumors spilled into a tense confrontation on the House floor when a lawmaker raised concerns about the checks during a debate on a bill Bextel supports. Other accusations soon followed.

Those involved said there was no wrongdoing, with Bextel herself later writing on Facebook that she had “saved paper envelopes and [the] carbon footprint” by “delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton County donors when I am in Cheyenne.”

“There’s no difference than them sending me the check in the mail,” McCann told a reporter. 

Asked by a reporter Wednesday morning what she’d given to the lawmakers, Bextel said, “it’s nobody’s business.” Asked if it was a check, Bextel repeated, “it’s nobody’s business,” and walked away.

She declined to answer additional questions later in the day at the Capitol and hurried away from a reporter. She also did not respond to an email with questions about who wrote the checks, how much they were for and why she chose to hand them out on the House floor. 

‘A bunch of checks’

McCann said Bextel just happened to be down in Cheyenne, so it made sense to deliver the unnamed donor’s checks. 

“He wrote a bunch of checks,” McCann said, referring to the unnamed donor. “Boom, boom, boom. Done.”

“It was strictly a convenience for both of them,” he added. 

Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, said she was sitting at her desk Monday night when she saw Bextel walk onto the House floor. When Provenza saw what looked like Bextel handing out checks to Republican lawmakers, Provenza said she stood up and used her phone to take a photo. 

“I took a photo because I thought it was an egregious use of the House floor,” Provenza told a reporter Wednesday. 

At the center of the photograph, Bextel holds what appears to be a check between her pointer and middle finger as McCann accepts it with his right hand. Behind them, Rep. Marlene Brady, R-Green River, holds a similar-looking document. 

“I can’t remember,” Brady told a reporter Wednesday morning when asked what Bextel handed to her Monday night. When asked if it was a check, Brady did not directly answer and instead encouraged the reporter to ask Bextel. 

Hours later, when lawmakers recessed for lunch, Brady had a different answer. 

When a reporter told Brady that WyoFile and the News&Guide had confirmation that Bextel was handing out checks, Brady said, “Oh, you do?”

Brady then asked the reporter, “Where’s the check from?”

“That’s my question to you. Who is the Teton County donor?” the reporter asked. 

“Well, figure it out,” Brady said before walking back onto the House floor, where reporters are prohibited. 

Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, is standing in the background of the photograph. He told a reporter Wednesday that he was unaware of the exchange and hadn’t heard anything about it. 

McCann said he had previously received donations from Teton County residents. 

In 2024, four of McCann’s 25 donations were from people in Jackson and Wilson, according to Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office finance reports. Dan Brophy donated $1,500, Carleen Brophy donated $1,500, Susan Sutton gave $1,500 and Karin McQuillan gave $500. In total, McCann received almost $11,000.

The next deadline for campaign finance reports is Aug. 11. Candidates are not required to report campaign donations or expenditures before then. McCann told a reporter the Monday donation would appear on his campaign finance report. 

Making a splash

Bextel has been making a splash in Cheyenne. She has visited the Capitol during the last few legislative sessions to ask lawmakers to intervene in Teton County, seeking to block affordable and workforce housing at the rodeo grounds and ban the town and county from charging housing fees on development. 

During the first few days of the 2026 session, Bextel has roamed the Capitol halls, bringing orchids to senators and representatives and chatting with attendees in the galleries.

Bextel hosted a Tuesday night event at the Little America Hotel and Resort to discuss affordable housing projects in Teton County, which she’s accused of “fraud.” Bextel kicked a reporter out of the event. It was publicly posted to the Legislature’s special events calendar for lawmakers, but members of the public were asked to RSVP.

The lawmakers that Bextel gave checks to and roughly half of the Wyoming Legislature attended. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which holds the majority in the House, saturated the crowd. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and State Auditor Kristi Racines also attended.

Bextel is not a registered lobbyist, according to Secretary of State records. She is, however, a credentialed press member, according to the Legislative Service Office. She recently founded a media outlet called The Open Range Record with David Iverson of Cowboy State Politics.

Bextel has close ties to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which runs the House, and has also tried to take a more prominent position in the broader GOP. Last May, Bextel ran to replace outgoing Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Frank Eathorne, telling party members her fundraising prowess set her apart from her opponent, Bryan Miller. She told WyoFile at the time that she’d raised $130,000 for the party in just the previous month.

“I’ve also raised about $300,000 for conservative candidates and PACS. And a lot of those candidates helped push the [Wyoming] House further to the right,” she said last May. “I’m very proud of that.”

On Wednesday, Bextel said on Facebook that she raised $400,000 in the last election cycle for conservative candidates, “and I will be doubling that amount this year.”

Ultimately, the GOP elected Miller, who previously chaired the Sheridan County Republican Party.

“The right thing just happened,” Bextel told the News&Guide immediately following her defeat.

“Because I didn’t win, I can now go after every single person that I want to,” she said. “I can do whatever I want.”

“I’m going to be real effective in cleaning out the Senate,” Bextel said.

She’s supported anti-affordable housing legislation members of the Freedom Caucus and its allies in the Senate have sponsored, as well as donated to some of their campaigns. 

This session, Bextel has focused on dismantling affordable and workforce housing tools she deems “unconstitutional,” and she has support from lawmakers. 

Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, filed a bill that the Town of Jackson and Teton County  officials said would eliminate a key source of funding for the community’s affordable housing programs. Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, filed another bill aimed at blocking Teton County and other communities from giving property tax breaks to affordable and workforce housing developers. Bextel has supported both policy changes.

House Bill 141, “Fifth Amendment Protection Act,” was successfully introduced, but Senate File 89, “Local housing projects-tax exemption amendments,” failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to advance. It died on an 18-13 vote.

But not without a scuffle. 

‘Optics’

Bear introduced HB 141 Wednesday morning while Bextel watched from the House gallery. The measure would limit local governments’ ability to take property rights away from constituents, Bear said. 

Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, spoke in opposition. He said the measure came from a “specific person in Teton County” who wanted to revive legislation that failed last year.

“This is not an accusation. This is solely just optics for the Legislature,” Yin said. “My understanding is that that person handed out checks on the floor of the Legislature during the session.” 

Bear then called a point of order. 

Yin was “making accusations of an individual that cannot be substantiated,” Bear said. “And that accusation is offensive to this body.”

Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, also objected, asking Yin if he could substantiate or verify his claims.

Yin said he would decline to “present anything here,” adding that he does not “do props in the Legislature.”

After lawmakers voted 51-10 with one legislator excused to advance the bill, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, weighed in, asking the House to register a “protest” against Yin. 

Rogriguez-Williams, chair of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, accused Yin of making “an allegation of quid pro quo” and “a defamatory statement.”

Distributing checks on the House floor “essentially would be bribery and unethical,” Rodriguez-Williams said. She also called on lawmakers to adopt “policies and procedures” to respond to or report any type of “defamatory” allegations made by legislators. 

Disappointment follows

As news of the checks and the confrontation on the House floor spread through the Capitol on Wednesday, some senior lawmakers expressed disappointment. 

“These are more challenging times,” Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, told a reporter. “Everybody just needs to show up and do their job and do it with some respect and dignity.” 

Dockstader has served in the Legislature since 2007, including a term as Senate president. He said he does not take donations while conducting his legislative business, and that he’s very careful about accepting favors. Dockstader said he’s been offered rides on planes before and turned them down — instead putting more miles on his car. 

Dockstader said most lawmakers keep campaigning and their legislative business separate. 

“We are asked by the public to take care of their business and we should approach it with the utmost integrity,” Dockstader said. 

Senate Minority Floor Leader Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, said walking out on the floor and handing out checks is “dangerous” and “reckless.” He is equally as critical of lawmakers who accepted them. 

“It’s disrespectful to the institution,” he said. “And it shows a lack of regard for the job.” 

Gierau said voters should take this very seriously in the coming election. 

“There’s this unfair, misguided conception that the only thing that Teton County is, is a bunch of rich people who come down and throw their money around,” he said. “So, when someone comes down and reinforces every negative stereotype there is about Teton County – who is actually the personification of it – that bothers me.” 

Rep. Yin stood by his concerns, even after colleagues accused him of defamation.

“I think it’s terrible optics,” Yin told a reporter following the House debate. “Whether or not that’s what those checks are for, I can’t say.”

As Yin was speaking to the reporter, Bextel approached the lawmaker to tell him she planned to sue him for defamation. 

In her Facebook post, Bextel called Yin a “sore loser.” 

“In an attempt to stop the unconstitutional mitigation fees bill from passing, he essentially tried to accuse me of bribery from the House floor,” she wrote. “There’s nothing wrong with delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton County donors when I am in Cheyenne.” 

Correction: This story was updated with the correct vote on Senate File 89. It failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to be introduced. It died on a 18-13 vote. —Eds.

WyoFile reporter Mike Koshmrl contributed reporting.

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