Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a legislative lightning rod who clashed with colleagues and sparked controversies while pushing to expand gun rights, is retiring, he announced Wednesday.
“I never thought of elected office as a lifetime position,” he said in a statement. “I’m proud of winning four hotly contested races in District 6. And I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished for my district and for the state. But now it’s time for someone new.”
During his seven years in office, the state senator representing District 6 — a large portion of southeast Wyoming that currently includes Wheatland, Pine Bluffs and areas around Cheyenne — plowed headlong into contentious issues, including fighting against COVID-related restrictions, successfully banning gender-affirming care for trans youth, and working to eliminate gun-free zones in Wyoming.
He often stirred controversy both locally and nationally, including when he challenged then-Rep. Liz Cheney for her congressional post and revealed he’d impregnated a 14-year-old when he was 18. Via a social media post, he also suggested White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci was a liar and should be executed.
Bouchard was once even stripped of committee assignments as punishment for what Senate leadership characterized as a “pattern” of behavior that included name-calling and intimidation tactics.
His critics are manifold, including health care experts, education advocates and LGBTQ+ groups. But he also found support from gun advocates, COVID skeptics and parts of the far right.
While Bouchard is stepping back, plenty of others are stepping up to take his place. As of Thursday morning, six Republican candidates were vying for Senate District 6 — the largest primary field by far this year in Wyoming.
Playing the field
Bouchard has endorsed Cheyenne attorney Darin Smith as a replacement, saying that Wyoming is “at a crossroads.”
“If we sit back and do nothing, the RINOs in Cheyenne will turn our state into the next Colorado in less than ten years,” Bouchard stated. “Now, more than ever, we need legislators who will fight for our conservative principles. As I retire from the Senate, I believe Darin Smith will be that fighter.”
While Smith hasn’t always agreed with Bouchard, the candidate said, he respects the retiring senator’s voting record and much of his advocacy. That respect includes Bouchard’s fight to ban gun-free zones and pass Senate File 99 – Children gender change prohibition, banning most gender-affirming care for youth, Smith said.
“[I’m] grateful for what he’s done, and I realized what a void he was going to leave when he’s gone,” Smith said. “I would’ve ran eight years ago, but [Bouchard] was running.”
Smith ran for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat in 2016 and 2022, but was unsuccessful.
However, he continued to make news, including a 2021 call for conservatives to fight censorship in challenging “pornographic” books and mask mandates at Laramie County School District No. 1 where his wife is a school board member.
In his campaign, Smith seeks to champion property tax relief for older residents and making the state’s attorney general an elected position. Currently, the Wyoming AG is appointed by the governor, and Smith said that puts too much power in that executive office and could lead to corruption.
“It’s just a model that doesn’t work,” he said, noting that the vast majority of states elect their attorneys general.
Another candidate is finance industry longtimer Kim Withers, who told WyoFile she thinks it’s a crowded field because people want to “see real folks solving real issues.”
“I think they’re tired of the headline news,” she said, referring to issues that may be more for entertainment than of real importance to Wyomingites. “It goes from minute to minute.”
Withers aims to support infrastructure, parental rights, property tax reform and help the population age in place. But she acknowledged that this particular race may devolve into personal attacks beyond issues that are important to the candidates.
“Action speaks louder than words, and I have a history of solving problems and collaborating,” she said. “And I haven’t delved in[to] mudslinging, and it’s not particular[ly] in my wheelhouse.”
Also running is Taft Love, who chairs the county GOP and is a former Wyoming Game & Fish Department employee. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
There are some non-Cheyenne residents vying for the position, too, including Eric Johnston from the Wheatland area. He’s a former county commissioner who told WyoFile in a statement that he wants to represent rural Platte County residents who’ve been grouped into Senate District 6 after a redistricting in 2022.
“I wanted to offer rural SE Wyoming residents a choice for representation other than a man from Cheyenne,” he said, noting that Bouchard lived in the Cheyenne area. “When I speak to groups, I tell them about my ‘3-R’s’ – Respectful Rural Representation.”
While the race is crowded, Johnston said he’s pleased that voters will have more choice, comparing the race to shopping for a truck.
“Some folks like Chevrolet, some Ford and some Ram,” he wrote. “Now, the shopper even has the choice of Toyota and Honda.”
Rounding out the group are Wheatland’s Gary Bjorklund and Pine Bluffs rancher and businessman Marc Torriani. Bjorklund did not return a request for comment, but Torriani said Friday one reason he’s running is because of concerns over development.
“I’m worried about the direction Wyoming is going, particularly the area around Cheyenne,” he said, noting the wind turbines, solar panels, data centers and suburbs. “Adding all these items up really has a detrimental effect on our water. It will definitely have a detrimental effect on our electricity rates going forward.”
While he’s fine with slow, natural growth and intentional economic development, Torriani said, he doesn’t want incentives that could make Wyoming end up like crowded Colorado. He’s also interested in more property tax relief for constituents with a limited income.
In this broad candidate field, Torriani said he stands out because of his work as a rancher, decades’ experience in telecom operations around the world and a strong understanding of finance.
The Senate District 6 field is the largest primary cohort for a legislative district in nearly two decades. It has only been surpassed in the last 26 years — the earliest records posted on the Secretary of State website — by a Cheyenne race in 2006. In that race for Senate District 5, there were seven candidates.
Candidates have until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 31 to file.
This story was last updated May 31 at 3:38 p.m. It will continue to be updated with more information as it becomes available.
Good riddance, indeed. Maybe Bouchard is in line for a ‘job’ with the other groomers, pedophiles and rapists that are the current trumped Republican administration. He certainly has the pertinent knowledge of taking advantage of teenagers. Since Trump’s bestie, Epstein, is conveniently expired, Pedo-in-Chief is likely is looking for a new pal for procurement of pageant prospects. Why do you really think he wants to build a big ballroom? He wants a place to have wrestling matches and teenage skin shows under the guise of “official state business”. Those that voted for the current regime appear to be okay with that, because they voted for child abuse, but conveniently used the code word “groceries”. The pressure needs to stay strong because the sycophants have thinner skin than a dozen six dollar eggs.
Of course, Bouchard will be ideal for the current Republican administration of unqualified bozos, drunkards, and JDs that should be disbarred. Bouchard was too busy shagging fourteen year olds when he should have been taking his SATs to gain any ethics or experience before his escape from San BeeLet’s hope the people of that (And, of course, Bouchard hasn’t been to medical school. He was too busy shagging fourteen year olds when he should have been taking his SATs to collect any experience or ethics before his escape from San Bernardino.Let’s hope the voters of that district elects someone with less focus on confrontation of educated professionals trying to protect us against the next health emergency than his own criminality that he moved away from California in an attempt to escape. Southern California sure is happy to shuck some ghouls (see Chuck Gray and Stephen Miller). At one time, the Wyoming State Legislature was neighbors representing neighbors to help form a more perfect Union. When did it become the bastion of the radical right controlled and paid by out of state interests in the name of so-called “freedom”.
Stand up for your neighbors, Wyoming. Vote the people that do not have the best interest of Wyomingites at the forefront OUT, while you still can.
Stop supporting these creeps for state legislature. Speak out against them. If you have five minutes to comment on a published article on your phone, you have another five minutes to read about the requirements to seek public office. Help your neighbors by representing them in Cheyenne. Don’t hand your power over to the NoFreedom Caucas and let the ALEC write legislation from another state.
Do something, before it’s too late.
Bouchard has been senate district 6 senator but he didn’t represent me. I tried to communicate through e-mail, snail mail, smoke signals but he didn’t bother to respond in any form or fashion. I purchased a lobbyist button and went to the senate room in the capital, sent him a note to see me, saw him peer through the window, and ignore me again. I say GOOD RIDDANCE so a real consciences senator will do me the courtesy and respect of responing to my inquires like they should ..
Don’t let the door hit you on your way out. You can be sure I will vet the new candidates and vote for the one that truly will be my representative in the senate.
I for one am glad that he so chose. The atmosphere of the next session should be much more congenial without him.
From the opposite corner of the state from Cheyenne, I say offhandedly the people around the capitol are less in need of Bouchard’s parttime legislative kludgery than the fulltime service of his day job , septic tank pumping. QED
Candidates that can’t even respond to news stories like this are those who should not run. They don’t have the emotional maturity or common sense to be respresentatives. The ones who responded demonstrate how feral republicans have become. Too many crazies – what happened to pragmatic thoughtful people?
“If we sit back and do nothing, the RINOs in Cheyenne will turn our state into the next Colorado in less than ten years,”
Yeah that backward Colorado, you know the place that actually voted to defy the federal governments stupid ban on naturally occurring plants as well voting to keep creeps like Tony from managing wombs. Allowing the people’s will to be enacted into law is something that the Wyoming Republican Party finds distasteful and they prove it every election cycle.