Freedom Caucus firebrand Jeanette Ward is making a bid to win back the blue-collar southeast Casper House district that she lost in 2024 to political newcomer and Republican Julie Jarvis. Jarvis won the House District 57 primary with 56% of the vote.
The winner of this year’s GOP primary rematch will face Democratic candidate Luc Colgrove in the general election in November.
Ward moved from Illinois to Wyoming a year before winning House District 57, which was previously held by Chuck Gray, who left it to successfully run for secretary of state.
“When I ran previously, I made my principles clear,” Ward wrote in a Facebook post announcing her candidacy. “I am pro-life, pro-freedom, pro–Second Amendment and pro-family. That is how I voted then, and those principles remain unchanged today.”
Ward declined WyoFile’s request for an interview.
‘Listen before you vote’
Jarvis hails from Buffalo. A longtime reading specialist with more than 25 years in education, she serves as director of teaching and learning for Natrona County School District 1.
A self-described anti-politician, Jarvis said she entered politics with a mission to bridge what she sees as a disconnect between constituents and the people they elect to represent them.
“I truly believed when I entered this process that our representatives were not truly representing the voice of the people, that there were alternative agendas and there were philosophies from organizations and groups that were not elected to represent the people,” Jarvis said.
Integral to her “listen first, vote second” mantra is a House District 57 constituent survey, which she is repeating in her candidacy this year. Though she’s a Wyoming conservative with expertise in education, Jarvis said the survey responses and ongoing dialogue with constituents provide a lot of real-life experience and a wide range of expertise to inform her votes in Cheyenne.
In response to the sweeping, Freedom Caucus-led property tax cuts, for example, Jarvis said she moderated her votes in hopes of striking a balance between trimming the tax and maintaining the local services they provide. And though she empathizes with the ranching community she grew up with, her constituents — avid supporters of hunting and public lands access — persuaded her to support codifying corner crossing via House Bill 19, “Corner crossing clarification,” which failed in the Senate.
Her House District 57 survey responses also persuaded Jarvis to set aside her personal beliefs to vote against some anti-abortion measures.
She’s refining her 33-question “election cycle” survey, which spans a full range of legislative issues, to glean more details about, among other things, public lands management, nuclear energy and how her constituents feel about data centers.
Some have criticized the way the surveys influence her votes, Jarvis said, but it’s the best way to represent her constituents. There’s an additional benefit for her efforts, too.
“I think that people step up and start getting more involved when they truly feel like they can be heard.”
Though House District 57 is urban, Jarvis said she’s mindful of the needs and special circumstances of more rural and economically disadvantaged regions of the state.
“My job is, number one, to represent the people of my district,” Jarvis said. “But, two, to represent Wyoming. And at no point do I want to see horrible things happen to those who live in hardship communities.”
That sensibility applies to the state’s role in economic development — a hot topic this year following a Freedom Caucus-led effort to defund and dismantle the Wyoming Business Council.
“I believe we do need to take an active part in economic development,” Jarvis said, adding that Wyoming’s rural nature and low population demands some balance between conservative free-market principles and “giving a hand up” to entrepreneurs and businesses that support communities.
“It’s important where government enters and where it exits” economic development, Jarvis said. “I’m 100% supportive of small government, but I also understand why the state needs to participate.”
‘Political refugee from oppressive Illinois’
Before coming to Wyoming, Ward served on the U-46 School Board, headquartered in Elgin, Kane County, Illinois.
“I defended parental rights, fought to expose politically biased textbooks and behind-closed-door practices designed to keep parents in the dark,” Ward states on her campaign website. “I ran for State Senate in Illinois in 2020 and learned first-hand how the left converted the Covid scam into a weapon for institutionalized election theft.”
In Wyoming, she encouraged a 2023 boycott of local businesses and organizations — including the hospice and humane society — that had sponsored the city’s widely attended annual Pride event. As a lawmaker, Ward sponsored bills to bar small businesses from requiring employees to wear masks or get vaccinated, to broaden the definition of child pornography, to prohibit health mandates from the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization from being enforced in Wyoming, to require the governor to get permission from the Legislature before declaring another public health emergency and to define women by their chromosomes and reproductive systems, among others.
None of her measures made it into law, though her “What is a Woman Act” succeeded the year after she lost.
During this campaign, Ward has taken aim at Jarvis, alleging she identifies as a Republican but mostly supports a Democratic agenda.
“Her voting record reflects principles that are fundamentally different from my own,” Ward posted on Facebook. “The people of Wyoming HD 57 are done with wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
The primary election is Aug. 18.
WyoFile’s Maya Shimizu Harris contributed reporting.
