GILLETTE—Two Wyoming political heavyweights faced off Monday night in Gillette as they strive to distinguish themselves as one of northeast Wyoming’s premier Republican voices.
Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, and current Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, are both ranchers, both pro-life and both anti-green energy, but they represent different factions of the same party.
Driskill, a former Senate president, has represented Senate District 1 since being elected in 2010, while Neiman, the current Speaker of the House, has several years of experience in the Legislature as well.
Driskill announced his campaign Monday in a press release sent to the News Record that acknowledged his similarities to his opponent, but declared against the “failed policies championed by the Freedom Caucus.”
The Freedom Caucus is a group of lawmakers that describes itself as the true conservative voice of Wyoming. It won control of the Wyoming House two years ago, but it has not yet broken into the Senate. Neiman’s campaign for Driskill’s seat could change that.
Neiman’s meteoric rise to House Speaker in less than five years has not been immune to controversy after being embroiled in the “Checkgate” controversy by accepting a $1,500 check from Don Grasso, a retired investment banker living in Jackson.
One of the main differences between Driskill and Neiman became apparent at the end of their debate as moderator and Coal Country Conservatives PAC Director Laura Cox asked both candidates to sign a pledge committing to 80% of the Wyoming Republican Party platform. The document the moderators shared is printed with the 23 planks of the 2026 Wyoming Republican Party platform with boxes to indicate “yes,” “maybe” and “no,” along with a box at the bottom for the candidate’s signature.
Moderators at previous Campbell County Republican Party debates over the last three weeks, including gubernatorial and congressional races, have asked candidates to also sign the pledge.
Almost every candidate at Monday night’s debate at Gillette’s American Legion building signed the pledge, but Driskill and both House District 52 Republican candidates, Ronda Boller and Bill Fortner, fiercely opposed signing the pledge.
Driskill said he’s been down the pledge road before.
“I am a lifelong Republican, from conception,” Driskill said during the debate. “These are purity tests…The way you tell a Republican is to take a look at his record and take a look at his voting and what he’s done. You can figure it out, but don’t force him into a mold.”
The crowd gave him moderate applause.
Driskill alluded to the purity pledge and Neiman’s involvement in “Checkgate” in his campaign announcement by declaring his own “Driskill Pledge” in his campaign announcement press release.
“I do not get my marching orders from Washington D.C. or Jackson Hole,” the press release read. “I answer to one group of people: the citizens of Senate District 1.”
Neiman was enthusiastic to sign the pledge and said there are issues a supposed Republican can work on to abide by 80%, but other issues are non-negotiables.
“I put the ‘R’ behind my name because I believe and agree with what the party platform says. It’s brought on by the grassroots Republican conservatives in the state of Wyoming,” Neiman said. “What is the 20% you don’t support as a Republican? If you don’t support life, does that make you a Republican?”
Abortion
Abortion and “activist judges” were consistent topics for all candidates during the event after the Legislature’s attempts at completely banning abortion in Wyoming have faced multiple legal hiccups.
Those challenges include an April ruling by Natrona County District Judge Dan Forgey who temporarily blocked the Legislature’s “heartbeat” law that makes abortion illegal around the sixth week of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity becomes detectable.
More recently, retired District Judge Thomas T.C. Campbell struck down a law requiring an ultrasound for women seeking abortions.
The moderator, Cox, asked both candidates about judicial selection reform after some “crazy rulings.”
Driskill said there are problems with the way that judges are selected in Wyoming, but the state needs to consider all of its options.
“There are three or four models. None of them fit Wyoming very well,” Driskill said. “What we’ve got going right now is tough and it’s more than our judges, [the problem] goes to our [Attorney General] and the way it answers to bills.”
Neiman said his first thought is to require Senate confirmation for judges, instead of giving the state bar the authority to select three finalists for the governor to choose from.
“We have an activist court,” Neiman said. “We can’t let things continue on in the way we’ve been selecting the judiciary.”
Neither candidate was in favor of electing an attorney general.
Both Driskill and Neiman are pro-life and agreed to “work to codify the rights of the unborn” after being asked by moderator and former political candidate George Dunlap.
Neiman argued that parts of Wyoming law already recognize life at conception, such as the state’s codification of first- and second-degree murder of an unborn child.
Driskill and Neiman agreed that courts had misinterpreted the right to health care access in Wyoming law after passing the “Life Is a Human Right Act” in 2023 that got held up in court.
That bill passed after Driskill added an amendment to allow exceptions for medical procedures needed to save a woman’s life, as well as in cases of rape and incest.
“I would love to see him support legislation without exemptions,” Neiman said. “That’s neither here nor there, but we’re fighting. We’re not going to give up.”
Primary election reform
Neiman said he’s in favor of primary elections going to runoffs. He pointed out that Gov. Mark Gordon won the 2018 Republican primary election with about 34% of the vote.
In 2025, Neiman sponsored a bill to implement runoff elections in Wyoming, but it died in the Senate.
“I think we owe it to the people in the state of Wyoming to make sure that the people elected have a majority of the state’s support.”
Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett
“We have a responsibility to the people in the state of Wyoming to make sure that someone who is going to win the election needs to get 50% plus one,” Neiman said. “I’ll sponsor (a bill) again.”
He said elections were his main issue when he first ran for office in 2020.
“I think we owe it to the people in the state of Wyoming to make sure that the people elected have a majority of the state’s support,” Neiman said to a somewhat scattered applause.
Driskill said he’s in favor of election reform, but the state should consider other options in order to not create 18-month-long elections like the presidential election. He did not advocate for any particular election reform.
“It probably won’t get solved fast. That’s not a great answer, but it’s an honest fact,” Driskill said.
Nuclear waste
Cox asked Driskill first if legislators or the people should get to decide to vote on if Wyoming stores nuclear waste.
“Blanket ‘no’s’ are not the answer…if we treated the nuclear industry the same way we treated coal, we’d have no coal mines.”
Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower
Driskill said he’s anti-nuclear waste, especially waste from outside Wyoming, but he thinks the decision should be made by both legislators and the people.
“Within the state, we have some nuclear stuff floating around. We need to really be educated about what’s actually possible and what’s out there,” Driskill said. “Blanket ‘no’s’ are not the answer…if we treated the nuclear industry the same way we treated coal, we’d have no coal mines.”
He added that he is in favor of the nuclear manufacturing industry and others that don’t involve nuclear waste.
“There’s a lot of uranium around,” Driskill said. “It’s all about being properly educated about what’s safe and what isn’t safe, and yes, the people play a role in it at the end of the day.”
Neiman said it’s “absolutely the will of the people” to decide what Wyoming does with nuclear waste.
The industry isn’t something he’s against, but he wants to first hear from constituents about the best path forward.
“We have a lot of learning to do,” Neiman said. “It’s our responsibility as legislators to always listen to our people.”
Astonishing to hear lawmakers blame judges when they have ignored the constitution while voting on half baked authoritarian religious edicts that ignore medical realities and the bodily autonomy of living, breathing human beings.
$1,500, Chip Neiman of Checkgate fame. Fifteen Hundred Bucks, that’s what we’ll remember when you get smoked in the August 18th primary