CASPER—For college student Sofia Downing, a summer gig knocking on doors in Wyoming was the chance to make some money, see a different part of the country and get candidates with what she considers conservative values elected to office.
“If you don’t like walking around, or you’re more of an introvert, probably not the job for you,” Downing said in late July, standing in the afternoon shade of a tree in the city’s Valley Hills neighborhood.
Canvassing, however, is a great job for a young person passionate about politics, Downing said, “if you’re like me, very extroverted and just willing to try out new things and are very curious about the world.”
“This is why Young Americans for Liberty hires people of my generation to do this,” she said.
Before arriving in Wyoming in June, Downing said the organization trained her on canvassing. She then spent several weeks knocking on doors in Oklahoma, where she goes to school, ahead of its primary election. Downing’s assignment in Casper was set to last until August’s primary election, she said, when “the results come in.”
When Downing encountered a WyoFile reporter in July, she had the tanned shoulders to prove she’d spent many days outside on the campaign trail. Downing carried a stack of door hangers portraying a bear wearing a “Liberty” branded felt hat with the end of a shotgun pointed at the hat’s brim.
“On August 18th, only YOU can preserve freedom in the state legislature,” the door hanger read, urging voters to reelect Sen. Bob Ide to Senate District 29 and to back Republican hopeful Ross Schriftman for House District 37, an open seat with Rep. Steve Harshman running for superintendent of public instruction. Both districts include parts of west Casper and surrounding areas.
Asked how the group selects which candidates to back, Downing said she did “not know the exact process” but was confident the candidates aligned with “the same conservative values.”
Since launching “Operation Win at the Door” in 2018, Young Americans for Liberty says its student activists have knocked on 7 million doors, cementing its efforts as “the most effective political operation to make liberty win,” according to its website.
“Oftentimes, you’ll have candidates that say they will do one thing, but they will be pressured to go back against their campaign promises,” she said. “We are very stringent on that as well.”
While Young Americans for Liberty focuses on ground support during elections, its Virginia-based affiliated political action committee, Make Liberty Win, contacts voters through phone calls, text messages, mailers, and digital advertisements. In Wyoming, that’s no small change.
Since May, Make Liberty Win has spent $549,000 in Wyoming races, according to its campaign finance report filed this week with the secretary of state’s office. In 14 legislative races, the PAC outspent the candidates’ own campaign committees — three of which saw the PAC spend twice as much as the candidates.
As it did in 2024, the PAC is mostly spending money to boost candidates who are either members of, or ideologically aligned with, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Make Liberty Win’s spending also dwarfs other conservative PACs and organizations dropping cash in Wyoming’s 2026 legislative elections. The newly formed Defeating Communism PAC has spent around $173,000, for example, while Americans for Prosperity, has spent about $286,000.
While the campaign finance report filed this week details the PAC’s spending in Wyoming, it gives minimal details of the source of that funding. It lists just four contributions totalling $562,605, all from “Make Liberty Win.”
Otherwise, the PAC’s filings with the Federal Elections Commission report raising $6.7 million nationally between Jan. 1, 2025 and June 20, 2026, with about $4.8 million of that coming from Young Americans for Liberty. None of the PAC’s donations were listed as being from Wyoming.
How we got here
Make Liberty Win first spent money in Wyoming during the state’s 2024 primary election, reporting about $371,000 in its campaign finance report two years ago. The PAC made a messy entrance with its mailers that gave voters the wrong date of the election and misidentified political newcomers as incumbent lawmakers.
In one mailer sent to Albany County voters, the PAC used the photograph of a Virginia man to promote a Wyoming man with the same name running for office. The PAC was sent a cease and desist letter from the Virginia man for its decision to use his photograph.
When the Wyoming Freedom Caucus ousted several incumbents that year and set itself up to win control of the House in the general election, Barrett Young, Make Liberty Win’s executive director, chalked the win up to his organization.
“Make Liberty Win’s robust voter contact program worked because we exposed the lies of the Wyoming Establishment, humiliating Governor Gordon in his attempt to slander our organization and conservatives across the Cowboy State,” Young wrote in an email on Aug. 22, 2024.
“Unlike the RINOS, we can actually deploy people to knock on doors because our activists believe in something. Principled conservatives will walk away with a governing majority in the House, but we look forward to even greater victories [in] 2026 and beyond,” Young wrote. “Make Liberty Win will be back, bent on flipping the Senate and the Wyoming Governor’s Mansion for Liberty.”
More recently, Young told Liberty Action, a partner of Make Liberty Win, that “places like West Virginia, Wyoming, Montana, these are the types of places where we can make the biggest impact.”
In June, several Wyoming lawmakers attended an event at the Four Seasons Resort in Teton Village hosted by the PAC’s affiliated organization.
“It was a privilege to gather with liberty-minded patriots from across the country, hosted by Young Americans for Liberty,” Cody Republican Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams said in a June 3 post on X. “Wyoming is proud to host that energy, and I am proud to be part of it.”
The post included a photograph of Williams, who chairs the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, alongside Republican Reps. Scott Heiner of Green River, Nina Webber of Cody, John Bear of Gillette and Steve Johnson of Cheyenne. Williams is running for secretary of state.
2026 report
The vast majority of Make Liberty Win’s spending in Wyoming this election cycle has covered the cost of “field distribution of literature,” or the kinds of door hangers student activists like Downing hand out while canvassing. Of the PAC’s half million or so in expenditures, about $424,000 went toward those materials.
In Rep. Abby Angelos’ race in Campbell County’s Senate District 23, the PAC reported spending $24,678 on “field distribution of literature supporting Angelos.” For comparison, Angelos’ campaign reported spending a total of $19,600. Like Angelos, Sheridan Rep. Ken Pendergraft is seeking a Senate seat this election. Make Liberty Win reported spending about $15,500 supporting him, compared to the approximately $12,000 his campaign spent.
However, the largest gap between the PAC’s spending and the candidates it supports were seen in three other races.
Rep. Bob Wharff, who is running for reelection to Evanston’s House District 49, reported spending about $4,600, while Make Liberty Win nearly tripled that with $13,800 of its own expenditures. In Converse County, Make Liberty Win spent more than $14,000 supporting Rep. Tomi Strock, whose campaign doled out about $7,600. Jim Corkery, who is running for Senate District 27 in Casper, spent about $6,200 vying for the seat now held by Sen. Bill Landen, who is retiring. Make Liberty Win, meanwhile, reported spending more than $12,000 supporting Corkery.
Most of the PAC’s spending in Wyoming has been in support of candidates, but it’s also dropped more than $50,000 directly opposing candidates. That has included current and former lawmakers who have been a thorn in the side of the Freedom Caucus, like Sen. Cale Case and Rep. Lloyd Larsen, both of Lander, and former Speaker of the House Albert Sommers.
Early voting is underway in Wyoming. The primary election is Aug. 18.
For more information about candidates in Wyoming’s federal, state and legislative races, check out WyoFile’s 2026 Election Guide.
the wyoming unfreedumb carcass is largely made up of opportunistic carpetbaggers so makes sense that an out of state entity would be financially backing these migrant vermin.
There you have it. Meg and Chuck each get $500K from daddio. Stevo loans himself $3M. Poor Reid ponies up just $1.9M, so no wonder the terrible haircut. But better off than Frank who loaned himself $1M, only to drop out. Defeating Communism PAC spends $170K so there’s serious confusion about the Red Desert.. A Virginia PAC forks up $500K and sends out-of-state kids door knocking. Our buds in the Koch network spend another $280K.
We’re still in the primaries. In the least populated state in the union. Where checks were handed out on the House floor.
I don’t see a problem here.
Would somebody please tell me what “true conservatives values” are.
Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth are the top seven.
Oh I’d just say sex and death. Like some hokey metal band.
That’s all the reason we need not to vote for Freedom Caucus candidates. These outside groups have never advocated for anything that was in the best interest of Wyoming.
Make Liberty Win, What a joke. Another misnamed goofball PAC. Will you Wyoming people be fooled again? I hope not. If you want liberty you’ll vote against Bob Ide, the guy with the ‘big hat and empty pasture’.