The House Freedom Caucus entered the 2026 budget session ready to steamroll opponents. But for many of its priorities, that bravado didn’t pan out.
Opinion
That’s often what happens when bullies build a badass reputation by crushing anyone they can easily pick a fight with and win. When they try the same strategy on someone with the strength and gumption to battle, bullies often back down.
The far-right Freedom Caucus’ quick rise to power in the 2024 election reversed course and resulted in a series of stinging defeats this year, including plans to seriously harm the University of Wyoming, defund Wyoming Public Media and freeze state employee salaries.
The caucus also demanded the closure of the Wyoming Business Council, which was spared by a late budget compromise and will get at least modest one-year funding and a chance to revamp its core economic development work.
The Freedom Caucus erased Gov. Mark Gordon’s call for $111.8 million for state employee raises, but the House ultimately adopted the salary hikes on the budget bill’s final reading.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, the Freedom Caucus’ chair emeritus, bragged before the session that the Joint Appropriations Committee he co-chairs was “chopping away” at Gordon’s $11 billion biennial budget proposal.
“We’ve had a lot of squealing going on in the JAC from the Democrats, and the Republicans that really should be Democrats, because they say that we’re just destroying government,” Bear said in defense of the committee’s $235 million budget cuts.
Unlike years when Wyoming had budget crises, legislators weren’t dealing with funding shortfalls. Legislators had a tug-of-war over where to stash a $250 million surplus.
Yet the panel cut UW’s block grant by $40 million and made $21 million in other reductions because the Freedom Caucus and its misguided Senate allies think the university has a “woke” agenda that needs to be fixed.
Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, a member of the Freedom Caucus and Joint Appropriations Committee, proposed the 11% cut to UW’s block grant. “The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university that has forgotten its founding purpose,” Pendergraft said.
A Freedom Caucus colleague, Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, concurred. “There are things being taught in our university that don’t align with the way of life” in Wyoming, he said.
Bear said the budget cuts were necessary to get the university’s “attention.” On that issue alone, he succeeded, but I’m sure it wasn’t how he intended.
In 2025, when the Legislature defunded UW’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, university officials acquiesced to the decision after UW President Ed Seidel initially proposed using private funds for DEI programs.
Part of that response was understandable because the university feared other cuts, but UW’s leadership has been maddeningly silent in recent years whenever the Legislature spoke. This time, the magnitude of the proposed cuts awoke the sleeping giant, and UW used its strong support to tell lawmakers they were making a colossal mistake.
I don’t know if it was polling or direct communication with the public, but the Freedom Caucus got the message: Carrying out these severe cuts would surely backfire in the next election.
Most of the budget cuts were restored, including $1.7 million for Wyoming Public Media, which unites a statewide audience with its mix of news, music, local programming and emergency alerts.
Pendergraft said the government shouldn’t be funding public media, then offered this bizarre comparison: “It is not the concept of government to have an immediate extension like a ‘Pravda,’” referring to the former Soviet Union’s Communist Party newspaper, a government mouthpiece for state propaganda.
When House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, appointed himself and four other devout Freedom Caucus members to the joint conference committee to try to reach a budget compromise, I envisioned an epic battle with the Senate committee.
Unlike the House, which towed the Joint Appropriations Committee’s line, the Senate restored the governor’s recommended budget early and watched the House consider nearly 250 amendments.
To reach a compromise to pass the budget in the House, Bear advised lawmakers to cut only $20 million from UW’s block grant. But the Senate demanded full funding, and House negotiators quickly caved, albeit with a caveat by Bear that leaves $10 million in state funding hanging in the balance.
The Freedom Caucus overplayed its hand, not recognizing that its DEI victory hadn’t turned UW into a quivering blob of jelly that could be easily overpowered. Its membership includes many who recently moved here from other states, and got elected by espousing so-called “Wyoming values” and staunchly defending whatever madness President Donald Trump imposed on the nation.
The university has a rich history of serving Wyomingites since 1887, ranging from families that have sent students there for generations and students who are the first members of their families to attend college. There are also thousands of people whose connection to the university is attending sports events, cheering and belting out “Ragtime Cowboy Joe.”
If Freedom Caucus members spent more time on the campus of Wyoming’s only four-year university — or any college where they came from — they might recognize that UW is the institution that most unites the state.
By 2017, what would formally become the Freedom Caucus was taking shape — a ragtag team of about a half-dozen hardline conservatives whose agenda was a non-starter with more traditional Republicans who long held the House majority. It gained members and power by following the national GOP battleplan to take on red-hot social issues and bludgeon opponents.
The caucus targeted LGBTQ+ individuals by focusing on book bans and transgender athletes. It went after people of color by attacking “critical race theory.” It supported private school vouchers to weaken public education, and advanced the absurd notion that our elections are rigged.
While the Freedom Caucus initially didn’t win on most of these issues, it built a base that kept showing up at elections. Membership grew and the caucus held more than one-third of House seats by 2024, enough to kill 13 committee bills it opposed on opening day due to the budget session rule that bills must have two-thirds support to be introduced.
Taking control of the chamber in 2025, the Freedom Caucus passed its “Five and Dime Plan” with its top five priorities in the first 10 days. The package of fairly easy wins included restricting voter registration; invalidating driver licenses issued to unauthorized immigrants; defunding UW’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; banning state investments in environment, social and governance funds; and a property tax relief bill.
This budget session was a reckoning for the Freedom Caucus, which had a date with karma. When more traditional conservatives and the chamber’s six Democrats united against Freedom Caucus measures, they killed 21 committee bills on the first day.
That included six of seven bills the caucus said would improve “election integrity,” which isn’t a problem in Wyoming.
The caucus turned to social media to whine that committee bills used to be “untouchable,” but Democrats and RINOs — Republicans in name only — conspired to change that. “Turns out they never really cared about the bills being committee bills,” the caucus hilariously posted. “They’re just leftists.”
Before the session started, WyoFile asked Bear if the Freedom Caucus was concerned its priorities would not make it past introduction. Bear said he wasn’t worried.
“It’s an election year,” Bear explained. “If those people want to block the stuff that the people want, they’ll pay a heavy price.”
I doubt it. It’s far more likely that after seeing the Freedom Caucus’ inability to pass its wildly unpopular agenda, highlighted by its boneheaded move to gut the university, voters will finally realize this band of far-right rebels is clueless about what Wyomingites value and take away much of its power.
Minor correction to the otherwise well-reported article: the threat to pull back $10 million of the University’s block grant unless it does a study on how to cut $5 million was vetoed by the Governor. The House ultimately sustained that veto, so the full $40 million cut has now been restored with no financial strings attached.
Take care not to announce “victory” too soon. Wyoming managed to mitigate some of the most damaging FC proposals in this legislative session. Thankfully, the “Checkgate” incident exposed some of the FC, their funders, and methods. Wyoming’s outrage over this corruption temporarily pushed them back onto their heels. However, they are well funded, determined, and “on a mission from god” to impose their politics and policies onto Wyoming and it’s people. We need to remain vigilant, get involved, vote, and encourage more pragmatic and reasonable people to vote and candidates to run for office. The FC demise in Wyoming’s politics is greatly exaggerated, the fight for Wyoming’s soul has just begun. Remember this and vote in August! Go Pokes!
Luke makes some great points here. The FC are like rats, you eliminate one and another is out there to take its place. But when you step on one (fill in the blank)
Well articulated, thanks Kerry! Always appreciate your reporting.
So tell me: Was Edmund Burke a RINO or is the Freedom Caucus extremest? There are so many threads of conservatism it hard to keep up!
Nice article. Now we need to get out the votes and clean out the not so grey areas and hopefully someone will skin a bear.
Thanks for this piece.
And Go Pokes! Go here, go out around the world – think, do, keep learning.
Come back – for awhile or forever.
Wyoming becomes better through all our life journeys, at home and beyond.
Those of us with, and without, college degrees have value for our beloved Wyoming.
Too many zero-sum gamers. When folks were running around with their hair on fire a few weeks ago after the JAC approved their version of the budget and set the negotiations anchor to the right of the governor’s opening, it was obvious that the full Legislature would move to the middle. How is that a failure? Any negotiation has opening positions. Then folks dicker to the center with both sides winning some / losing some. I think they call that democracy or something?
While I despise the UnFreeDumb Carcass like a skunk digging up the garden, I will give their diehard members props for being balsy and proudly wearing the FC moniker as they goose step. They are proud to help us easily detect who these assholes are. Several others think like the FC, run with the FC, vote with the FC but don’t have the guts to admit it. The rube himself, Mr. usda subsidy check man senator, Tim French comes to mind
I know of at least 10 FC members who received a $1500 Bextel-Grasso Scholarship recently. I hope that they will consider investing those funds in obtaining a high quality education for themselves instead of frittering away the cash trying to buy my vote this year.
I very rarely comment twice, but I did not want to get my comments about the University of Wyoming lost in my other ramblings
I graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1981 with a great education
And even with a downturn in Wyoming’s economy, I was still able to obtain a job. I did not end up with any student debt.
It’s a lot more now than I paid but it’s still a lot cheaper than a majority of the public institutions in this country
To all the legislators out there don’t mess with a good deal. The freedom caucus wants people to stay in the state, but their ideals are changing where graduates want to move out of this state..
Times rating of universities rates, Wyoming 61 public universities. 99 among all United States universities and 286th in the world among universities
For a small state we have a great university
SO I REPEAT, DO NOT MESS WITH OUR UNIVERSITY. DO NOT MESS WITH OUR COMMUNITY COLLEGE COLLEGES I GRADUATED FROM CASPER COLLEGE WITH A GOOD BACKGROUND TO GO INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING.
THE FREEDOM SEEMS TO WANT TO RUIN EVERYTHING IN OUR STATE.
EVERY NIGHT THEY GO TO BED, WORSHIPING THE GREAT ORANGE ONE
WYOMING DOES NOT FOLLOW THE SAME VALUES OF THE REST OF THE COUNTRY. AND THE FREEDOM CAUCUS NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT.
As a long time consumer of public media, largely because of the absence of corporate influence, I was amused, amazed and appalled at Mr Pendergraft comparing it to Pravda, state media. I suggest a much, much closer parallel to Pravda would be Fox News. Fox did not settle with Dominion for $787.5 million for factual reporting, they settled because they lied to viewers. I’m pleased to see from the comments that Wyofile reaches some of those on the right. It’s a good thing for them to get a peek outside of their information bubble occasionally. When Trump cries fake news I immediately suspect factual news. Thank you Wyofile for sticking to facts.
To think a good share of our state representation, and their supporters, believe in the stolen election idiocy is depressing.
Fox wouldn’t have settled for 3/4 of a billion dollars if there was any inkling of truth to their claims. Gullible chrumpers still believe in the stupidity….
The Freidumkopf Carcass’ war on UW reminds me of Trumpkopf DeathCULT47’s new war in Írán. The DeathCULT confused a weak power like Venezuela with a major sophisticated power like the Islámic Republic just as the Carcass has confused some tiny public library with Wyoming’s only public university—the results will both be disastrous.Stupidity and ignorance!
These idiots talk about the Wyoming way of life. Many of them are not from Wyoming. Soooo…. what do they know?
It appears they don’t know much. Thus they have been called many things by your readers. They want freedom as long as they can define what freedom is. My personal favorite is the Dumb carcass.
I was born in Wyoming 69 years ago and I’d like to share some things about the Wyoming Way of life.
The first and main Wyoming way my parents taught me was that we help our neighbors. We can agree to disagree with them, but we still help them when they need help.
We respect people’s opinion when it helps our neighbors. But, we don’t respect it if it hurts our neighbors.
Everyone has the right to their beliefs. Even if we don’t agree with their beliefs, we still respect those beliefs
School teachers have a tough job and should be highly respected.
We respect the land and the wild wildlife
We don’t have to agree with our neighbors to respect their opinion
We do not discriminate based on race, Creed color, sex, National origin, age, handicap, religion, or any other physical or mental disability, they may have.
We can agree to disagree, but in the end, we’re still neighbors
This so-called freedom caucus does not align with the Wyoming way of life.
They are pretty much on the track to ruin Wyoming and the Wyoming Way of life. I wish they would just go home to wherever they were born..
I also still believe that WyoFile should publish a list of all the people that are in the freedom caucus. Those people are truly The RINO’s. They are not Republicans. In my life I voted for a lot of Democrats and a lot of Republicans and will continue to look at their platforms to decide who I has the best ideas. But, then I also look at if they fulfilled those ideas
The last Wyoming Way of life I’d like to mention is that we do not lie. Last election cycle the dumb carcass
Put out so many negative and false ads about their opponents. I kept all the flyers or mailers and when it was time for election, I had 60 some. What a waste of paper. Not very good for their carbon footprint.
People of Wyoming, pay attention, learn what the individual is really about that you’re voting for.
Donald Trump is ruining this country. Start looking at real news stories and not just Fox News..
The dumb caucus is ruining Wyoming
Please research it. You’ll find out it’s true.
Please respond to this if you have any good or bad comments for me. I will respect those comments and can agree or disagree on them. I will still respect them.
Extremely good points, John. It’s all in the open how this fascist group operates and it’s up to voters to turn off fox news and see the real Freedomless Caucus for who they are
Read through your list one more time I think, then skim through the rest of the comments here, then compare to Kerry’s story. In any of it, is there really any room for a different perspective other than this monochrome version held here? It’s so hateful, so myopic, so viscerally locked into a one dimensional view of ‘acceptable’. Any challenge to ‘the view’ here must immediately be destroyed. It’s like a religion or cult or something. It’s simply too closed minded for me, sorry.
I’m not a singular proponent of the WFC, but I do appreciate the challenge they bring to the well funded massive establishment demanding they dictate their way and only their way across the State. I hang out here on Wyofile even though my conservative views are completely unwelcome, but I like to see the ‘other side’ and get a feel where other perspectives are coming from. Tunnel vision is eventually fatal, no matter what tunnel you’re comfortable travelling in.
Well said. I respect that. I hope you respect mine. We can agree to disagree and that what I like about who
In my opinion the FC does not respect opinions that are not theirs. It’s their way or the highway
I agree John. Many of the stands WFC take are tough to compromise w/o compromising beliefs and values. I’ll spare you the list. But on items where balance and agreement are fundamental I see the WFC quite able to compromise for the greater good. This year’s budget is an example. The ’27-’28 Base budget (’25-’26 total actual appropriations) is $10.4B. Gordon’s Recommended ’27-’28 budget is $11.1B and the Legislature settled on a $10B budget. We’ll see what next year’s Supplemental budget will be, but we survived just fine with zero Supplemental last year. The pushback hurts, certainly. But it appears our Legislature and Governor are quite capable of compromise. Our governor is smiling and happy with results. Sounds like things are working.
You aren’t conservative, you’re a rabbit hole believer.
Rational conservatives, which there are many, don’t put their whole belief systems into conspiracy theories like you do.
Qanon isn’t real.
No election was stolen.
You live in a fantasy.
Chuck, you seem to be the only person with an unhealthy obsession about qanon, you refer to it in most of your comments.
“stolen election” accusations have been wholly bipartisan going back to 2000. Why this very morning, Jasmine Crockett in Texas is screaming foul and rigged election in her Primary loss.
“Stolen Elections” is as American as Apple Pie. It comes along with unsecure voting methods, and both sides lay claim when they lose.
As usual, you’re being disingenuous chad/jack/doug. To compare past election questions to the stupidity that has been going on since 2020, isn’t accurate. You know that, but you aren’t able to control your trolling tendencies.
People who are still believing qanon and a stolen 2020 election are detached from the truth. It isn’t a matter of political differences. It’s a matter of different realities. Those that still live in a rabbit hole reality should not be taken seriously on any opinion they have.
Regular people should not be responsible for normalizing idiotic conspiracy theories.
Chad, Crockett is screaming foul because Dallas Cnty changed rules regarding where voters must now cast their primary ballot. After years of being able to cast their ballot anywhere within the county, they now had to vote within their assigned precinct. That change happened because the Republicans declined to participate in county wide voting centers. It’s not because of someone illegally voting, or rogue electronic voting machines. Unfortunately too many people failed to get the message about the change and it resulted in confusion when they came to cast their ballot. It’s a shame….would the outcome have been different for Crockett, maybe, perhaps, maybe not. All I know for sure is that it’s the voters responsibility to know when and where to cast their ballot. Time to move on, the cows are already out of the pasture, too late to shut the gate now.
Finally an article about the, so called, freedom caucus that paints them in the light, and language they’ve earned for themselves (Rod Miller being the exception). They’ve effectively exposed themselves as the bullies they are through the audacity of the Dunning Kruger effect. Hopefully the majority of Wyoming voters are beginning to see through the wool they had pulled over their eyes. Thank you Wyofile and staff.
thank you for this clear and concise article. well done.
The Freedom Caucus seems to want to take freedoms away. Forcing people to see things your way or the highway is more of a dictatorship. If we want to keep our youth in WY, we need to offer diversity in their education. People in WY do not like being told what to do, when to do it or how to do it. We need every single person. We need to embrace our differences as uniqueness and opportunities. Let’s stop trying to tell anyone how or what to think and start working together for a better Wyoming.
The main reason the fc didn’t get their way this legislative session is because of the overwhelming amount of feedback they received through emails, phone calls, texts , editorials and testifying at committee hearings letting them know we didn’t like their way of governing. If we had remained silent the result would have been much different.
Now we have to understand we need the same effort on August 18. The freedom caucus mindset has not changed. We now need to let them know our dissatisfaction by showing them the door.
Dave Gustafson
Absolutely! And for anyone who wants to change parties to vote in the primary, the new deadline for party change is May 13. (Little Chucky Gray is doing his best to restrict voting rights.)
Everyone should know that the WY FC is being run entirely by out of state interests. The majority of FC reps don’t even understand what the bills they are introducing are about but they are told how to vote. I watched a legislator read a bill and it was as though they were at a 3rd grade reading level. I could see the highlighted lines in the bill from the gallery.
All of these cruel and inept and religious zealots need to be voted out. When Haroldson says “gun free zones are unsafe”, I know the world is crazy.
Some of these house reps won by as little as 6 votes. Now they have a voting record. Please vote in the midterms!
The Freedom Caucus and it’s assortment of fascists, whack jobs and carpetbaggers has been that proverbial turd in the toilet bowl that just keeps going round and around and won’t flush. Looks like the plumbing got fixed and now it’s WHOOSH time
The freedumb caucus thinks it should be able to ruin Wyoming and still say that they’re protecting the Wyoming way of life. They learned the art of projection from the felon in the White House. I was born in Wyoming and have lived here my entire life. It is not anything like it used to be. Driving through Wyoming is like entering a fake christian cult. The felon has a lot of people fooled. Our three goofball reps are against you and I, but you still vote for them. Our state legislature is full of out-of- staters that march to the trump drum and the wealthy. For the wealthy, it’s all about preserving their wealth.
Do any members of the Freedom Caucus understand the personal, social, and economic values of higher education?
Have they enrolled for a semester or more of classes? Do their own children attend classes at any of Wyoming’s community colleges or the university?
The 2026 edition of the Freedom Caucus, now better known as the UnFreeDumbAss Carcass, were like scurrying cockroaches getting stepped on by big dog.
Remember August 18 will be here before we know it. Voter integrity has been a big topic of discussion. I for one, if I was in the United States illegally would not be drawing attention to myself by trying to vote. The hand counting of ballots in contested races may be a skill which will take learning. Sounds as hard as counting cattle
Happy the fc got shut down! I’d like to know how many of them are out-of-state transplants? Hopefully we can go back to common sense and kick ALL these types back to the ranks of the great unwashed!
We need to continue the sensible way of doing things here in Wyoming. Thanks go to the people in the legislature who held firm, and turned the tide on these people!
I agree with Kerry Drake’s assessment of Freedum Caucus. They need to be voted out!