Wyoming GOP endorses candidates ahead of primary election, but says it won’t spend party funds backing endorsees

While the Wyoming Republican Party endorsed candidates in the state’s top races this week, GOP Chairman Bryan Miller says the organization will not spend money to support those candidates ahead of the primary election in August.

“We obviously can’t put ads in the papers and do all those different things. We’re not going to do that,” Miller told WyoFile on Wednesday, referring to a state statute that prohibits a political party from backing one of its candidates over another before the primary.

More specifically, it is a misdemeanor for a political party to expend any party funds “directly or indirectly in the aid of the nomination of any one person as against another person of the same political party running in the primary election,” according to state law.

However, Miller said, state law does not forbid the party from vetting and endorsing candidates — a process the party began in April when it voted to adopt bylaws designed to fortify the party’s ability to determine who is Republican in Wyoming and who is not. In June, the GOP sued the state, challenging the constitutionality of the law that restricts party spending.

“We do vetting, and we can do endorsing,” Miller said Wednesday. “It is the ability to get that out to the public after the fact that we are hindered on, and that is one heck of a violation of our constitutional rights.”

Historically, the party has backed whichever Republican won in the primaries. But more recently the party has been more selective in supporting candidates after they’ve won in August. The party, for example, only donated to certain Republican nominees ahead of the 2024 general election, according to campaign finance data.

Park County’s Tim Lasseter hydrates during the Wyoming Republican State Convention on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Douglas. (Dan Cepeda for WyoFile)

The party, as the federal lawsuit describes, “would like to contribute amounts determined by its leadership to one Republican candidate in various competitive, opposed primaries whom the party determines is most aligned with the WYGOP’s platform.”

The party also says in its legal complaint that it would like to spend money publishing and distributing voter guides ranking and expressly endorsing candidates based on their alignment with the GOP platform. It also seeks to publish that guide online.

Those actions are currently illegal, the lawsuit states, but such statutes are unconstitutional.

“The State of Wyoming has no compelling interest in preventing a political party from expressing a preference among its own primary candidates or in dictating how a political party allocates its private funds among such candidates,” the complaint states.

For several years, the Wyoming Republican Party has argued in various court challenges that because it is a private group, state laws ought not to govern its organizational structure and internal business. Opponents, meanwhile, say the organization can’t ignore the law, particularly since the party has public duties such as filing vacancies in elected offices like secretary of state or schools superintendent.

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The party announced its endorsements in a Tuesday press release, citing a Monday meeting in which its state central committee “evaluated candidate records, platform fidelity, and core conservative principles.”

“This process is not about party leadership picking winners and losers, nor is it about telling anyone how to vote. It is about transparency,” Miller wrote in the press release. “The Wyoming Republican Party Platform was written and passed by grassroots delegates from all 23 counties. Our endorsement simply highlights candidates whose platform pledges and track records most closely align with those grassroot conservative principles.”

The endorsements largely align with the right flank of the party as well as the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, and include: U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman for U.S. Senate; Secretary of State Chuck Gray for U.S. House; Col. Brent Bien for governor; Rep. Rachel Williams for secretary of state; Rep. Scott Smith for treasurer and Rep. Tom Kelly for superintendent of public instruction.

To what extent candidates embrace the endorsement remains to be seen. On Wednesday, a super PAC solely funded by Gray’s father started advertising the endorsement to potential voters with text messages.

The primary election is Aug. 18. Early voting is underway.

For more information about candidates in Wyoming’s federal, state and legislative races, check out WyoFile’s 2026 Election Guide.

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