Wyoming’s 2024 election cycle officially kicked off Thursday, and the single most visible campaign entity in the state right now isn’t a candidate or a caucus, nor a party or a political action committee.
It’s a nonprofit. Its nondescript name: Honor Wyoming.
In at least one respect, the organization is walking a well-trodden path wherein a mysterious website ranks lawmakers according to their perceived conservative bona fides.
Borrowing the language of cowboying, Honor Wyoming’s website casts each lawmaker in its “brand book” as a “top hand,” “fence-sitter” or “clown,” depending on how they voted on certain bills.
The organization, however, has emerged from the pack via one critical distinction — some serious bankrolling and political machinery.
In the past six months, the organization has spent almost $81,000 in social media ads, according to the Jackson Hole News & Guide, citing a Meta report on ads covering social issues, elections and politics. That number dwarfs the average cost of 2022’s legislative races, campaign finance records show.
During the 2024 legislative session, the group encouraged its social media followers to use its website to directly contact lawmakers about certain bills. The group used the same approach to apply pressure to Gov. Mark Gordon after a bill to repeal most gun-free zones reached his desk.
“Click the link below to email Gov. Mark Gordon and tell him to restore our Second Amendment rights by signing HB0125 now!”
In the weeks following the session, the group paid for billboards alongside high-traffic roadways across the state, highlighting “top hand” lawmakers, many of whom are members of the hard-line Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
“On the eighth day, God looked down on Wyoming and said, ‘I need a steward, a lawmaker with integrity and who honors Wyoming,” states one of several high-production value videos that mark the group’s social media accounts.
“So God made a top hand.”
The group’s business filings with the state, however, don’t pass the smell test, according to Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson), who recently contacted the business division of the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office with his concerns.
Since then, the organization updated its filings and its website, and in the process, provided several new clues as to who’s calling the shots for Honor Wyoming.
Details
Yin — a Democrat who is ranked as “clown” by Honor Wyoming — contacted the secretary of state’s business division on May 1.
He told the agency in a letter he was concerned that the “principal office” listed for both “Honor Wyoming, Inc.” and “Honor Wyoming Foundation” was a mailbox at a UPS store in Cheyenne, and not “actually offices for those entities.”
Under state statute, “principal office” means “the office (within or outside this state) so designated in the annual report.”
“If this is an honest mistake from the entities listed, I hope the Business Division can work to ensure the mistake is corrected,” Yin wrote. “If this is a fraudulent filing, I ask that the Business Division work to administratively dissolve the filing.”
Two weeks later, Yin said in a Wednesday press release, the business division returned his inquiry to let him know the office had reached out to Honor Wyoming.
The day before Yin was contacted, Honor Wyoming amended its filings, which now lists a house in Cheyenne as the principal office. The new filings also listed three new names as “directors” — Thomas James Anderson, Kerry Powers and Blair Maus.
WyoFile did not receive a response from Anderson, Powers or Maus by press time. According to biographies on the Honor Wyoming website, Anderson is a Jackson resident who owned a construction business, Powers is a former Wyoming Game and Fish commissioner, and Maus co-founded the Save the Rodeo Grounds campaign shortly after moving to Jackson from California in 2020.
A fourth leader, Carol Armstrong, a former chairman of Park County Republican Women, was added to the website on Tuesday.
The new filings were signed by John Guido, who was previously one of the only names associated with the group, according to the News & Guide. The other name was Kevin Lewis, who was once registered as a lobbyist for the group and whose Cheyenne address is now listed as the “principal office.”
“I can’t tell you anything about it,” Lewis told WyoFile on Tuesday when asked what he could say about Honor Wyoming.
Lewis said he wasn’t the spokesman. When asked who was, Lewis said, “No idea.”
Lewis once taught at the University of Wyoming Business School and previously worked for Wyoming’s Department of Education under former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill.
He’s now a managing member of a registered agent service — Fidelity Registered Agents, LLC — with Drake Hill, Cindy Hill’s husband and an attorney who once served as chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party.
Remaining questions
While the new filings no longer list a UPS mailbox, Yin remains troubled. In particular, he points to Lewis’ Cheyenne address as also being listed in the new filings as the address for the three newly minted directors.
He questioned whether the group was “again putting false information on their filing, which creates a pattern of false information across multiple filings.”
That contradicts the stated mission of Honor Wyoming, Yin said.
“For a group that claims to decide who has high integrity, yet with multiple interactions with the state, possibly putting up false information in conflict with state law, I would contend that they in fact are not honorable, and do not live up to Wyoming values that they accuse others of not following,” Yin wrote.
Calls to the phone number listed on Honor Wyoming’s latest filings went unanswered. The voicemail had not yet been set up.
Has anyone checked if the democrats have received their zuckerbucks yet?
The average citizen does not follow the political scene so we need folks like Honor Wyoming to keep tabs on voting records of our politicians. Their voting record speaks for itself and most voting is not widely reported. It is very hard to slant actual voting records so we need Honor Wyoming. Only those with something to hide would be against them. Thanks
I can bet its happening in every state, some one should do the smell test across the country..
I met an elderly gentleman fishing from the lighthouse pier in Dublin Ireland last fall. He was game for conversation with a yank.
I knew Ireland had been one of the poorest and downtrodden countries in Europe for centuries. So I asked the man “what did Ireland do to turn their fate around ?” (you will understand if you’ve heard the nickname Celtic Tiger).
He said simply “we separated the church from politics, we made abortion legal, we educated our children and we made a favorable tax climate.” The motivation? Our children were leaving the country for better futures. The country’s population was declining rapidly below 3.5 million. It is now over 5 million and the standard of living has shot up. Our children are staying and raising families here because the have a bright future.
Later, when we were comfortable with one another, he gingerly asked “what is it with America’s politics, we don’t understand how a country with a population over 300 million people can not find one person fit to be President? And it seems to be going backwards in the world. ”
This felonious “Honor Wyoming” organization is just one example of dishonesty, misinformation and extremist propaganda reaching for people’s emotions.
I had no good answer for the Irishmans question.
I would have a lot of good answers.
Hello, I wish WyoFile checked Gov Gordon and his shady moves as well as you “fact checked” Honor Wyoming. Are Republicans and Conservatives easy prey? Gov Gordon and the Democrats always resort to these tactics and focus on main stream media to do their bidding. I believe our Constitution allows freedom of speech and truth should prevail without the “truth” being slanted because “Mine is bigger than yours” in regards to media coverage of both sides. Thank you.
Had to chuckle a bit as I perused the comments here, replete with the worn allusion/attempted comparisons to Nazis and, in some cases, snide elitist aspersions aimed at the “lower, less intelligent” masses who might unwittingly succumb to Honor Wyoming’s message. On a historical note, Nazi’s were extreme leftists (National Democratic Socialist Party), whose ideology was promoted via psyops (also known as lies–google Goebbels) and vigorous, vicious suppression of any contrary thought. Careful what you wish for–the erosion of anyone’s rights are the erosion of everyone’s rights.
Apparently, progressive democrats take umbrage at conservatives employing political tactics/organization similar to those employed by the extreme left for decades.
As to Honor Wyoming–terrific, well done, about time and in comport with the thinking of the vast super majority of Wyoming residents and voters. Where do I contribute?
“Elitist aspersions”–What a euphonious appellation Mr Rosenthal. I would have branded it as “acerbic articulation” myself— suffice it to say I’m just not feelin’ the ” primal throb” on this one……
Gray Needs to look into this group and assure the people of Wyoming they are not breaking the law. He likely won’t because of his political bias.
I don’t see where they left any comments here. Are they not reading WyoFile? What are they reading?
I clicked on the hyper-link and checked out the HW brand book. It’s a pretty slick outfit. Everybody listed in alphabetical order, and color coded for easy cuttin’ and sortin’. There’s some traditional Republican Red bars under the traditional Republicans, and some neon-green bars under all them Greenhorns and Alien life forms that ride for the “FC brand”; Makes it plum simple for everyone. Even them ‘pokes that don’t particularly cotton to readin’ and cipherin’ on the regular got no excuse now for not makin’ their electin’ mark in the appropriate box come November.
I sincerely hope that your comment is meant to be facetious. What we really need is more people that are capable of doing their own research and coming to a sound reasonable decision based on what they have learned. Not people that swallow talking points hook, line and sinker. Thank you Rep Yin for your intervention.
Tim, besides being a pretty slick outfit, it’s also a pretty sick outfit. I hope all politicians who espouse this way of thinking identify themselves as being supported by “Honor” Wyoming. That way I’ll know who to not vote for.
Freedom of speech and the responsibility of nations.
Freedom of speech and accountability for the comportment of a mass of people have a common thread.
What is freedom of speech?
18 th Century French philosopher and precursor of the French Revolution, Voltaire, had this petrifying conception of free expression:
[paraphrasing]
“I might strongly disagree about your opinion, but I would die supporting you for your right to say it”.
So basically, I interpret it as if one has the most non-ethical belief,
I cannot hinder that person to voice it.
Looking back in history, if the nazis rhetoric had been suppressed successfully, Voltaire , would have died defending their rights of speech.
Because there was no obstruction to the nazis freedom of expression, it caused thirty million people to die from 1930 till 1945.
If nations are tacitly putting in practice deeds of barbary induced by amoral philosophy are their citizens ready to face up to their culpability?
In the German instance, freedom of speech led to mass murders with the tacit approval of the ordinary Germans.
Because no one stops the nazis there was an immediate synergy between them and the population; there was a lapse of time which could have killed the infection in its infancy; but it did not happen. The same could be said about Mussolini and the Italians. It also applies to the British and French governments in 1938 in Munich,
In our country, presently, the boundary between moral or amoral is blurry. When the supreme court, religious groups, special interests redefine the meaning of moral standards we are unfortunately heading to a pre-WWII situation.
What level of moral decadence and despair have we sank into?
The awful reality is what I see as decadence is decency for someone else.
Let us not follow the German model of the 1930’s.
Who will untie the Gordian knot? ( Reference to Alexander the Great)
Who funds these guys? As a nonprofit, don’t they have to declare who’s donating to them? Shouldn’t this be public information? Donors to 501.c3 nonprofits get to deduct their contributions on their federal taxes, which has to be reported if over $250. In addition, 501c3’s cannot influence legislation or lobby the legislature. So who do these guys think they are, telling us what’s good for Wyoming, when they are so secretive and don’t even have a legit address. I’m sure their billionaire out of state donors know exactly where to send the check.
Their donors are likely secret because they are a dark money group.
Based on my observations of these legislators it appears Honor Wyoming is making assessments based on a reverse correlation to intelligence, which dishonors Wyoming. Those awarded Top Hand have some of the dumbest ideas and statements I have unfortunately been blessed to hear. My only quibble with the ratings is Martha Lawley’s ranking as her swoon over the Insurrectionist Samuel Alito puts her on par with Bill Allemand for sure.
Its opposite day for Honor Wyoming as High Integrity = Low IQ. Nothing new as the rich have used their tax cuts to attack our rights because their greed knows no bounds.
Time to start taxing all these “non profit” political organizations. Even start taxing the money both Democrat/Republican parties get. From county level all way thru federal level. Good starting point would be 38% of what they bring in.
After examining the contents of Honor Wyoming it is very clear the supposed no profit is clearly an extreme far right organization that wants to use both false information and hide itself from who is truly funding this group. Looking at the list of House of Representatives the Freedom Caucus is given top rankings while those that oppose their political stances and philosophy are given clown ratings. It clear to me they have these ratings backwords
Oh, this is the group that had the weird clown billboard over the viaduct in Cheyenne
Please, just STOP with the obscure, secretive, mysterious, ridiculous, unidentifiable groups. I am an old fashioned Republican, and I say thanks to Mike Yin for exposing this charade.
Yes!! Agreed- they Must publish the Donors and show addresses.. Thanks Mike Yin for exposing!! Greg, Charles and Mary: we must tell others about the “reverse color connection “to radical right because we know our Sec. State Gray is Maga and will try to run for Gov.
Pretty sure that photo is AI generated. Looks like the kid has six fingers.
That’s exactly what I thought!
I’ll vote for the “Clowns”. They need to be agile and smart.
There’s another one of those deceptive words- Honor Wyoming. Really, they’re dishonoring Wyoming and its people.
I think the citizens of the US need to decide how we want to live. There are powerful, monied interests that want to take us backwards, while the rest of the world passes us by. Religion is losing it’s impact as people mature to understand that it’s lost its effect. Those who think more religion is what we need are slowly losing their grip and panicking.
If you can’t control people with religion, then what can you do? Make them poor.
Like it or not, (I don’t) these well done campaigns are effective with their beautiful images such as the western family depicted here. It brings to mind, Turning Point, a conservative organization currently infiltrating high schools and universities. They use a mix of professional, colorful graphics in their banner ads at the Arena Auditorium, RELIGION, COWBOY,
PATRIOTIC, over and over…. Nice symbols but who is buying our attention, our votes, and why? Thank you WyoFile for looking into this.
Sadly, between this questionable nonprofit called “Honor Wyoming” and the Freedom Caucus, ordinary Wyomingites — who engage in thoughtful processes to consider politically charged issues — are having trouble being heard, let alone listened to. WyoFile — what group really holds the majority of Wyoming’s voter pool???
This group and the “freedom” caucus appear to be identical
Sooooo, let me get this straight. Honor Wyoming is being spearheaded in part by a Californian? Likely bankrolling a good bit too, I’d guess.
That’s rich….and from where I sit, carpetbagging at its “finest”. There is no real honor with this group. Only a front for more misinformation. Wyoming deserves better!
When political action groups are hiding who they are and where their money comes from, they are doing it for a reason. If they truly had any honor or integrity they would stand up like a real top hand and look you in the eye. Sounds like another group of out of staters trying to subvert the Wyoming way. Their word has about as much value as their phony filings.
Wyoming is becoming a joke. Pump the myth. Or should I say pimp the myth.
shady