"The Freedom Caucus is voting like their Washington overlords are telling them to."
This seems to be the rallying cry from the Wyoming mainstream media. Let’s look at some examples of this narrative.
Who is in the Wyoming Freedom Caucus Report Offers Insight | Wyoming Trib. Eagle
Why Do Some Freedom Caucus Members Hide? | Cowboy State Daily
Here is the conservative movement’s agenda for the upcoming 2026 Budget session:
Wyoming Freedom Caucus 2026 Legislative Priorities.
1. The Budget — Cut waste and limit the growth of government.
2. Election Integrity — Make pen & paper ballots the default voting method in Wyoming.
3. Parental Rights — Codify a private course of action to empower parents when their rights are violated.
4. Protect Children — Prevent libraries from giving kids sexually explicit materials.
5. Judicial Transparency — Ensure citizen access to court proceedings and orders.
Now let’s look at the documents that define what the Conservative Movement believes in.
The Wyoming Republican Party Platform:
1. Unalienable Rights: The platform asserts that all individuals are endowed with rights to Life, Liberty, Property, and the Pursuit of Happiness from conception to natural death. The government’s role is to protect these rights for all citizens.
2. Equality Before the Law: It emphasizes that every citizen is equal before the law and should be equally protected and subject to it.
3. Second Amendment Rights: The party strongly supports the right to keep and bear arms, asserting that this right should not be infringed.
4. Property Rights: The platform advocates for the protection of private property and opposes government overreach through eminent domain and civil asset forfeiture.
5. Education: The Wyoming Republican Party supports teaching of the U.S. Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and the historical role of faith in the nation’s founding in schools.
6. Natural Resources: The Party believes in the state’s primacy over its natural resources, including water and minerals, and supports actions that ensure Wyoming’s control over these resources.
7. Labor Rights: The platform opposes the unionization of public employees and supports Right-to-Work laws.
8. Election Integrity: The party emphasizes the importance of upholding election integrity and opposes federal interference in state and local elections.
Does the Freedom Caucus agenda stack up with the Wyoming Republican Party Platform?
The Wyoming media has been telling you these lies for the last few years —that those of the Conservative Movement can’t think for themselves is one of the narratives. But long before there was any association with the national caucus, conservative grassroots legislators were fighting for the Republican Party platform in the bills they brought. They supported bills that reflected their principles; and were also willing to stand against the bills that did not align with the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions and the Republican Party Platform.
The Wyoming Republican Party Platform is voted on by thousands of Wyomingites through their local elected precinct members at each county’s convention. The platform is then sent to the State Convention to be debated and revised again and finally ratified.
The problem with the narrative that collaborating with national groups is just a conservative practice is unfair. It’s called lobbying, and Wyoming has no shortage of lobbyists that come in and out of the Wyoming Capital. They even have their own space on the ground level called the Capital Club; which prints a directory of registered lobbyists.
Groups like the Wyoming Education Association, which is a part of the National Education Association, is a member.
Who We Are - Wyoming Education Association
Wyoming Equality is listed as a national group.
BlackRock Investing Services is a global company. They too can be found in the lobbyist directory.
Then there are the many other companies and associations that lobby legislators as well as some associations using your tax dollars to lobby, such as the Wyoming Association of Municipalities (WAM) and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA).
On any given day during the legislative session couriers can be seen bringing in notes and placing them on the desks of legislators on the House and Senate floor. These are from lobbyists asking legislators to come out of the chambers to talk about a bill they are watching for the company by which they were hired to lobby. Legislators leave the floor, sometimes during key debates and votes.
In full disclosure, sometimes the notes are from other legislators across the hall or from family members. The majority are from lobbyists. They tend to hang out in halls, known as “Ambush Alley,” right outside the chambers. Lobbyists wait for the legislators to pass through while on their way out.
It isn’t that lobbyists shouldn’t be a part of the process; they have opinions and are constituents too. To say that it’s an acceptable practice for one group of lawmakers but not the other is absurd. The media narrative is that our lobbyists are local people who have a stake in Wyoming, and the Freedom Caucus might be listening to Washington elites. Wyoming legislators listen to a whole lot of people before making their decisions. And as far as our local lobbyists, most of the companies they work for have a national presence too.
Lobbyists have a job to do. But more Wyoming citizens should testify in front of the legislators in committee meetings. There have been many legislative committee meetings full of lobbyists and only one private citizen in the crowd. Legislators should weigh each piece of legislation based on the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, the Republican Party Platform, their constituents, and their own consciences.