NEWS
A newly created Wyoming political action committee has spent nearly a quarter-million dollars influencing the Republican gubernatorial primary—and every dollar it reported receiving came from a national PAC overwhelmingly financed by some of the country’s largest liberal dark-money organizations.
According to its 2026 primary campaign-finance report, Keep Wyoming Working PAC received a single $250,000 contribution from the Washington, D.C.-based Government That Works PAC on August 5. It then reported spending $220,000 with Armada Strategies and another $8,500 with Poolhouse Agency for television advertising.
The money was used to air an attack advertisement against Republican gubernatorial candidate Megan Degenfelder. Although the advertisement does not expressly tell voters to support Eric Barlow, its political effect is obvious: attacking one of Barlow’s principal opponents benefits Barlow.
Barlow has denied involvement and condemned the advertisement. There is currently no public evidence that his campaign coordinated with the PAC. But coordination is not necessary for Barlow to benefit from nearly a quarter-million dollars in outside spending against his opponent.
The larger question is where the money came from—and why national liberal organizations spent it in Wyoming’s Republican primary.
A National Liberal Funding Network
Government That Works is not a Wyoming organization. It is a national political committee that has spent millions of dollars attempting to influence Democratic primaries.
The organization contributed approximately $3.75 million to Lone Star Rising, a PAC supporting progressive Texas Democrat James Talarico. That PAC reportedly spent nearly $2.6 million opposing Talarico’s primary opponent and approximately $1 million promoting Talarico.
Government That Works also launched a roughly $1.5 million advertising campaign supporting progressive Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson. Reporting by Maine Public traced much of Government That Works’ financial backing to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and another group, Responsive Government Action.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund reportedly contributed $4 million directly to Government That Works. Responsive Government Action contributed another $7 million after receiving a $7.7 million grant from the Sixteen Thirty Fund in 2024.
Together, those two sources reportedly supplied approximately 73 percent of the money Government That Works raised during its first year. That makes the Sixteen Thirty Fund central to understanding how liberal political money found its way into Wyoming.
What Is the Sixteen Thirty Fund?
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) advocacy organization founded in 2009. InfluenceWatch classifies it as left-of-center and describes it as one of the Left’s largest dark-money operations.
Unlike traditional political committees, a 501(c)(4) organization generally does not have to publicly disclose the identities of all its donors. Money can be collected from wealthy individuals, foundations, unions and other nonprofit organizations and then passed through to advocacy groups and political campaigns without voters necessarily knowing the original source.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund was created with seed money from liberal organizations including Americans United for Change, ACORN, USAction, the Sierra Club and Working America.
Its known financial supporters have included organizations associated with some of the largest donors on the political Left. According to InfluenceWatch, its major donors are the Berger Action Fund, backed by Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss; George Soros’s Open Society Policy Center; Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund Voice; and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Advocacy.
Labor organizations have also contributed to the fund. Its disclosed funders have included the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and other unions. Planned Parenthood Action Fund is also listed among organizations that have provided money to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The scale of the operation is enormous. InfluenceWatch reports that the Sixteen Thirty Fund raised more than $1.36 billion and spent more than $1.3 billion between 2009 and 2023. Its 2024 filing showed approximately $282 million in revenue and nearly $311 million in expenditures.
That money has helped finance an extensive network of left-wing political, climate, labor, abortion-rights, and election-related advocacy campaigns. Among the fund’s reported 2023 grantees were the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Climate Power, the Climate Equity Action Fund, America Votes and numerous state-based progressive organizations.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund has also operated closely with the New Venture Fund. InfluenceWatch describes the two as “sister” organizations that have provided fiscal sponsorship and pass-through funding for left-of-center groups and temporary advocacy campaigns, otherwise known as "pop-ups." Both were historically administered by Arabella Advisors.
The New Venture Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization, while the Sixteen Thirty Fund is its politically active 501(c)(4) counterpart. The difference being, a 501(c)(4) is not required to disclose its donors. Financial records show the New Venture Fund transferred more than $181 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund from 2019 through 2022 alone.
Government That Works is directly financed by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is deeply connected financially and organizationally to the New Venture Fund and the broader Arabella network. Government That Works directly funded Keep Wyoming Working with $250,000. Keep Wyoming Working is one of those "pop-up" temporary advocacy organizations.
In other words, the money entering Wyoming did not originate with Wyoming conservatives. It came through a national political operation funded largely by one of the American left's largest campaign financing groups.
Why Eric Barlow?
Why would organizations that spend millions helping progressive Democrats care who wins a Republican primary in Wyoming? The most obvious answer is that Eric Barlow's politics fit neatly into the larger progressive Democrat agenda.
Barlow’s extensive environmental activism record and his open advocacy against Wyoming's fossil fuel industry in 2003 make him an attractive candidate to larger progressive organizations. Before that, in 2002, Barlow teamed up with Earthjustice to sue the State of Wyoming over mineral development. Earthjustice has continually filed lawsuits against the Trump Administration over coal, oil, and natural gas.
He voted for Wyoming’s 2020 carbon-capture mandate on coal-fired power plants—a policy that placed government mandates and experimental technology between Wyoming coal and the free market. That vote is difficult to reconcile with his current pro-coal campaign rhetoric, but it fits comfortably within the climate-policy interests funded by the Sixteen Thirty network.
Barlow also voted against SF0044, Fairness in Sports--Intercollegiate Athletics, in 2025. That legislation now protects women’s collegiate sports. This, among many other votes, places him at odds with Wyoming’s conservative Republican base.
His political style may be equally attractive to national liberal interests. Barlow presents himself as a pragmatic, cooperative Republican focused on making government operate more effectively. That language closely resembles the “responsive government” branding used throughout this funding network.
None of this proves that Barlow requested the assistance or coordinated with the PAC. That would be illegal. It does, however, offer a plausible explanation for why national liberal strategists might prefer him over a more consistently conservative Republican.
Ironically, however, the distance between the Barlow campaign and those paying for attack ads on TV allow Barlow to claim that he's opposed to Washington DC influence in Wyoming politics. After the Keep Wyoming Working ad campaign concluded, Barlow's campaign ran ads decrying outside influence in Wyoming elections.
Keep Wyoming Working received $250,000 from Government That Works and spent nearly all of it on advertising attacking one of Eric Barlow’s principal Republican opponents. Government That Works, in turn, received most of its early funding from organizations tied directly to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The same national financial network that has supported progressive Democrats, climate activists, labor organizations, and left-wing advocacy campaigns has now intervened in Wyoming’s Republican gubernatorial primary in a way that benefits Eric Barlow.
Wyoming voters should ask a simple question: Why does one of the country’s largest liberal dark-money networks believe that helping Eric Barlow is worth a quarter-million dollars?