Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, August 20th. I'm Mac Watson.

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After Tuesday's Republican primary election gutted the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, the caucus says it's far from dead — and will regroup. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland spoke to former chair John Bear who says, "I don't think any of us anticipated this kind of loss."

"Representative Tom Kelly, who lost his bid for Superintendent of Public Instruction, was posting on Facebook, some are attributing this to disfavor over national issues, but really, there's a decline in populism nationally. And he said something like groups that are even aligned or kind of contingent with the Freedom Caucus are paying for this backlash against the populist movement. He said the upshot is that many solid conservative and libertarian voices are getting thrown out with the populace bathwater."

Wyoming's registered Republican voters ousted 13 of its allies in Tuesday's primary election. At least 11 open seats went to non-Freedom Caucus candidates and at least 13 non-caucus incumbents survived the primary election.

Read the full story HERE.

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After Tuesday's primary, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is being gutted from about a 35-member bloc in the state House to 10. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland's reports that of those likely to reach the House after the general election, about 43 say they don't align with the controversial caucus.

"Not having a majority obviously makes it harder to pass things that require simple majority, and then also knocks them down from that two thirds that's required to get billed across the introductory threshold during budget years. I mean, other things like the majority elects the House Speaker, for example, and then the House Speaker is deciding who's going on what committees and stuff like that. And so it's just everything boils down to the numbers."

Noteworthy upsets included the ousting of House Appropriations Chair John Bear, Majority Floor Leader Scott Heiner, Cheyenne caucus members Reps. Gary Brown and Steve Johnson and Park County Rep. Nina Webber, who also serves as the state GOP's national committee woman.

Read the full story HERE.

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Among Wyoming GOP primary election winners, Treasurer Curt Meier got the best deal of campaign expense per vote at $1.61, and U.S. House nominee Chuck Gray the worst, at $44. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports including the runners-up, Reid Rasner spent the most with a staggering $209 per vote.

"Among the winners of the statewide Republican nominations, Treasurer Curt Meier got the best deal. He spent. Meier spent about a buck-61 a vote, so name recognition, incumbency, pretty efficient campaign. He did good. Whereas Secretary of State Chuck Gray, among the winners, got the worst deal at like $44 a vote. He was a big spender there in the you know the above a million dollar range, and then among all the contenders in statewide Wyoming races, including those who did not win the nomination, Reid Rasner topped all for the worst deal at $209 a vote. He spent more than $2 million on his U.S. House campaign. Kevin Christensen got way more than he bargained for, as Secretary of State Chuck Grace started actually campaigning for him and telling everyone that Christensen was in second place, and so Christensen ended up in third place in that crowded U.S. House race spending a buck-21 per vote."

U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman won 83,794 votes for the GOP nomination to U.S. Senate, more than all