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!”
During the 2024 legislative session, Honor Wyoming 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 made it to his desk. (screenshot/Honor Wyoming’s Instagram)
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.
Freedom Caucus member Rep. Tony Locke (R-Casper) thanks Honor Wyoming for a billboard the organization paid for to support him. (Screenshot/Tony Locke for Wyoming Facebook)
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.
Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) listens during the 2024 legislative session. (Ashton J. Hacke)
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.
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