Julie Jarvis stood staring at the floor with typewritten notes in her hand. She wore a black, white and gray turtleneck sweater and black pants. Her jaw was squared, her hair straight and silver. She seemed to be somewhere else — not in the room in the house in Casper with the abstract paintings, the baby grand piano and the people sitting before her with expectation in their eyes. It was an evening in late February, and a winter wind had risen, the kind that leaves highways littered with overturned freight trucks. Outside the window, cottonwood trees danced maniacally. A mad roar whipped through the streets.
Inside it was quiet. Susan Stubson, a member-at-large of the Natrona County Republican Party, put her foot on the piano bench, clasped her hands and began to speak. “I’m just really honored to be part of this movement, for sure,” she said. Stubson described Jarvis as a person with “grit” and “discipline,” a “hard worker” and an “analytical thinker.”
“This is going to be a hard fight,” she said. “I’m not really into tribalism, but I think in this case we need to circle around our wagons.”
Primary challenger Julie Jarvis watches as Rep. Jeanette Ward talks during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
This fight concerned House District 57, a state legislative district in Casper that encompasses a cemetery, several churches, the Casper Recreation Center and 2,434 registered voters of the blue-collar oil town. It had historically swapped hands between Democrats and Republicans. More recently, competition had turned inward between conservatives. A Democrat has not held the district’s seat this century.
But the struggle extended beyond House District 57. A central question hung over many legislative races this election cycle: whether the hard-line Republicans associated with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus would secure a majority in the Legislature, a feat that would potentially impact swaths of policy decisions on topics from climate change to the types of classes offered at the University of Wyoming.
The group has a reputation for caustic rhetoric, aggressive campaigns and for sometimes eschewing traditional Republican values, like local control and personal liberty, when those tenets conflict with the bloc’s goals. Members of the caucus often use the term RINO — Republican in name only — to describe fellow party members with whom they disagree. Their growing influence has culminated in a crucial turning point for Wyoming conservatives. A Republican state lawmaker once described this juncture as a “a battle for the spirit of Wyoming, and specifically, the conservatism of Wyoming and what that means.”
Jarvis was an unlikely part of this struggle. She grew up on a small farm outside of Buffalo. She was raised Catholic and attended church every Sunday. She played competitive sports and shot her first animal when she was 4. She went off to college in Connecticut, where she eventually earned a doctorate in educational leadership and administration. Now, she is the Natrona County School District’s director of teaching and learning.
Politics was not central to her life. Before her sat several of Natrona County’s long-time Republican politicos, many of whom she was meeting in person for the first time. There was Kim Walker, the Natrona County GOP’s state committeewoman. There was Joe McGinley, a local doctor and Natrona County GOP state committeeman who’s had several spats with allies of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. There was Pat Sweeney, a former lawmaker who was ousted by Wyoming Freedom Caucus member Bill Allemand in 2022. There was Dale Bohren, the former publisher of the Casper Star-Tribune and a Natrona County GOP member-at-large whose wife Susan had served in the Wyoming Senate. There was Stubson, who has given interviews on the state of Wyoming politics to outlets like the L.A. Times and MSNBC and is the spouse of former Wyoming lawmaker Tim Stubson. (Susan Stubson joined WyoFile’s board in August.)
Former Wyoming representative Pat Sweeney talks with Republican candidate for Wyoming House District 58 Tom Jones during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
Jarvis was an anomaly in this group. Politics was among her least favorite things. She knew little about the Wyoming Legislature or the state of the Wyoming GOP. But now she had the attention of these people, who were waiting for her to speak. So she did, her voice trembling.
“I’m a fourth-generation Basque Wyomingite,” she said.
“I’m a want-to-fix-it kind of person,” she said.
“I’m a mom. I love being a mom,” she said.
“I truly plan to retire here, so I want to see Wyoming thrive,” she said. And if she wanted to see Wyoming thrive, she would have to do what she had not imagined she would do. Because she had observed the current lawmaker for House District 57, Republican Jeanette Ward, at school board meetings, and had grown increasingly convinced over time that Ward didn’t represent the values of the district, where Jarvis also lived.
Ward came to Wyoming in search of freedom. In August 2021, with her husband and two teenage daughters, she left her home in Illinois, which over the years had become increasingly blue, and settled in Casper. She has described herself as “a political refugee” — a label that some on the right had co-opted in recent years as they fled liberal states for conservative ones. Back in Illinois, Ward’s political trajectory was well-documented by the Chicago Tribune. She had served on the U-46 School Board, headquartered in Elgin, Kane County. She gained a reputation as a controversial board member for statements she made opposing the district’s transgender student policy and for her response to a class assignment one of her daughter’s received that made religious statements she disagreed with. “Some people said I was a little bit of a lightning rod,” the Chicago Tribune reported Ward saying after she lost her reelection bid to the U-46 School Board after a single term: “You either loved me or hated me.”
Soon after, she ran for the state Senate. Her Democratic opponent won by a close margin.
Rep. Jeanette Ward talks with attendees at a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
Ward moved to Wyoming shortly thereafter. Upon her arrival in Casper, she began attending Natrona County School Board meetings, where she and other parents spoke against the district’s COVID-19 vaccine policies. Then the parents, including members of the right-wing group Moms for Liberty, began targeting school library books that they considered to be “pornographic” or otherwise inappropriate for school-aged children. Those on the other side of the matter questioned Ward’s true motives — much of the literature at issue featured characters who were LGBTQ or from racial minorities. Ward took part in protests against the Wellspring Health Access Center, a new health facility in Casper that offers abortion services. She encouraged a boycott of local businesses and organizations — including the hospice and humane society — that had sponsored the city’s widely attended annual Pride event.
When the 2022 election season arrived, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who was then the representative of House District 57, asked Ward to run for the seat after deciding to enter the race for secretary of state. Another Republican, Natrona County School Board member Thomas Myler, filed his candidacy last-minute to challenge her. Ward soundly defeated him in the primary and beat her Democratic opponent in the general election. She joined the Wyoming Freedom Caucus after her first session at the Capitol.
In short order, Ward, who declined to speak with WyoFile for this story, became for Wyoming an archetype of the far right-wing elements that had profoundly changed the state’s and the nation’s politics since the COVID-19 pandemic — a villain or a hero, depending on one’s perspective. Former Wyoming Freedom Caucus Chairman John Bear once praised her as the “Joan of Arc of the Wyoming Legislature.” Some described her as the state’s resident Marjorie Taylor Greene.
And as a result of Ward’s rise, Jarvis found herself one fall afternoon last year at Johnny J’s Diner sitting across a table from Bohren, the Natrona County GOP member-at-large. For a year he had been searching for a candidate to run against Ward. He didn’t know Jarvis but liked her and felt she had the right motivations for running. Bohren told her that if she did do it, he would stand by her until the end. And there he was standing by her that February evening as they practiced a mock campaign launch for Jarvis, a Republican candidate for House District 57.
Now the gathered people were telling Jarvis their ideas for a campaign strategy. “You don’t want to play dirty, but you want to be aggressive,” McGinley told her. He suggested sending mailers that say “No out-of-state influences,” or some similar message.
Candidate for Wyoming House District 57 Julie Jarvis talks with campaign volunteers during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. Former Casper Star-Tribune Publisher Dale Bohren stands to her right. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
They should comb through Ward’s voting record, he added. Sweeney cut in and listed some bills to look at, and Bohren said that he had already started a spreadsheet with legislation and Ward’s votes.
Walker brought up door knocking. “She and her daughters hit almost every single door!” she said of Ward. “That’s gonna be huge, the door-knocking.”
McGinley told Jarvis that he thought it would be great to get her kids involved. Jarvis, anxiously, said she would rather not. “I’m really trying to keep my family out of this,” she said. “That’s my weakness.”
They discussed endorsements: possibly support from Americans for Prosperity? From the family of the late Tom Lockhart? “He’s a revered former legislator,” Stubson noted. “Who Chuck tried to dismantle,” Sweeney added, referring to Secretary of State Gray.
They talked about advertisements: Social media should be prioritized first, broadcast probably second.
They talked about budgeting: The race could run upwards of $20,000, $30,000, $40,000.
House District 57 candidate Julie Jarvis talks during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
Outside the window, the cottonwood trees lashed in the wind. Debris skittered through the air. As the group devolved into post-rehearsal small talk, Jarvis stood with her arms crossed. She put a smile on her face. “Isn’t she perfect?” Bohren remarked to another volunteer out of Jarvis’ earshot.
But Jarvis was not feeling perfect. She felt a growing dread at the realization that the rules of the game had already begun to bend her. The speech she had written for the rehearsal had included elements that did not tell the entire truth of what she believed in, because she had been told that they were necessary to position herself as a strong conservative. And as the words had left her mouth she felt this dread at having compromised herself.
Wyoming’s soul aside, there was also the matter of her own, and whether it would survive the corrosiveness of politics, particularly when the aggression of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus demanded an equivalent response. She’d had numerous conversations about this with her partner, Kody Hendricks. He was afraid that she would be made to do and say things that she didn’t want to do or say for the sake of political expediency. She was afraid of this, too.
Before going to bed that evening, she prayed to God, as she did every day. “I don’t want to do this anymore,” she thought, “and if I’m supposed to, you better help me.” She went to sleep that night feeling sick to her stomach.
“I believe the best solutions come when everyone’s voice is heard. But right now, Wyoming is a political circus that has forgotten how decisions impact local people.”
House District 57 challenger Julie Jarvis
In the morning she had an idea: She could survey the voters of House District 57 about where they stood on a variety of issues, and if she was elected, she would use the results to determine how to vote on bills in the Legislature. Once she thought of this, she determined to run only if she could run in this way. She called Bohren in the car that morning. “I thought it was completely nuts,” he later said about her new plan. The amount of work that would be involved seemed insurmountable. But he wasn’t surprised. Bohren had come to know Jarvis as a person with strong convictions.
She launched her campaign over email on April 22. The email linked to a video of Jarvis that she had posted on her campaign website: “If you’re from Wyoming, you know we value the right to make our own decisions for our families, health, pocketbooks, businesses, safety and local communities,” Jarvis said with the awkward recitation of a novice. “We’re not fans of people trying to come in and change us or take our individual rights away.”
“I believe the best solutions come when everyone’s voice is heard,” she continued. “But right now, Wyoming is a political circus that has forgotten how decisions impact local people.”
***
Wyoming has become a political circus in a different way for people aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. “We know that we have uniparty candidates that are out to destroy our way of life,” Frank Eathorne, the Wyoming GOP chairman and an ally of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, said one July afternoon before a room of like-minded Republicans from around the state. He wore a cowboy hat and a polo emblazoned with the American flag.
“They are infringing and encroaching on our freedoms. They’re spending our money like there’s no tomorrow. They’re not protecting our rights. And that’s got to stop this cycle.”
It was the Sunday after Independence Day, and the campaign season had just begun. The crowd had come together at the Tate Pumphouse in Casper for a political rally. The day was clear and hot, and the pumphouse doors were open, letting in the low roar of the nearby North Platte River. An American flag was pinned over a window in a corner of the room, blocking the blinding reflection of sunlight on the river’s surface.
Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne addresses a crowd at a political rally in Casper on Sunday, July 7, 2024. (Maya Shimizu Harris/WyoFile)
Ward was there, watching Eathorne as he spoke.
“The state Legislature — that’s the prize,” he told the crowd. “That’s the prize we’re eyeing. We can get there.”
This prize wasn’t control of the Legislature by Republicans, who already held a super-majority in both chambers. It was control of the Legislature by a certain kind of Republican who had once been relegated to the fringes of the body by traditional, chamber-of-commerce conservatives but were now poised to take over. One of those Republicans is Ward, who stepped up to the lectern after Eathorne. She is small, but muscular — she regularly attends the local CrossFit gym with her daughters.
“Last election cycle, I promised voters that I was pro-Life, pro-freedom, pro-Second Amendment and pro-family, and that’s exactly how I voted,” she began. Her voice was steady and sure.
“You can see why they nicknamed her ‘the Firebrand. Man. Lookout. Here she comes.”
Mike Eathorne on Rep. Jeanette Ward
As a lawmaker, Ward sponsored bills to bar small businesses from requiring employees to wear masks or get vaccinated, to broaden the definition of child pornography, to prohibit health mandates from the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization from being enforced in Wyoming, to require the governor to get permission from the Legislature before declaring another public health emergency and to define women by their chromosomes and reproductive systems, among others. None of her measures made it into law.
“If we want to change how this land is governed, we need to change the butts in the seats, including the governor,” Ward told the audience.
“I’m very grateful and proud to be running with all the conservatives represented here today. Please give it your all for them.” The audience clapped and cheered. “Reelect me and I will continue to be pro-life, pro-freedom, pro-Second Amendment and pro-family. Thank you.”
Rep. Jeanette Ward (R-Casper) speaks with her colleagues on the House floor during the 2024 budget session. (Ashton J. Hacke/WyoFile)
The crowd gave Ward a standing ovation. She relinquished the floor to Mike Eathorne, the Wyoming GOP chairman’s brother, who was emceeing the event. “You can see why they nicknamed her ‘the Firebrand,’” he commented:
“Man. Lookout. Here she comes.”
***
A few days later, “the Firebrand” came down Second Street, one of Casper’s main thoroughfares, marching in the Central Wyoming Fair parade beside two other Natrona County Republican lawmakers — Tony Locke and Allemand. Each of them carried an American flag.
Bear, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus chairman at the time, had once described his vision for the caucus being “a military unit that’s ready to fight and stand in the gap for the people of Wyoming.” The lawmakers in the parade leaned into the metaphor. Behind them followed a camouflage military-style truck, a great gurgling beast covered in the campaign signs of local Wyoming Freedom Caucus members and their allies. Ward’s blue and green sign, with the GOP elephant poised for attack, crowned the front grill. Downtown, a man in a black tank top stepped into the street to high-five Ward and Locke. He shook Allemand’s hand.
A military vehicle decked with Jeanette Ward signs rolls down Second Street during the 2024 Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo Parade on July 9, 2024, in downtown Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
In election years, the Central Wyoming Fair parade becomes a procession of campaign ads. There was longtime Republican lawmaker Tom Walters of House District 38, who was running against Jayme Lien, a Wyoming Freedom Caucus-endorsed candidate. There was Chris Dresang, another Natrona County School District administrator challenging Locke in House District 35. There was Elissa Campbell, running against Pete Fox and Pamela Mertens in House District 56, where the current representative, Republican Jerry Obermueller, is retiring.
And a few floats in front of Ward there was Jarvis in jeans and sneakers driving a side-by-side ATV that pulled a trailer carrying high school and college kids in red “Vote for Julie Jarvis” shirts. Among them were Jarvis’ two children, Danica and Kadon Boyce. The kids had descended on the trailer with decorations they had bought on Amazon and at Walmart — strings of paper horse silhouettes, red, white and blue ribbons, shining cellophane streamers, inflatable stick horses. They wore red, white and blue mardi gras beads. They were armed with neon water guns. The float blared Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA.” As it proceeded through the streets of Casper, the kids got into increasingly raucous water fights with the crowd, first using their water guns, then red plastic buckets filled with water, which they overturned on the heads of laughing children.
The scene grasped at something that had been eroded recently in Wyoming: politics as a small-town affair in this state that many describe affectionately as one town with very long streets. Even in Wyoming, the country’s least populous state, this neighborly atmosphere was becoming difficult to preserve as issues like abortion, LGBTQ rights and election integrity have created rifts in the country’s politics.
In Wyoming, legislative campaigns had become more aggressive and often centered on personal attacks over social media and in mailers. People poured more money into races than they had before. Jarvis was no exception. She had a team of volunteers who helped her with social media messaging, campaign signs and door knocking. And there were other people separate from her campaign who had an interest in her success.
***
One of those people was Amy Womack, who walked a quiet street in House District 57 one hot and stifling afternoon in late July. Despite the heat, she wore blue jeans and a black vest. From the pocket of her jeans dangled a silver and purple rhinestone keychain that said “GIRL POWER.” The Wyoming state flag was stitched to the back of her vest. The front was emblazoned with the logo of Americans for Prosperity, the behemoth libertarian conservative political advocacy organization for which Womack served as one of the Wyoming chapter’s grassroots engagement directors.
Womack passed a pristine lawn where, hoisted on a pole, an American flag and a Trump 2024 banner wafted languidly in the air. She rang the doorbell on a door that went unanswered. “Thanks for stopping by!” the doorbell said in an excited female voice. “If you’d like to leave a message, you can do it now!” She walked up the driveway of a house with a purple tree in whose shade stood a woman, observing Womack’s approach. The woman wore shorts and a black tank top that said “Been doing cowboy s**t all day.”
“Oh hi!” Womack said when she noticed her. “My name’s Amy Womack, and I’m with Americans for Prosperity. We’re out reminding folks ahead of the primary election to get out and vote.” Womack handed her a pamphlet with Jarvis’ photo on it.
House District 57 challenger Julie Jarvis talks during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
Jarvis had known little about Americans for Prosperity before the organization endorsed her. Americans for Prosperity is headquartered in Virginia. It was founded by David Koch, a lifelong libertarian and one of the Koch brothers behind the multinational conglomerate Koch Industries. The Wyoming chapter can’t give money directly to candidates, nor can it coordinate with them, and consequently it doesn’t have to disclose the names of its donors.
The endorsement process took months. Jarvis filled out a survey. She spoke with Tyler Lindholm, the director for the Americans for Prosperity Wyoming chapter and a former Wyoming lawmaker, over the phone. Lindholm and his team scoured the internet for anything they could find about Jarvis. Then they looked at whether the involvement of Americans for Prosperity could make a difference in the race. Lindholm said that most of the lawmakers who vote with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus had also filled out the survey. The organization endorsed some of them. On the topic of caucuses, Lindholm once remarked: “I hate all caucuses, and I’ve got friends in both, and they know exactly where I stand — that I hate them both, and I hope that their caucuses die and wither on the vine.”
There were other groups independently canvassing on behalf of legislative candidates this year. In late June, Stubson was out door knocking with Jarvis when she saw a young man whom she mistook for a Jarvis supporter, because of his red shirt. The young man was canvassing too. He smiled at Stubson and said he believed he was campaigning for Jarvis’ opponent.
He was a canvasser for Make Liberty Win, a Virginia-based federal political action committee that disseminated mailers, text messages and phone calls in support of legislative candidates, most of whom are members of, or aligned with, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. Some of the political action committee’s literature mislabeled new candidates as incumbents, misstated the early voting dates and, in one case, used the wrong image for a candidate. Make Liberty Win spent $371,260.68 on Wyoming races, which included $9,683.16 to support Ward in the House District 57 race. “I’m grateful for their support,” Ward had said. “They seem to have gotten some things mixed up, but I’m not responsible for that.”
The woman Womack met in the House District 57 neighborhood was sympathetic to Jarvis. “Oh good, I like her,” she said, taking the pamphlet from Womack and looking at it. “I told her I’d put a yard sign out. I know just everywhere I go, I see: ‘Jeanette Ward, Jeanette Ward, Jeanette Ward!’ And the mailers are Jeanette Ward and this and that.”
Rep. Jeanette Ward of Wyoming House District 57 mingles before facing primary challenger Julie Jarvis at a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda, WyoFile)
Earlier in the week, the woman had received a mailer in support of Ward. “DON’T BE DECEIVED!” the mailer said. “Dr. Julie Jarvis is a RADICAL LIBERAL running as a Republican. We can’t afford to let her make educational decisions for our children in Cheyenne.” A photo of Jarvis, washed over in a foreboding red, was printed behind the text. The back of the mailer said Jarvis had emailed the school board to request the readmittance of several books by the author Ellen Hopkins into the district’s libraries. The controversial books were among those some parents had wanted to remove. Jarvis had been appointed head of the district’s seven-person reconsideration committee for some of the books in question. She had read all the materials that Ward and the other Moms for Liberty members had sought to ban. The conflict over these school library books was resolved last year when the district adopted a new opt-in and opt-out permission system.
“I am deeply disappointed by the false and misleading information being spread by the WY Freedom PAC regarding my work as the district’s reconsideration committee chair,” Jarvis responded in a mailer. “The truth is that although I may not have agreed with the final decision to keep the book, I did then firmly agree with the decision to place the book on the Opt-In list, meaning students must be 18+ years old or have signed permission from their parents to check the book out.”
The mailer explained that library books use a review system that suggests age groups for materials based on interest rather than appropriateness. “Because of difference, schools have become prime battlegrounds for differing opinions when a book’s appropriateness is in question,” Jarvis’ mailer said. “Therefore, the best solution is to allow each parent the right to choose what is best for their child.”
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ political action committee, WY Freedom, had paid for the mailer attacking Jarvis. The caucus has been a point of anxiety for many in the state’s political circles not only for its political tactics and ideologies, but also for its association with the State Freedom Caucus Network, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that aims to create Freedom Caucuses in all 50 states. In July, Jarvis wrote a letter to the voters in her district addressing this partnership: “While Ward and I agree ideologically on several conservative issues, we don’t agree on who we are representing,” the letter read. “Ward talks a very conservative game, but she isn’t the kind of conservative Wyoming needs. Her lack of transparency and independence is a concern, as she votes according to national agendas rather than what’s best for Wyoming.”
“If you vote for Ward, you are really voting for Jessie Rubino, an employee of the national organization called the State Freedom Caucus Network,” Jarvis’ letter continued. Rubino is the Wyoming state director for the State Freedom Caucus Network and the spouse of U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s nephew Joe Rubino, who is Secretary of State Gray’s chief policy officer. Her salary is paid by the D.C. organization. She researches every bill that crosses lawmakers’ desks and provides vote recommendations for members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and their allies, often via text as votes happen on the floor. During the off-season, she monitors what executive agencies and departments, local governments and interim legislative committees are up to.
People gather around the bandshell in Casper’s Washington Park to watch a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
On another day that was less hot and stifling, Womack walked a different but equally quiet street. A Jeanette Ward sign hid behind barrels of dead plants at the first house she visited. A Make Liberty Win pamphlet for Jeanette Ward hung from the door at the second. An unanswered doorbell echoed inside the third. Next to the entrance hung a mailbox decorated with a faded sticker that said “God Bless America.” The mailbox was open, and inside was a Julie Jarvis mailer. “Don’t believe the out of state mudslingers and their blatant lies about Julie Jarvis,” it read.
The Jarvis campaign had printed the mailer in response to one from Ward. “JARVIS is a CHENEY Republican … endorsed by an ANTI-TRUMP organization and backed by a GOVERNMENT union!” Ward’s mailer said. It referred to Womack’s previous role as the political director for former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, whom hardline Republicans in Wyoming had disowned for her criticisms of Trump. Americans for Prosperity spent millions this year to oppose the former president. The mailer claimed that Jarvis was backed by the Wyoming Education Association. She didn’t seek the union’s support, but the association campaigned aggressively this year against Ward and other candidates associated with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. “Don’t be fooled by another Redcoat RINO hiding who they really are and who is unwilling to debate!” the mailer concluded.
An older woman answered the door of one house. “Hi!” Womack said. “We’re just reminding folks to get out and vote on Aug. 20th.”
“Oh we’ll be there,” the woman said.
“Good, good!” Womack held out a door hanger. “Have you decided who you’re supporting?”
“I have,” the woman replied, looking at the pamphlet, “and it’s not Julie Jarvis.”
“It’s not Julie?”
“Sorry.”
“Oh, OK. So you’re pretty much set?”
The woman’s small dog barked incessantly, jumping frantically against the chain link fence.
“Well, the only reason is because I know she voted for the books, the kids’ books in the school library, and I totally disagree with that,” the woman told Womack. “Bad bad things. You can’t run as a conservative and vote for something like that.”
“So you want to limit free speech?” Womack asked her.
The woman paused. “I want to limit books that go to our children and show them parts of each other. That’s not free speech. That is teaching our children it’s OK to do things that God didn’t intend for them to do. So sorry.”
“OK, well, do you want to keep this?” Womack held out the door hanger again.
“No,” the woman said, and laughed. “I appreciate it.”
***
It is conversations such as these that show the identity crisis of Republicans in Wyoming and across the country. “How many of you realize the word ‘conservative’ has been hijacked?” Eathorne, the Wyoming GOP chairman, had once asked. Those who are not aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus often ask this same question, and the lack of an answer that all Republicans can agree on has fractured the party.
“I am really concerned with what’s happening in Wyoming with the divisiveness,” an older woman said at a political forum one evening in late July.
Liberty’s Place 4 U WY and Natrona County Republican Women were hosting the legislative candidate forum in the theater room at the Ramkota Hotel in Casper. Several candidates had declined to participate, including Jarvis. “Thank you for the offer, but my goal/focus is to find out what the local people want — trying to do more listening than talking right now,” she texted the organizer. In 2022, traditional conservatives had been flayed alive at the debate hosted by Liberty’s Place 4 U. The crowd had heckled Sweeney, the former lawmaker of House District 58, for wearing a mask. Sweeney had been on immunosuppressants. “Pat, you sicken me,” Allemand, who ultimately primaried Sweeney, had declared. This evening, Sweeney sat in the back row, watching the candidates speak.
“We have to work,” Allemand said in his introduction. “We have to work to get Jeanette reelected, to get Jayme elected, to get Kevin elected, and Tony and Pete. This is our goal. We can not lay on our laurels any longer.”
Rep. Bill Allemand (R-Midwest) during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2024 budget session. (Ashton J. Hacke/WyoFile)
Fox, the House District 56 candidate, was the only person he named who was not endorsed by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. He did not mention Jarvis, or Walters, or Campbell, or his House District 58 challenger Tom Jones, none of whom were endorsed by the group.
“We have a disaster growing in Wyoming,” Allemand continued. “We have to elect these very good, conservative people so that we can carry on something that started just a very few short years ago. We have now a Freedom Caucus, a Freedom Caucus that is working for you. We are doing everything that we can to bring you freedom, to bring you liberty, and we cannot stop that.”
It was at this point that the woman walked to a microphone near the front of the room. She noted that Allemand had skipped certain candidates when encouraging the crowd to vote. “It felt like an intentional overlook,” she said. “So I just want to say I noticed.”
Allemand stood to address the woman. “All I’m saying is please, elect conservatives,” he said. “I am not going to endorse a Republican or a Democrat, I’m going to only endorse conservatives. If that person is not a conservative, I did leave them out. If that person is a conservative, I brought them into the fold.”
The woman said she was puzzled, because Republicans are supposed to make up the conservative party.
“I say I follow the state Republican bylaws 100%,” Allemand responded, “and if you don’t, maybe you ought to look at being a Democrat.” A smattering of applause and some groans of protest followed this proclamation.
The woman started and hesitated, turning over Allemand’s words. They encapsulated the central anxiety and disagreement that has cleaved the Wyoming GOP in recent years — the question of what constitutes a genuine Republican, and who gets to decide. “I’m disappointed,” the woman finally said, “that you’ve challenged me as a Republican.”
“Say that again?”
“I’m disappointed,” she repeated, raising her voice, “that you’ve challenged me as a Republican by remarking that maybe I should be a Democrat.”
“I say I follow the state Republican bylaws 100%, and if you don’t, maybe you ought to look at being a Democrat.”
Rep. Bill Allemand (R-Midwest)
“Listen,” Allemand said, trying to find words as the woman continued to speak. “Let’s have another question,” Mike Eathorne, the state party chairman’s brother, interjected. “Ma’am,” Allemand said, “ma’am, I do appreciate that, and I don’t care what you are, I love you,” — someone in the crowd gave a sardonic chuckle — “whether you’re Democrat or Republican, I respect your views in all things.”
After a moment, the woman responded. “I’ve learned much from you, thank you,” she said quietly.
“Say that again?”
“I’ve learned much from you, thank you.”
“And you don’t like anything you’ve learned.” Allemand laughed.
“I’ve learned a lot, thank you,” the woman said again, with finality.
There wasn’t much else to say. “I want to talk to you afterwards,” Allemand concluded, then sat down.
***
Ward and Jarvis met for the first time a few days later, at the Politics in the Park forum in Casper’s Washington Park. The event was hosted by the Republican Women of Natrona County at a bandshell in the middle of the park’s greenery on the last day of July. The two candidates greeted each other, then sat side-by-side onstage in folding chairs with their campaign signs propped before them. They didn’t exchange any further words.
People gather around the bandshell in Casper’s Washington Park during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
A food truck was parked by the bandshell. The crowd of about 30 people, mostly seniors, gathered on the shaded lawn in their camping chairs. Dozens of campaign signs were pierced into the greenery. The American and Wyoming flags framed the stage. The candidates, including two from another local House race, looked small and vulnerable onstage.
They had two minutes to introduce themselves. Ward went first. She gave the same speech she had given at other forums: “Last election cycle, I promised voters that I was pro-life, pro-freedom, pro-Second Amendment and pro-family. And that’s exactly how I voted. I stood up for the voiceless.”
Jarvis went next. She smiled nervously as she stood and held the microphone. “I have found that when you set a goal and allow for people around you to create and define how to get there, amazing things happen,” she said. “Therefore, my political platform is designed to do just that. It is centered around giving the voice back to the local people.”
Just before the debate, Jarvis had published the results of her survey on her campaign website. By that time she had received 238 responses. Some of the results had surprised her, and some conflicted with her own beliefs. “If the people of House District 57 say that they want a specific way that I have to vote, I have to do it,” she later said, “and it’s gonna kill me inside.”
Primary challenger Julie Jarvis watches as Rep. Jeanette Ward talks during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
Then they fielded questions from the moderators:
The public good or service that they most appreciate?
“Freedom,” Ward said.
“Education,” Jarvis said.
Their position on tax policy?
“Taxation is theft,” Ward said.
“The people of House District 57 said property taxes are too high,” Jarvis said, “but they did say that they like a balanced government that provides services in the areas that we value.”
Onloookers sit in the grass during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
The most pressing issue in the state currently?
“Property taxes,” “medical freedom” and “men in women’s bathrooms,” Ward said.
“Protecting Wyoming,” Jarvis said. “We have a lot of federal government and national organizations coming into our state trying to tell us what to do and how to live our lives and what services we should have. It’s concerning, because for those of us who grew up here, work here and plan on retiring here, we want to make sure that Wyoming continues to become the great state that it has been and is, and that we also take care of our people.”
***
On the evening of Aug. 20, primary election day, members of the Natrona County Republican Party waited at Wyoming’s Rib & Chop House, a restaurant in downtown Casper, to see which of these visions for the state would prevail. Small groups sat at tables near the tall windows, which let in a hot, overcast daylight. The clinking of dinnerware wafted through the air. The calm summer evening belied the day’s importance.
Voters speak with election volunteers at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds polling place on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024 in Casper. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)
On the banister of the restaurant’s upstairs seating area hung a sign advertising the Natrona County GOP’s election night party. Walker, the Natrona County GOP state committeewoman, arrived early to set up for the gathering. She wore a red blouse, white shorts, black heels and a red, white and blue rhinestone GOP elephant pendant that she worried over with her fingers. Walker had spent the last days before the Aug. 20 primary door knocking for Jarvis and other candidates. She had talked to well over 3,000 people while canvassing for Jarvis over the summer. She had spent seven to nine hours a day doing this in the last three weeks before the primaries. “When I start, I don’t stop,” she said. As a consequence, her right heel had developed a large blister.
Walker was confident Jarvis had it. Her candidate committee had raised more than $42,000, and most of the donations had come from individuals. Ward’s candidate committee by comparison had raised about $19,000. Walker felt this indicated people’s enthusiasm for Jarvis. But her work for the primary election was over, and the outcome was out of her hands. She poured herself a generous glass of white wine. Now, she only had to wait.
The party was a small affair: a few decorated tables, a buffet, some balloons. At the front of the room, a webpage with election results was projected onto a large screen.
The polls closed at 7 p.m. By that time, more people had arrived, and the tables were crowded with paper plates piled with food, beer bottles and glasses of wine. Jarvis arrived around a quarter to eight with her son, Kadon, and her partner, Hendricks.
It was the first week back to school for faculty, and she had spent the day giving professional development presentations at work. She was relieved that the primary campaign was over. The constituents in House District 57 had lately been telling her that they were tired of the canvassers and the barrage of campaign mailers that had disturbed their peace for the summer months. Jarvis, hungry from the long day, filled a plate and poured herself a glass of red wine. She sat at a table with Hendricks and her son and they waited.
Everyone waited. The first results to come in were for Wyoming’s congressional races — the Republican incumbents, Hageman and Sen. John Barrasso, won handily.
The other results took longer. People trickled out, leaving a small, tired group of stalwarts and their subdued chatter. A bit after 9 p.m. someone refreshed the webpage, and suddenly there were results. The room grew silent and attentive. People stood and leaned forward.
Hendricks turned to Jarvis, who was eating a chip.
“You got it,” he said quietly.
“Oh,” she responded.
Jarvis coughed once, then slowly got up from her chair and faced the screen. She embraced her son, then embraced Hendricks.
Julie Jarvis, center, poses for a photo after unofficial election results showed she defeated House District 57 Rep. Jeanette Ward (R-Casper) during Tuesday’s primary election. (Maya Shimizu Harris/WyoFile)
“Julie Jarvis!” Walker cried. The room erupted in claps and cheers. Jarvis smiled a dazed smile. Her son and Hendricks each had an arm around her. “Good deal,” she said. Soon, she was receiving congratulatory texts and phone calls, one of them from Ward.
“I’m grateful to the Lord Jesus for the last two years I have been able to serve Him and the people of Wyoming in House District 57 in the Wyoming legislature,” Ward posted on Facebook shortly after their call. “Unfortunately, I did not win reelection tonight. I called Julie Jarvis to congratulate her and I pray she will serve the people and do what is righteous. Duty is ours; results are God’s. I will see what He has for me next.”
But the jubilation inside the restaurant subsided as it became apparent that Jarvis’ triumph over a Freedom Caucus incumbent was the exception, not the norm. Walters, who had served in the Legislature since 2013, had lost his race to Lien. Dresang had failed to take over Locke’s seat. Jones had also come up short. And though the Wyoming Freedom Caucus had suffered some damage, on balance, it had made gains in the primary. The caucus maintained most of its seats and secured three additional ones. It could gain nine more seats in the general election — given Republicans’ dominance in Wyoming, it has the inside track in most of those races — and is poised, for the first time, to control the Wyoming Legislature.
Across the state, Freedom Caucus-endorsed candidates had ousted prominent traditionalist Republican lawmakers. Pinedale Republican and Speaker of the House Albert Sommers lost a senate race to Kemmerer’s Laura Pearson. Speaker Pro Tem Clark Stith, of Rock Springs, was ousted by Darin McCann, a physician assistant. The House lost Riverton’s Rep. Ember Oakley, a prominent and outspoken lawmaker, to Joel Guggenmos. In Cheyenne, Ann Lucas defeated Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, who had been in the House for nearly 20 years.
“We are humbled by the support of the grassroots patriots across our State and grateful for the hard work of the conservative candidates who slayed giants last night,” the Wyoming Freedom Caucus posted on its Facebook page the next day.
Jarvis left the party soon after the results were published. At daybreak the next morning, Bohren started traversing Casper’s thoroughfares, collecting Jarvis’ campaign signs. Win, lose or draw, he and Jarvis had agreed that they would begin doing this the day after the primaries, because the people in House District 57 were tired from the campaign season. A pile of Jarvis’ signs accumulated in Bohren’s barn. “They’ll be good in two years,” he later said.
Julie Jarvis listens during a Politics in the Park event on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Casper. Jarvis is a native Wyomingite who works for the Natrona County School District. (Dan Cepeda/WyoFile)
Jarvis didn’t think about what the statewide election results might mean for her future as a lawmaker. “I’m a firm believer that what’s supposed to happen will happen, and what’s supposed to be will be, and you make the best of what it is,” she later said. It was similar to Ward’s reflection on her loss — “Duty is ours; results are God’s.” Jarvis had purview only over her own district, and in representing the people of that community as best as she could. This is where she would exert her energy, and there was still much to be done. Her focus until the general election would be to continue collecting responses to her survey.
But for now, she had another long day of presentations to prepare for. Jarvis arrived at work by 5:45 that morning to make copies of lesson plan examples. The building was empty. There was no noise but her and the copy machine, which rhythmically churned out pages in a windowless hallway. She returned to her office to answer emails. People began to arrive. The day grew light outside.
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