CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – As President-elect Donald Trump plans bold moves for his first days in office, so too are conservative lawmakers in Wyoming, the first state where Trump-friendly Freedom Caucus members have won control of a state chamber.
It will be a major test for the Freedom Caucus movement, which has spread from Washington to a dozen state capitals over the past decade, including Missouri and Oklahoma last year. The conservative network will add a 13th chapter in Democratic-led Maryland on Tuesday.
When Wyoming’s legislative session begins Tuesday, the Freedom Caucus majority in the House of Representatives will turn the clock on an aggressive agenda to pass five priority bills within 10 days targeting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, diversity initiatives dismantling and banning state investments that prioritize green energy over fossil fuels and lowering property taxes.
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“What we do here is get the job done. The people have clearly given us a mandate,” said the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chip Neiman.
Until now, the Freedom Caucus has existed largely as an opposition faction against more moderate or mainstream Republicans in control of legislative chambers. But now the members have the opportunity to lead.
“Wyoming is, I think, a case study of Poli Sci 101,” said Andrew Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, who is hopeful the success in the Cowboy State can be replicated elsewhere. “If conservatives were to enact policies they said they would, on the campaign trail it is contagious to voters, and voters will continue to reward them.”
Although not a majority, the Freedom Caucus significantly expanded its ranks in Louisiana last year, joining new GOP Governor Jeff Landry to enact a sweeping conservative agenda that included stronger gun rights, showcasing the Ten Commandments in public classrooms and authority included. for police to arrest migrants entering the US illegally. Neither of the latter two laws is currently being implemented as legal challenges continue.
Wyoming, the least populous state in the country, has long trended Republican. The growing dominance of the Republican Party in recent years has made Democrats downright difficult to find in some places, making the divisions within the Republican Party in Wyoming significant. That fault line could deepen as the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives battles the more traditionally Republican Senate and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, who criticized Trump in 2023 as “a very liberal man.”
Gordon, who last year vetoed a Freedom Caucus-backed bill to cut property taxes, said he is still open to working together.
“There are a lot of issues we agree on,” Gordon said. “It will be interesting to see the bills they put forward.”
A Washington Movement to the United States
The Freedom Caucus has been active in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015 and gained widespread attention when some of its members helped topple former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during the last session of Congress.
An offshoot of the group, the State Freedom Caucus Network, launched in Georgia in 2021 and has since spread to other states. It has about 175 members this year — more than a quarter more since the 2024 election, Roth said.
The Freedom Caucus nearly doubled its ranks in South Dakota after last year’s election and now views House leaders — though not members — as allies who “see things in a very similar light as far as legislation is concerned,” said Representative Aaron Aylward, Vice President of the House of Representatives. chairman of the state Freedom Caucus chapter.
In Wyoming, the list of incumbents ousted by the Freedom Caucus-backed candidates included House Speaker Albert Sommers, who sought to advance to the Senate, and House Speaker Albert Sommers, Pro Tem Clark Stith.
Although they suffered some losses, candidates aligned with the Freedom Caucus also toppled prominent Republicans elsewhere, including South Carolina’s assistant majority leader.
Members of the Caucus often portray themselves as the true conservatives of the Republican Party, sometimes forcing colleagues into awkward votes on amendments and blocking or delaying debate to make a point. As a result, they tend to clash with Republican legislative leaders.
Members of the Freedom Caucus in Missouri and South Carolina recently attempted to win elections for Speaker of the House of Representatives. But both were soundly defeated.
Five and Dime Plan
In a bit of sloganeering that’s rare for Wyoming, the state’s Freedom Caucus chapter is billing its 10-day, five-issue agenda as the “Five and Dime Plan.” It is trying to make progress at an unusually fast pace, even for a Legislature that meets for only two months this year.
At the top of the list are two immigration-related measures. You would require voters to prove their Wyoming and U.S. citizenship; the other would invalidate driver’s licenses issued by other states to Wyoming residents living in the country illegally.
Other parts of the plan would target diversity requirements at colleges and universities, ban environmental and social factors from being considered in state investments and cut property taxes by 25%.
The Freedom Caucus says polling shows strong support for its plan.
The agenda is “probably the most responsive administration we’ve seen in Wyoming in decades,” said Freedom Caucus member John Bear.
Gordon is skeptical that the Freedom Caucus will have as much support as he claims, pointing to low turnout in last year’s Republican primary, in which many of the Legislature’s new Freedom Caucus members were elected.
“We haven’t heard from a very large portion of the state,” Gordon said. “But here they are, and I look forward to seeing what they can achieve.”
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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.