How The Left Is Taking Over America’s Reddest State

Liberal donors, advocacy groups and corporate interests collectively played a key role in defeating conservatives and Freedom Caucus members, replacing them with left-leaning Republicans in August’s Wyoming primaries.

Left-leaning Republican donors, pro-business groups and organizations coordinated an effort to Trojan horse non-conservative candidates under the guise of being Republican to run against Freedom Caucus and Trump-endorsed candidates in the Wyoming primaries. The entities spent heavily in the primaries to oppose Freedom Caucus members such as Wyoming state House Speaker Chip Neiman, who lost his state Senate bid to a lesser-known opponent, and Republican Wyoming gubernatorial candidate Eric Barlow, who defeated his Trump-backed opponent, Megan Degenfelder, after receiving support from anti-Freedom Caucus donors and groups.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus lost its majority in the state House after 13 incumbent members were defeated and four additional Freedom Caucus-aligned members lost their state Senate bids in the August primary.

Neiman told the Daily Caller News Foundation that activists, such as The Wyoming Donor Alliance, “did everything they could” to turn Wyoming blue by ousting conservatives.

“Their whole focus was to undo and to do away with the Freedom Caucus and the conservatives,” Neiman said. “I mean, an unbelievable amount of organization dollars are tied into the media, Wayne Hughes [of] Cowboy State Daily, major donors and supporters of this whole thing … It just blew me away as they were relaying this information of the length and the depth and the spider web of connections that just happened and we saw the results of it. But it’s been over time. They really created an incredible machine to do away with the Freedom Caucus and stop conservatives from keeping Wyoming or taking Wyoming in a conservative direction.”

Activist Orgs Constructed Plan To Defeat Freedom Caucus

The Wyoming Donor Alliance, a non-partisan organization, outlined a plan to oust Freedom Caucus and Trump-endorsed candidates to replace them with less conservative Republicans. It created a coalition strategy titled, “Break the Wyoming Freedom Caucus Majority,” according to documentation obtained by the DCNF. The organization planned to win back the state House of Representatives by “preventing the spread of extreme Freedom Caucus policies nationwide,” according to the document.

The Wyoming Donor Alliance outlined a plan to raise $839,500 to recruit candidates, target specific voters and endorse or oppose candidates, according to the document. They also planned to launch an “unprecedented independent expenditure campaign” ahead of the primaries to oust Freedom Caucus members.

The organization aimed at recruiting competitive candidates to hold Freedom Caucus members accountable and encourage Republican voters who were not “far-right” to turn out.