3 Republicans nominated to replace Sen. Darin Smith

CHEYENNE — When former state Sen. Darin Smith, R-Cheyenne, officially resigned after seven months in office to take on his new role as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming, a replacement needed to be selected.

Monday evening, the Wyoming Republican Party hosted an event in Guernsey that allowed party committee members to cast votes for who they want to see fill Smith’s vacancy.

Out of 10 candidates who signed up for nomination, the top three were selected on Monday by party voters. On Friday, county commissioners from Laramie and Platte counties will select the new state senator from among those three finalists.

The votes of the commissioners will be weighted according to the population encompassed in each portion of Senate District 6, which is composed of all of Platte County and most of rural Laramie County.

As Laramie County is allowed 30 committee members in District 6 and Platte County is given 24, the population split will likely slightly weigh more toward Laramie County, but not by much.

At the meeting, 48 members cast votes and were allowed up to three votes per ballot. There were 23 committee members from Platte County and 25 from Laramie County who voted, meaning only a total of six who were absent.

During the three-hour event Monday night at the VFW post in Guernsey, the 10 candidates were given 30 seconds per question to answer 10 questions. Though it may sound frenzied in theory, Wyoming GOP Chairman Bryan Miller said things went very well.

“It’s designed to not only learn a little bit about the candidates’ knowledge base and their understanding of the issues, but it’s also to see them under pressure,” he said. “It’s to see how they do when they’re getting asked questions, and they’re going to be on the floor of the House, and it’s going to come fast and furious.”

Given the amount of time to prepare and the number of candidates who threw their names into the hat, he said this format was the most efficient it could have been.

“I was glad to see so many people show up. There could have been 54 total votes, but as it turns out, 48 showed. That is still an incredibly high percentage,” Miller said Tuesday. “When you look at meetings that happen across the state, precinct committee people don’t normally come out close to that high percentage of the numbers for most meetings.”

At the end of the night, the votes were counted in the way Miller said is in line with the methods many Republicans in Wyoming are pushing for: without drop boxes and without voting machines.

The top vote getter was Roy Birt of Wheatland, who received 24 votes. A two-way tie for second place, with 23 votes each, was split between Jeff Barnes of Cheyenne and Taft Love, who lives east of Cheyenne.

On Tuesday, the nominees shared their political priorities with the WTE:

Jeff Barnes

Barnes is a retired law enforcement officer who worked for the Laramie County Sheriff ’s Department between 2017 and 2021 before seeking election as Laramie County sheriff, which he lost to current Sheriff Brian Kozak.

Before that, he had worked for the St. Louis Police Department for 21 years and has spent two separate stints deployed with the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I’m a cop; I’m not a politician. I’m not aligned with the ‘good-old-boy system,’” he said. “Being from Missouri, our motto is the Show-Me State, so people have to show me why things are either positive or negative for me to make an informed decision.”

Barnes relocated to Wyoming with his wife around nine years ago, after visiting friends in Cheyenne over the course of the past 20 years.

His top three policy issues were the role of energy in Wyoming’s economy, identifying sustainable solutions to finding water sources and responsibly reducing property taxes.

Barnes said, if appointed, he would support natural resource industries like oil, gas and coal, adding that he is not in favor of carbon capture projects.

He also said he has supported previous property tax cuts, but wants to do more research on finding a way to have a fair and balanced state revenue if property taxes are further cut or effectively removed from the state Constitution.

Roy Birt

Birt, 63, was born and raised in Cheyenne and moved to Wheatland in 1997. He is a retired United Parcel Service worker who began getting more involved in politics around a decade ago.

In 2014, he became a Platte County election judge and joined the Platte County GOP two years later. Last year, he was a campaign volunteer for Smith, the former senator. 

“This district has had two of the most conservative senators in the state with Anthony Bouchard and Darin Smith,” Birt wrote in his application to the Wyoming GOP to be considered Monday night. “My conservative values align with our previous senators. I have always been accessible and accommodating, and I will continue to seek the best for SD6 and Wyoming.”

In an email to the WTE, Birt wrote that his top three policy priorities are using Wyoming’s energy resources, election integrity and educational choice.

“My approach for our energy production would be to market our resources, seek opportunities for more power plants (coal and natural gas), and export our energy,” he wrote. “This would boost our state’s economy and provide more career opportunities.”

He also wrote that he would want to work with the Legislature to develop an election system that can be trusted by Wyoming voters. 

Concerning education, he indicated he would support curricular guidelines at state and local levels for public education; allow for school choice and the use of school vouchers; and incentivize post-high school education and training.

Taft Love

As the former chairman of the Laramie County GOP, Love initially challenged Smith for the vacant Wyoming Senate seat last year. Although he came in third in the Republican primaries in August, Love now has another chance to fill that seat, if selected by county commissioners.

“Darin has now been called up to the judicial bench, and I felt it was worthwhile putting my name back in,” he said.

Love’s top policy priorities include supporting education, supporting the oil, coal and gas industries, and identifying new revenue streams so the state can continue to reduce property taxes.

“Education is going to be changed considerably as the federal Department of Education steps out and state-run education systems become more viable. We’re excited about the opportunity to help make a better education system for Wyoming,” he said.

He added that he is supportive of a school voucher program, which allocates a portion of taxpayer dollars to private and homeschooled education programs. The most recent proposal would give families $7,000 per child and is currently under legal review after having its constitutionality challenged.

Concerning property taxes, Love said he is curious about finding ways to reduce property taxes but not quite sure what that would look like yet. He said he is interested in implementing or increasing consumption taxes, like sales and use taxes.

“The great thing about consumptive taxes is it’s something that you get to choose what you spend your money on, and then you’re going to pay your taxes based on those choices,” he said.

This story was published on August 27, 2025.