GOP resolutions show rightward drift

CASPER — What first emerged years ago as an unusual practice by the Wyoming GOP State Central Committee now illustrates the extent to which some members of the Republican Party have moved the post defining what it means to be a conservative in the state. 
The GOP State Central Committee passed a swath of resolutions on Saturday that address many of the issues that have dominated state and national discourses in recent years: election integrity, transgender rights, COVID-19 restrictions, crossover voting, federal control over land. 
The resolutions came out of the Lincoln County GOP and were signed off by Marti Halverson, a far-right former lawmaker, president of the anti-abortion advocacy group Wyoming Right to Life and chairman of the county party. 
The central committee also nominated Halverson this year to serve in an interim capacity as secretary of state and superintendent of schools, but in both cases, Gov. Mark Gordon appointed someone else. 
One of the resolutions demands “a full Congressional investigation of the 2020 election irregularities.” 
Another “urges” the Legislature to change state statute so that voters can’t change their political party affiliation within 30 days of the candidate filing period opening date. 
Another resolution states that Wyoming should take back Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands. 
Another says that the Wyoming Legislature will “take action” against the “enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine as a recommended childhood vaccine” to attend Wyoming schools or participate in school activities. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted last month to add COVID-19 vaccines to their formal recommended list for childhood vaccines, but the vaccines aren’t required in Wyoming to attend schools or participate in school activities.) 
Another resolution about the “treatment of transgender minors in public schools” again “urges” the state Legislature, the Wyoming Department of Education and Lincoln County School Districts No. 1 and No. 2 to enact laws and policies to “respect the parents’ role in guiding the beliefs and protecting the health and well-being of their children,” only allow “(biological) girls to compete in girl’s teams and athletic events” and bar the teaching of “political ideologies such as gender-identity ideology,” among other things. 
One resolution demands that Gov. Mark Gordon “explain his In-Action” and calls for an investigation around figures like George Soros, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates being “SUSPICIOUSLY” involved in Wyoming’s energy industry. (The governor’s office said in an emailed statement that the resolution is “confusing” and that Gordon will continue to push back on the Biden Administration’s “intent on damaging the industries that are the backbone of our state’s economy.”) 
Halverson didn’t return the Star-Tribune’s calls requesting comment on the resolutions by deadline. 
Lincoln County State Committeeman Mike Lundgren and State Committeewoman Christine Riker also did not respond to emails from the Star-Tribune. 
Historically, the GOP State Central Committee didn’t tend to consider resolutions; the non-binding statements went to the GOP State Convention for a vote by a larger body. 
The practice of voting on resolutions in the state central committee cropped up around 2016 as a way for committee members to “stamp their feet,” as Wyoming Republican strategist and former committee member Bill Cubin put it. 
The practice has only increased since then. 
Resolutions are mostly symbolic, acting like a bullhorn to make a group’s priorities and stances known. Unlike laws or policies, they don’t obligate the state or individuals to abide by whatever is laid out in them. 
Laramie County GOP Chairwoman Dani Olsen pointed out that voting on resolutions is typically the last agenda item for GOP state conventions; some people leave the convention before those votes take place because, in the larger scheme of things, they don’t really matter. 
But passing resolutions, as Natrona County GOP State Committeewoman Kim Walker described it, “kind of gets a toe in the door.” 
They can be the basis for how some lawmakers prioritize their efforts during a legislative session. 
But while the early resolutions passed in the central committee initially caught lawmakers’ attention because of their novelty, Cubin said lawmakers “quit paying attention” as the practice became more routine.
 
This story was published on Nov. 15, 2022.