Hot Springs County GOP sues Wyoming Republican Party for allegedly ‘interfering’ in local elections
FROM WYOFILE:
The complaint is the latest development in an ongoing dispute over how or to what extent the state should govern political parties.
Newly elected leaders for the Hot Springs County GOP are asking a district court judge “to prevent the Wyoming Republican Party from interfering in local county Republican Party elections,” a lawsuit filed Monday states.
The case comes after Brian Shuck, an attorney for the state GOP, advised several county parties in March to disregard state statute and a Wyoming Supreme Court ruling and allow ousted committee precinct people to vote in local party elections.
Hot Springs County GOP instead stuck to the law and the high court’s decision when it held officer elections last month, according to the complaint. That choice set off a series of events — including a closed-door meeting where participants were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements — and ultimately led the state GOP to order the county party to overturn its election results.
Now, Hot Springs County GOP leadership is asking a court to intervene.
“If the Wyoming Republican Party is allowed to overturn local county party elections through secret tribunals, it will have become a self-perpetuating, Soviet-style politburo rather than a functioning political party in a representative democracy,” the lawsuit states.
Shuck had not commented by publication time, but told WyoFile that “the party is working on a press release.”
The complaint raises questions about what will happen in May when Republicans gather in Cody to elect state party leadership, and is the latest development in a lengthy dispute over the extent the state should govern political parties since they are private organizations.
The plaintiffs include Joe Martinez, Phillip Scheel, Meri Ann Dorman and Clay Van Antwerp. The four of them were elected chairman, state committeeman, secretary and vice chair, respectively. They are represented by Clark Stith, a former Sweetwater County lawmaker. Stith is also the attorney for the two legislators who are currently suing the Wyoming Freedom Caucus — the further-right wing of the Legislature’s Republican rule — for defamation related to mailers in last year’s elections.
How we got here
When the Hot Springs County GOP held its officer elections on March 17, the contest for chairman initially ended in a seven-to-seven vote, according to the lawsuit. The tie was broken through a random drawing.
“Names were placed in a hat and a child that was present drew out a name,” the lawsuit states. “The name read was Joe Martinez.”
Elected in August as a county precinct person, Martinez ran for chairman against Bradyn Harvey, who lost his own precinct bid in the primary election.
With Martinez selected as the new chairman, he presided over the rest of the meeting. Soon, there was another tie vote between Harvey and Clay Van Antwerp — this time for the vice chair. Once again, names were placed in a cap and another child drew another name — Van Antwerp.
The race for secretary resulted in another tie settled by drawing lots. It went to Meri Ann Dorman. Meanwhile, Phillip Scheel outright won state committeeman in an 8-6 vote.
The trouble started after the meeting was adjourned, according to the lawsuit.
Harvey and Mary Jager, both ousted precinct people, presented Martinez and Dorman with papers labeled “provisional ballots.” Had those ballots been counted, the races for chairman and state committeeman would have flipped.
But neither the bylaws for the county party nor the state party “have any provisions relating to the casting of provisional ballots,” according to the lawsuit. As such, the ballots were not counted.
Some time after the meeting, Cheryl Aguiar filed a complaint with the state party. Aguiar is former chairman of the Hot Springs County GOP.
Alongside others who lost their races, Aguiar disputed the validity of the county party’s elections and asked that the “provisional ballots” be counted. Aguiar submitted her complaint to the state party’s Dispute Resolution Committee.
From there, Martinez, Scheel, Dorman and Van Antwerp were asked to sign confidentiality agreements in a March 20 letter from Kathy Russell, executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party.
If they did not sign such agreements, the letter stated, they would not be allowed to participate in the dispute resolution process. The plaintiffs did so, according to the lawsuit, but were ultimately left out of the April 8 meeting where the committee sided with Aguiar.
“The Dispute Resolution Committee then ordered the Hot Springs County Republican Party to conduct a recount of the March 17, 2025 ballots and include the provisional ballots in the recount and that the results be entered into the minutes of the meeting as the final election results, and that such results then be submitted to the Hot Springs County Clerk and to the Executive Director of the Wyoming Republican Party,” the lawsuit alleges.
The meeting was chaired by Park County GOP Chairman Vince Vanata, who declined to comment to WyoFile. Other committee members included Ann Slagle of Weston County, Carla Klopfenstein of Sheridan County, Scott Petty of Carbon County, Scott Brown of Big Horn County and Katherine Rueckert of Teton County.
Complaint
Shuck’s advice to follow a party bylaw and allow ousted precinct committee members to vote was centered on the fact that the matter involves a private organization.
That idea was also at the heart of a 2021 case in Uinta County. In that case, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled two years ago that the bylaw “violated clear and unambiguous language,” of state law. Because the high court did not decide on whether the state law violated the party’s constitutional right to freedom of association, Shuck told county parties the bylaw — and ultimately, the U.S. Constitution — supplants state statute.
The complaint filed Monday challenges Shuck’s reasoning.
“If the [Wyoming Republican Party] were the Rotary Club or Elks Lodge, then the foregoing bylaw provisions, however eccentric they might be, could be valid and enforceable under certain circumstances,” the lawsuit states. “But the defendant is not a Rotary Club or an Elks Lodge.”
Instead, the Wyoming Republican Party has been given powers “exclusively reserved to the state, namely a key role in running elections and filling vacancies of Wyoming public officials,” the complaint states.
As such, the plaintiffs argue, political parties are “state actors” and are asking the court to issue a judgment that they were duly elected in March. The plaintiffs are also challenging the party’s dispute resolution process and are asking the court to void the committee’s order to overturn the elections.
The complaint was filed in Laramie County District Court, where the state party is headquartered.
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
This story was posted on April 23, 2025.