Moderate PACs call election results a rejection of 'extremists'

GILLETTE —- Local candidates backed by political action committees that promoted more moderate candidates rolled past the candidates seen as more conservative on the way to victory in last week’s general election. 

More than $24,000 worth of local PAC money was spent this cycle. The biggest players in this general election were the political action committees People for Honest Politics and Coal Country Conservatives. 

People for Honest Politics is chaired by Sherilyn England; Jane Gebhart is its treasurer. Coal Country Conservatives is co-chaired by Laura Cox and former cemetery board candidate Faye Mackey.

People for Honest Politics is made up of “Campbell County residents committed to bringing honesty and civility back to local politics,” according to its website. It spent more than $13,800 on the general election, backing moderate candidates including mayoral candidate Billy Montgomery and governor-elect Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette.

People for Honest Politics wasn’t the only one. A recently formed PAC, Strong Schools, Strong Communities spent more than $900 exclusively on campaign materials from a sign company based in Austin, Texas.

England wrote in an email to the News Record that the election results show “that Campbell County wants common sense politicians who will work hard to address real issues facing our community.”

Both groups’ spending paid off tremendously, evidenced by a dominant victory in the race for school board.

Voters had six candidates to choose from in this race, and the three who were endorsed by both of these PACs won easily.

Darcy Gillaspy came in first, earning 23.68% of the vote; Albin in second, with 22.76% of the vote, and Billie Wilkerson in third with 22.48%. All three of them received more than 5,000 votes. No other candidate received more than 2,700.

Wilkerson nearly doubled the amount of votes received by fourth place finisher, Darron Boltin, who earned 11.3% of the vote.

He and ally John Haivala — who came in last with just 9.67% of the vote —were both backed by the Coal Country Conservatives PAC.

Given the results, Strong Schools PAC and People for Honest Politics PAC both spent money efficiently in the local school board election. For every dollar that People for Honest Politics spent, it earned 1.15, while Strong Schools earned 17.13 votes for every dollar spent.

In other elections, People for Honest Politics’s endorsements for city council, Wright mayor, Wright Town Council, governor, secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction all were victorious, as were two of their three choices for cemetery board, Jim Hastings and Erik Bergquist.

These two PACs also encouraged voters to support the Optional 1% Sales Tax and reject the ballot initiative to cut residential property tax by 50%.

Coal Country Conservatives, by comparison, earned 0.5 votes per dollar for school board and 0.24 for governor in Campbell County. The PAC’s endorsed city council candidates — Rolf Arands, Ben Decker and Pat Collins — had voter-per-dollar ratios between 0.08 to 0.09.

Cox said that a lot of money was spent in the primary election to oppose anyone affiliated with the Freedom Caucus. Anyone deemed affiliated with the hardline conservative group was any Christian and conservative candidate, she said.

That hurt all elections, even ones at the local level.

The Freedom Caucus used to hold a majority in the state house before about 14 of its members lost their primary elections, with many of their constituents favoring more moderate candidates instead.

Cox said the label or association with the Freedom Caucus may have become electorally toxic since the primary, even for nonpartisan races, such as city council or school board.

“Our candidates worked their butts off,” Cox said of city council and school board candidates. “But because they were once affiliated with someone who was part of a targeted group, they got brushed aside.”

Rolf Arands, Ben Decker and Pat Collins were city council candidates backed by Coal Country Conservatives. All three lost their elections.

Jami Howe, the chair of the Strong Schools, Strong Community PAC didn’t disagree that some candidates in nonpartisan races may have been labeled Freedom Caucus, but she said some candidates earned those labels.

“If their views are in line with what a Freedom Caucus person on the state level believes, then they would be Freedom Caucus,” Howe said. “Some would have also labeled Barlow a Democrat because he doesn’t lean as right as others.”

Despite the labels on both sides, Howe said the results of the election everywhere felt like Wyomingites were taking Wyoming back and against “extremist” policies.

England also shared the sentiment that the Freedom Caucus represented an extremist faction of the party.

“Wyoming may not have experienced a blue wave per se, but voters made it clear they were ready for a change,” she wrote. “They rejected extremist Freedom Caucus politicians and sent a message that the chaos and dishonesty in Cheyenne had gone too far. Like us, voters wanted leaders they could trust. People who will put our communities first and do what’s right for Wyoming.”

Cox discussed national coverage brushing over Wyoming’s election as it remains reliably red despite what has been labeled a “blue wave” where supposed Republican stronghold states such as Kansas and South Carolina flipped their senate seats blue for the first time in decades.

Like the rest of the country, there’s a stronger tilt to the left than ever, she said, even in Wyoming, which has been called the most Republican state in the country. That’s not the case, Cox claimed.

“I just want to jump up and scream, ‘We’re not conservative,’” Cox said. “We may be Republican, but we’re not conservative. Our Republican party, to some extent, has moved to the left like everybody else. It is not conservative.”

This story was published on Nov. 7, 2026. 

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