{"id":323607,"date":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/323607\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","slug":"wyoming-politics-what-the-new-york-times-got-right-and-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/323607\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyoming Politics: What The New York Times Got Right, And Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republicans on both sides of the pro-and anti-Freedom Caucus divide voiced critiques Monday on a New York Times story<\/a> that dissects one of the Cowboy State\u2019s fiercest legislative races.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the shadow of Devils Tower,\u201d begins the story, \u201can election-year fight has erupted between Wyoming\u2019s right and its far right, with serious implications for the state\u2019s political future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story covers the state Senate race between two Republicans: Wyoming Freedom Caucus (WFC) member and House Speaker Chip Neiman, and the upper chamber\u2019s incumbent, Sen. Ogden Driskill.<\/p>\n

That race is anthemic of the divide between the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and its intra-party foes, multiple news outlets and the NYT have agreed. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s difficult to capture the nuance of it.<\/p>\n

The story casts non-Freedom Caucus lawmakers as institutionalists,\u00a0caucus members as insurgents. It touches on the caucus-led passage of a 25% residential property tax cut, and it airs both ideals of caucus leaders and grievances of their critics.<\/p>\n

The caucus\u2019 priorities, WFC chair Rep. Rachel Williams told the outlet, include shrinking government, tightening voting rules, and curtailing \u201cactivist\u201d judges.<\/p>\n

The NYT covered Neiman\u2019s long battle for pro-life legislation\u00a0and Driskill\u2019s efforts this year to shield the University of Wyoming from a $40 million cut and the Wyoming Business Council from complete repeal.<\/p>\n

But Who Owns The Right?<\/p>\n

Former state Rep. Ember Oakley, who\u2019s a career prosecutor and a detractor of the caucus, said the story repeats a fallacy that the Freedom Caucus is more conservative than its Republican foes.<\/p>\n

Neiman had the inverse critique, saying though the story labels him as \u201cfar-right\u201d he\u2019s the normal right, and Driskill is, he asserted, a \u201cDemocrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oakley responded to that barb hours before Neiman said it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis race actually does exemplify the division sowed by the Freedom Caucus, because classifying Ogden Driskill as anything but a solid conservative is ridiculous,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can find this out by the policies he supports, his voting in the Senate, or any time you speak with the man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driskill also bristled at being called a Democrat. He called it an instance of juvenile and disheartening name-calling, and described himself as a Reagan Republican.<\/p>\n

He noted that he\u2019s fought against both fuel and cigarette taxes throughout his 16-year legislative career.<\/p>\n

Wyoming has produced no universal agreement about what it means to embody the political \u201cright.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI take umbrage with the continued classification (of) the Freedom Caucus being more conservative than the traditional, long-term Republican Wyomingites,\u201d said Oakley.<\/p>\n

She gave an example.<\/p>\n

While the Freedom Caucus passed the 25% property tax cut, its ally, gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien, led the effort to put another 50% residential property tax cut on the ballot this November.<\/p>\n

Oakley stressed that because property taxes fund local governments \u2013 such as ambulance, firefighting, law enforcement, and schools \u2013 the locals of each county are funding their own services through them.<\/p>\n

Offloading the tax burden onto another revenue structure, like the energy industry or sales taxes, shifts each local services bill from the people who are receiving the services, Oakley noted. She added that it would also shift communities\u2019 autonomy to the bigger state government.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal control, instead of the bigger government \u2013 yes, even state \u2013 has always been a central tenet to Republicanism,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She called the WFC\u2019s battle cry against \u201cactivist judges\u201d a red herring, and said \u201cRepublicans in this state have traditionally had a respect for the rule of law and the Constitution that mandates separation of powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

WFC state director Jessie Rubino did not respond by publication to a Sunday text message and Monday voicemail request for comment on the NYT story.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ol Kitty Dog\u2019<\/p>\n

Neiman was pleased to find his dog named for the Gunsmoke character Miss Kitty Russell in the NYT\u2019s profile photograph of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a cool picture of me with Ol\u2019 Kitty Dog,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His delight ended there.<\/p>\n

Neiman disagreed with the outlet calling him far-right. He said he follows the Wyoming Republican Party platform, and doesn\u2019t believe the state party\u2019s current candidate vetting process calling for 80% or higher agreement is a tall ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he calls Ogden a \u2018merely conservative.\u2019 I don\u2019t even know what that is,\u201d said Neiman.<\/p>\n

Of being called an \u201cinsurgent,\u201d Neiman said with a laugh, \u201cJeez-oh-Pete \u2026 Sounds like we\u2019re creating an insurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neiman said Freedom Caucus members are \u201cjust taxpayers wanting to be involved in the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driskill had called the Wyoming GOP\u2019s new platform-based vetting rule a \u201cpurity test.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not alone. Other Republicans have pointed<\/a>\u00a0to broad strokes and inconsistencies in the platform.<\/p>\n

For example, it says people have a right to life from conception to natural death \u2013 wording that could alienate Republicans who support the death penalty.<\/p>\n

The story references the Common Sense Republicans, a new PAC that warns of caucus-led deep cuts to services and education.<\/p>\n

Neiman countered this, noting that the Freedom Caucus joined nearly the entire Legislature in passing a new school-funding bill that increased K-12 spending and teacher pay.<\/p>\n

When the Legislature passed the 25% property tax cut, he noted, property taxes had just soared.<\/p>\n

Neiman said Wyoming would have clearer ideas about politics if it had a strong Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fight inside the Republican Party because the Democratic Party has moved into the Republican Party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What Is A Democrat?<\/p>\n

Driskill countered, \u201cI wish (Neiman) understood what a Democrat is, because he obviously does not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to Republican state conventions when he was in diapers,\u201d added Driskill.<\/p>\n

Driskill said he has encountered people on the campaign trail who\u2019ve been told that he\u2019s a leftist, and he\u2019s spent time going over his record with people to undo what he calls trickery from his foes.<\/p>\n

Driskill noted that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and its members often tout as victories bills that passed with broader support by other Republicans<\/a>, and even Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the NYT story didn\u2019t capture \u201cthe whole drift of what we\u2019re like in northeast Wyoming,\u201d said Driskill, the authors tried to be fair and did a reasonable job.<\/p>\n

Oakley lodged a technical note: the story calls Neiman\u2019s decision to leave the House and run for Senate an \u201cunusual gamble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, it\u2019s tradition in Wyoming for the Speaker to serve just one term in that role, Oakley observed.<\/p>\n

The chamber elects a House speaker every two years. Its two most recent speakers before Neiman,\u00a0Albert Sommers and Eric Barlow, both ran for Senate after their terms.<\/p>\n

Nah, Says Lindholm<\/p>\n

Tyler Lindholm, Wyoming-based director of Americans For Prosperity and a side character in the NYT story, didn\u2019t have any real gripes about it Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really think it said much at all,\u201d said Lindholm. \u201cFor once I wasn\u2019t very exciting, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republicans on both sides of the pro-and anti-Freedom Caucus divide voiced critiques Monday on a New York Times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-323607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}