Republicans search for independent candidate to challenge Gray

CHEYENNE —  Moderate Republicans across the state are searching for an independent candidate to run in the general election for secretary of state. 
Sources told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle the desire to find a challenger came in response to state Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, defeating Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, in the Aug. 16 Republican primary.
But the deadline is quickly approaching. An independent candidate for a statewide seat must file by Monday with the Secretary of State’s Office, as well as secure 5,418 valid signatures. 
Efforts to find a candidate to even consider putting his or her hat in the ring have remained unsuccessful. 
“People are really leery of the political environment right now,” said Rebekah Fitzgerald, a local political consultant scouting candidates. “And frankly, it’s a really tall order to ask someone to stand up a campaign from scratch and run in 70 days.” 
She runs Fitzgerald Strategies Group, which is a communications and political firm out of Cheyenne, and she was approached by some Republicans seeking a contender to challenge Gray. (Fitzgerald also is a member of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s editorial board.) 
Another individual searching for a second option is state Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander. He has been on his own mission separate from Fitzgerald, but has similar motivations. Gray faces no Democrat in the primary, and will otherwise take office in January unless a write-in candidate receives enough votes. 
“The voters have spoken, and it’s regrettable that Cale Case is refusing to listen to their voice,” Gray said via text message to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Tuesday. “We are going to continue to reach everyone in Wyoming and listen.” 
Gray received significant support during the primaries. He was publicly endorsed by former President Donald Trump just days before the election, and was backed by other Wyoming Republicans, such as the U.S. House GOP primary winner, Harriet Hageman.
Gray was announced the winner late Tuesday night, with 75,938 votes reported in the unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office. 
Nethercott received 63,044 votes, and 14,292 went to Republican contender Mark Armstrong. 
Dan Dockstader, who withdrew from the race to support Nethercott after his name was printed on ballots, received 3,465 votes. 
Despite securing the Republican spot in the general election, Gray has been criticized by fellow party members for his stances on election security and his leadership qualifications. 
Former Republican Secretary of State Max Maxfield also filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission at the beginning of August, voicing his concern over Gray’s income reports during his U.S. House campaign. 
Maxfield endorsed Nethercott and is hoping to have an independent candidate to vote for in the wake of her loss. 
He said he believes Gray lacks the professional experience to manage the office, and he objected to the doubts Gray cast on some positions related to the office. Maxfield said to come out and argue there were cases of voter fraud in previous elections and to advocate removing of absentee ballot drop boxes and reverting to paper ballots is ridiculous. 
“I watched the process of the election, and saw the kind of campaign that Mr. Gray ran, and looked at his qualifications and looked at his personal views toward the second-highest office in the state,” Maxfield told the WTE. “It concerns me enough that I want to support someone else.” 
These criticisms of the Republican primary winner were echoed by candidate seekers. 
Case said he would not be comfortable with a secretary of state who has claimed the 2020 election was stolen being in charge of the Elections Division. 
“There’s concerns with his FEC filing and the paperwork, and how his assets may or may not align, and then there’s just the concerns about his fitness and aptness to do the job,” Fitzgerald said. “He has been in the Legislature for a period of time now, and he hasn’t gotten many bills passed, and so that makes me question and others question his ability to work with others.” 
She said since the responsibilities of secretary of state are largely administrative, there are significant consequences if the work is done incorrectly. She is worried employees may not want to work in the environment created by Gray, and that would lead to difficulties executing elections or working with small businesses. 
Although there are doubts regarding his capability, Fitzgerald said this doesn’t translate to doubting the results of the election. 
She said it was fair, and based on the ballots cast, and Gray was the clear winner. The reason Fitzgerald has hope an independent candidate could win is because of the close to 63,000 votes Nethercott received, but it has been an uphill battle to find a contender. Fitzgerald said she doesn’t want to reveal the names of individuals considered so far due to the nature of the race, but they’ve expressed their weariness. 
A candidate Case has been vying for openly turned down the opportunity to challenge Gray. 
Laramie County GOP vice-chairman Nathan Winters told the WTE he has received an extraordinary number of calls asking him to consider running, but his focus lies in other areas. 
“We are in a very pivotal moment of bringing a charter school to Cheyenne that would be an affiliate of Hillsdale College, and we are one of only seven in the United States that was selected this year,” he said. “We are actually standing before the State Loan and Investment Board in just a few weeks, so this is important.” 
Winters is also the president and executive director of the Family Policy Alliance of Wyoming, and he doesn’t want to step down from that position. 
He said he has spoken with Gray in recent days and expressed his support for the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office. He said he believes the Republican primary winner will be successful if he works closely with the longtime employees. 
“The staff that has been built up over the last number of years is one of the very best in the state of Wyoming,” he said he told Gray. “Secondly, (current Secretary of State) Ed Buchanan has made election integrity one of the foremost things that he has fought for over the last four-and-a-half years.” 
He said he agreed with U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., in her belief that there were major questions raised regarding other states in the 2020 election, but he knows there were strong efforts that went into ensuring secure elections in Wyoming. 
Although Gray has cast doubt on the election process in this state, Winters said he will support the most conservative candidate in the general election, and right now it is the Republican primary winner. 
Despite Winters telling Case he didn’t want to run against Gray, the state senator moved forward with trying to get the 5,418 signatures needed for Winters before Monday. Case hoped seeing the encouragement from residents would convince Winters to run.
Case sent a letter to Kai Schon, Elections Division director at the Secretary of State’s Office, arguing the petition could be circulated without pre-approval by the possible candidate. Case wrote that he agreed with Wyoming Statute 22-5-301 (a) in that the proposed candidate needed to approve the submission it was presented to the Secretary of State’s Office, but disagreed that the petitions couldn’t be sent out across the state if there was no such authorization. 
“These petitions beforehand are not binding and have no effect. Only with the candidate’s signature do they become binding,” Case said. “Your existing policy prohibits a draft where people can express their support for a candidate. It is a free speech issue and a bureaucratic encumbrance of a process that has no effect on your office until the signatures are submitted with the candidate’s approval and countersignature.” 
Case followed up with the WTE and said the Secretary of State’s Office would not accept his interpretation of the statute as of Tuesday. 
Winters was the most viable candidate Case wanted to run, because he said others don’t have the name recognition or strong qualifications. 
“I served with Nathan Winters in the Wyoming Legislature. He is a very honorable, thoughtful and kind person. He is very conservative and holds immense faith in our savior,” Case said in his testimonial. “No one ever will be able to tag him as a RINO.” 
The difficulty in finding a candidate doesn’t just revolve around a sprint campaign being unappealing — or the laws the Secretary of State’s Office must follow. 
Both Fitzgerald and Case said some don’t want to put themselves in the crosshairs of the Wyoming Republican Party. 
Fitzgerald said she believes leadership and members of the party showed support exclusively for Hageman. She said this, in turn, benefited Gray, who was backed by the U.S. House candidate. 
“It’s clear the large majority of the state party was supporting her efforts there, and I think that just speaks more to the current environment of Wyoming politics and the Wyoming GOP,” she said. 
The political consultant said she knows the state party and others have been careful not to host events endorsing specific candidates, but there has been a lot of bleed-over where voters might have had a hard time telling what was an independent event versus what was a county or state GOP-sponsored event. 
“The messaging was blurred, and that may have been intentional to only invite certain people to certain events,” Fitzgerald said. “But the rules are very clear that the party has to remain neutral in the primary, and I think a lot of people are questioning whether that really happened.” 
Case is a Republican who believes the GOP has overstepped its bounds when it comes to showing support for candidates. He pointed to the Save Wyoming Rally, which only hosted one Republican candidate in each statewide race, including Gray. 
Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne attended the event, as well as the Hageman campaign rally in Casper over Memorial Day weekend attended by Trump and her campaign party on primary election night. 
“We need to restore a fair primary, which Frank Eathorne didn’t give us,” Case said. “And if you just look at the attendees at the Lander rally, you tell me that the Republican Party wasn’t up to their ears behind the scenes for that, even though they said they weren’t. They only invited one candidate from each slot, and they put all their efforts behind that.” 
Case argued it was another reason Winters decided not to run against Gray. 
Winters said he cares very deeply about the Republican Party and conservative principles and would never run for office without the letter “R” following his name. 
“I don’t blame him for saying no, because you’re up against the Republican Party leadership now, and you don’t want to buck that,” said Case. “That’s what he would be doing.” 
Wyoming GOP National Committeeman Corey Steinmetz said in a statement the state party didn’t support a specific candidate in the primary race for secretary of state. He said they neither campaigned nor advertised for or against any candidate in the race. He said the party congratulated all Republican primary winners, and it looks forward to continuing its work in support of those who represent Republican values, as expressed in the party’s platform. 
“The voters have spoken in the primary. Representative Gray was elected with a margin of over 13,000 votes,” Steinmetz said. “Senator Case has the freedom to do whatever he feels he should, however ... the handpicked candidate by Mr. Case has said clearly that he is not interested in running for the office of secretary of state.” 
Both Case and Fitzgerald said the hunt will continue for a contender over the next five days.
 
 
This story was published on August 24, 2022.