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cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson
April 18, 2024

Wyoming GOP Rejects ‘Liz Cheney Amendment’ To Kick People Out Of Party

pic-—Wyoming GOP lawyer Brian Shuck, left, and Joey Correnti talk about an amendment during Thursday’s state GOP Bylaws Committee meeting. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)

CHEYENNE — After about eight hours of discussion and debate Thursday, a Wyoming Republican Party committee rejected a proposed bylaw change nicknamed the “Liz Cheney Amendment” that would have given the party expansive powers to remove members they didn’t like.

Although dozens of amendments and changes were made to the rules over the course of the opening day of the state GOP convention at Little America in Cheyenne, it was all for naught as the Bylaws Committee rejected the proposal by a relatively wide margin.

Park County GOP Committeeman Vince Vanata supported the changes and was disappointed they didn’t go through.

“Now I know how the legislators in the 2024 session feel,” he remarked to Cowboy State Daily.

Colin Crossman, head of the business division for the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office and also a Laramie County GOP delegate, said he believed people’s opinions about the bylaws evolved over the course of the discussion.

“A lot of people came in with an open mind, and given that it wasn’t defeated immediately, I think people put things in there to see if they could make it good,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

But by the end of the discussion, even supporters of the original proposal commented that they believed the bylaws had morphed into something far different than what was intended.

“Over the course of the discussion I think that became abundantly clear,” Crossman said.

Cheney Inspired
The proposed bylaws had originated with the Weston County Republican Party. Weston County GOP Chair Kari Drost said the 34-page document had been nicknamed “the Liz Cheney amendment” for the former Wyoming congresswoman who lost most of her support with state Republicans.

Cheney fell out of favor with the Wyoming GOP after she spoke out against former President Donald Trump. This led the Wyoming GOP to censure her in 2021 for voting to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“There was a group of citizens in Weston County very, very concerned about Liz Cheney and the way she tried to infiltrate and change our party,” Drost said.

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