Wyoming Republicans are rallying around the Big Lie claim that the 2020 election was rigged against Donald Trump -- even though their state gave him 70% of the vote, his largest victory margin in the nation.
"Wyoming officials are facing mounting pressure to audit the 2020 election from pro-Trump activists asserting, without evidence, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the former president through wide-spread voter fraud," WyoFile, a not-for-profit news service covering the state, reported today.
"Activists across the state have flooded state lawmakers' inboxes and voicemails with demands to investigate the state's elections. These calls align with partisan efforts to relitigate election results in swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
"Activists have also repeatedly implored staffers of Gov. Mark Gordon and Sec. of State Ed Buchanan to pursue policies to bolster 'election integrity.'"
No discussion of "election integrity" would be complete without reference to Pillow Guy Mike Lindell's tin-hat "cyber symposium" two weeks ago in neighboring South Dakota. State Rep. Dan Laursen, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, traveled to it, Wyofile reports.
"What Lindell produced during the forum — even if only halfway or "a little bit" true — should be "concerning to everyone. Even the slightest bit of doubt should be enough to compel an audit,"(Laursen) said. " It's pretty darn important, I think."
It's especially darn important to Republicans in the crowded field challenging Rep. Liz Cheney for the state's lone seat in the House of Representatives. Cheney continues getting trolled all over the state for her vote to impeach Trump and her rejection of the Big Lie.
Her two leading opponents to date are Rep. Chuck Gray and Sen. Anthony Bouchard, and for them the "election integrity" has become a key wedge issue, Wyofile reports. Wyofile's Kerry Drake laid out their differences in a commentary today:
"Gray said he believes the presidential election was "rigged" and rife with voter fraud. He maintains it "created a lack of confidence" in the election process. Gray even traveled to Arizona to talk to the kooky senators who turned over ballots from a blue county to an outfit called Cyber Ninjas to conduct a sham audit.
"Bouchard chastised him for promoting a Wyoming election audit and disparaging the fine work of the state's county clerks.
"'I'm sick and tired of it,' Bouchard said. 'Why don't we go to your clerk and audit your election and see if you were duly elected?'"
Cheney enjoys a huge fund-raising lead in the primary race, having raised $3.4 million, including a personal record $1.8 million in the 2nd quarter this year, reports the Oil City News in Caspar. She reported $2.85 in cash on hand, several times the entire field combined.
But conservatives are optimistic that she'd lose if all but one of her top opponents drop out, according to the Washington Examiner. Trump has made the defeat of "deplorable" Cheney a top priority. He has not made an endorsement in the race but is expected to do so.
In the 2020 election, Trump won Wyoming with 193,559 votes to President Joe Biden's 73,491 -- a 70-to-27 % that was the largest of any state in the nation. But apparently not enough to have erased suspicions that it was all rigged against him.
