Wyoming Governor’s Race- Independent Expenditure (2018)
Six weeks before the Wyoming Republican primary, Trump-endorsed multimillionaire Foster Friess — the original funder of Turning Point USA — was leading the field. State Treasurer Mark Gordon was stuck at 20%. A deeper dive into the data told a different story: Gordon led among people who rarely vote in Republican primaries. The votes were there. The job was getting them to the polls.
My role: Strategy, messaging, and oversight of the digital and phone programs for the Independent Republicans of Wyoming. Targeted social media drove voters to SwitchForWyoming.org to learn how to participate in the Republican primary — over 8,400 unique visitors in 8 days. The phone program identified Gordon supporters among low-propensity voters, then returned the night before the election with GOTV calls to confirmed supporters only. By late election eve, the calls were breaking hard in Gordon's direction. We knew.
Outcome: Gordon won with 32.8% in a six-person race, besting Friess by 9,000 votes. Wyoming had its highest primary turnout since 1994.
Friess blamed Democratic switchers and immediately demanded changes to Wyoming election law. The Legislature spent six years trying to close the window that this program used. They finally enacted a May 15th registration deadline in 2024.
When the losing side spends six years trying to change the rules, you know it worked.
By July, Foster Friess was pulling away in the polls, but diving deeper into the data showed a path for Gordon.
The Switch for Wyoming website had information for Republicans, Independents, and Democrats.
Social media ads delivered a strong message and drove traffic to the website.
In deep red Wyoming, having two reasonable candidates rather than a crazy Republican and a Democrat was the safest way to go.
We did some special advertising to women concerning Friess's totally out-of-touch "jokes" about contraception.
Do we want Governor Snowbird? Turns out, no!
We hit hard on the fact that Friess really only resided part-time in Wyoming.
We took on Trump and the wealthiest person on the ballot nationally and won!