Park County GOP backs Trump

POWELL (WNE) — Park County Republicans have put their support behind former President Donald Trump. 

On Saturday, local Republicans elected Brent Bien of Cody as their delegate to the Republican National Convention — and the former gubernatorial candidate said he “unequivocally” backs Trump as the party’s nominee. 

“He’s already proven. He’s an America First guy, and that’s exactly what we need right now,” Bien said in an interview. “And he’s somebody who’s going to clean up the fourth branch of government — all these unelected bureaucrats that are actually running our nation.” 

“The one thing you know, regardless of what people think about his mean tweets and all this other stuff,” he added, “ is that Donald Trump loves America.” 

Another local Republican, Nina Webber of Wapiti, is also set to attend the July 15-18 convention in Milwaukee as the state party’s national committeewoman. 

Bien and Webber will be among 29 delegates representing Wyoming, and among an estimated 2,429 delegates from across the country. 

Trump became the GOP’s presumptive nominee on Tuesday, after a dominant showing in 15 more states led his last prominent challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, to drop out of the race. 

At last month’s Park County GOP caucus, 90% of the more than 100 attendees expressed support for Trump in an unofficial straw poll.

However, unlike other states that hold primaries or open caucuses, the Wyoming Republican Party does not allow rank-and-file members to directly vote on the party’s presidential nominee. Only precinct committeemen and women — who were generally elected in the August 2022 primary — and a handful of other delegates are allowed to participate at county conventions. 

This story was published on March 7, 2024.