John Wetzel

Powell Mayor John Wetzel appears to be headed to the Wyoming Legislature, after Republican voters endorsed him as their nominee in House District 25.

Wetzel received 1,276 votes (51.7%) in Tuesday’s primary election, while veteran and U.S. Navy cybersecurity contractor Matt Legler came in just behind with 1,177 votes (48.1%).

“I’m honored to earn the trust, really, of the citizens of Powell to go to Cheyenne and represent them,” he said in a Wednesday interview. “I don’t have any particular issues or agendas, but I do want to go work hard, continue to bring common sense to Cheyenne.”

Wetzel — whose wife is a part-owner of the Tribune — has a clear path to the state House, as no Democrats, independents or third-party candidates are in the running. Assuming voters confirm him as their pick in November, Wetzel will replace current state Rep. Paul Hoeft, R-Powell, who made an unsuccessful run for the Senate.

The mayor carried all three precincts within the City of Powell, while Legler won the two precincts in rural Powell. 

A ‘good, honest race’

Wetzel complimented Legler on running a “good, honest race” and said he wants to draw on Legler’s deep knowledge of cybersecurity and issues like data centers.

Legler returned the compliment on Wednesday, and said he’s happy to help Wetzel however he can.

“I genuinely just want to help John [Wetzel] be the best rep he can be,” Legler said.

While the two candidates had differences — Legler ran as a more conservative candidate and received the backing of the Park County Republican Party leadership — Wetzel said he believed he and Legler had several very similar stances. Wetzel suggested that might explain the narrow, 99-vote difference between the two of them.

“We both tried to keep it clean, and I think, other than the PAC mailers, it was a good race from that standpoint,” Wetzel said.

Earlier this month, Wetzel had posted a Facebook video denouncing some negative posts and a mailer from an outside political action committee (PAC) that was critical of Legler.

“Wyoming deserves better than attack ads,” Wetzel said, cautioning residents that any negative mailers they received probably didn’t come from either candidate. Legler said Wednesday that he appreciated Wetzel’s statement and shared the sentiment about the outside attacks.

Freedom Caucus?

At the outset of his campaign, Legler specifically said he wasn’t planning to join the group of conservative lawmakers known as the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, in part because he wanted to decide issues on his own. 

“While I may align with some of their goals as a conservative party platform candidate, I certainly would not have engaged in the same tactics and stuff like that,” he reiterated Wednesday. “And that’s the biggest reason why I just had no interest in joining the Freedom Caucus.”

Despite that, Legler was repeatedly attacked as a “Freedom Caucus” candidate by groups like the PAC For a Better Wyoming, which in one mailer asserted that Legler would “join the Freedom Caucus to make extreme [budget] cuts.” (The PAC’s $455,000 in funding came from the Wyoming Donor Alliance, which generally doesn’t disclose its donors.)

On top of that, the Freedom Caucus’s committee, the WY Freedom PAC, also decided to back Legler, buying web ads and mailers promoting him and attacking Wetzel.

In a primary election where the Freedom Caucus was a central topic, “I’m sure people weighed that issue one way or another, and I hope they gave Matt [Legler] the benefit of the doubt,” Wetzel said. “I don’t know how a candidate separates himself when somebody endorses you.”

Wetzel is in the middle of a four-year term as mayor and will have to leave that post if voters formally elect him to the Legislature in November; a new mayor would then be selected among the Powell City Council members.

Wetzel said he’s sad to be leaving the city government, as it’s “a great crew” made up of good people. However, “I think they’ll be in good hands moving forward,” he said. “I look forward to seeing the final results at the general election of who wins [council seats], but they have some good people running.”