For Republicans, the extreme right-wing freedom caucuses that have emerged in state legislatures in the past few years have played the same obstructionist role as the U.S. House Freedom Caucus. Up until now, they have slowed down or stopped the initiatives of more traditional members of the party through the use of political maneuvering.
Last year, Republican leaders in Missouri’s legislature stripped its Freedom Caucus members of four leadership posts because they regularly used stalling tactics to prevent bills — even noncontroversial ones — from getting a floor vote.
Members of South Carolina’s Freedom Caucus lost a bitter fight with traditional Republican state house leaders last year when they tried to replace the House speaker. The fight delayed ordinary legislative business — including passing a budget — for several weeks.
“In every state where they appear, freedom caucuses cause headaches for the so-called establishment Republicans in charge,” according to a recent piece in Governing.
Given their far-right beliefs, state freedom caucus members often regard their legislative leadership as being dominated by RINOs — fellow politicians who, in their eyes, are Republican In Name Only.
If 2024 was a year full of intra-party fights with ultra-conservative freedom caucus members — 140 state lawmakers at the time — this year’s state legislative sessions have begun less contentiously, with caucus members introducing more bills of their own.
The State Freedom Caucus Network (SFCN) was launched in 2021 by the Conservative Partnership Institute and shares leadership and office space with the organization. Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff and one of the original founders of the congressional House Freedom Caucus, is associated with both organizations.
Affiliation with the SFCN gives the 13 existing state freedom caucuses — in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming — a playbook with directives and support staff to help move their agenda.
Gaining Traction in Wyoming
In Wyoming, Freedom Caucus members beat enough traditional Republicans in November’s primaries that they now hold leadership positions in their state legislature.
In late January, the caucus passed a legislative package in the House known as the “Five and Dime Plan” — five pieces of legislation it promised to pass within the first 10 days of the session. The bills have now moved on to the state Senate, where Wyoming Freedom Caucus members control two of the three leadership positions.
In speaking to The New York Times after the House vote, Wyoming Freedom Caucus Representative Jerold Haroldson said, “We are going to unwoke the state.”
The centerpiece of the legislative package is a bill requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, along with the forms of identification a voter can present. Freedom caucuses in Missouri and Georgia, among other states, have introduced similar bills.
In Wyoming, county election officials contend that if the bill passes, eligible voters, unaware of the new identification requirements, may be prohibited from voting.
Audits by state election officials and numerous studies show that supposed voter fraud by noncitizens is extremely rare in the U.S. In its study The Truth About Voter Fraud, the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice “reviewed elections that had been meticulously studied for voter fraud, and found incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent.”
One bill, HB 80, as originally drafted would have forced the state to withdraw its money from any investment funds that use environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. It would have also penalized public officials who oversee pension funds and revenue reserves if they work with fund managers who make prohibited ESG investments.
In response, Wyoming State Treasurer Curt Meier and county officials said in a press conference on January 30 that many money managers would not do business in Wyoming if the legislation took effect, which would wind up costing the state $1.2 billion in lost revenue. Meier also said that many of Wyoming’s own energy companies — even coal companies — adhere to ESG standards, meaning that money managers would be unable to invest in many of the companies that drive the state’s economy.
“When the Freedom Caucus realized all this, they changed the bill to remove a list of ‘woke’ ESG behaviors that would disqualify a company for Wyoming investment,” said Democratic State Representative Karlee Provenza. “They also removed any penalties that would give the bill teeth. It was amended so much that it just upholds the status quo of how the Wyoming Treasurer’s Office does business today — which includes investing in companies with ‘woke’ agendas,” she added.
Another bill in the legislative package, HB 147, would prohibit any government entity in the state — including all public schools, the University of Wyoming, and community colleges — from “engaging in any diversity, equity or inclusion program, activity or policy” or engaging in “institutional discrimination” that assigns “moral, historical, or other blame on a person or group of people on the basis of immutable characteristics.”
Republican State Senator Cheri Steinmetz, a Freedom Caucus ally, introduced a companion bill in the Senate, saying, “It is not just about saving taxpayer dollars — it is about ensuring that Wyoming’s institutions promote fairness and equality under the law.”
The Freedom Caucus says that the goal in “dumping ‘woke’ DEI programming” is to “attract the free thinking cowboys and cowgirls we want attending our university.”
Wyoming’s Five and Dime package also includes legislation to invalidate the driver’s licenses of “illegal aliens” who are licensed to drive in one of the 19 states that allow noncitizens to be licensed.
Status in Other States
Since freedom caucuses in other states lack a legislative majority, they are not able to ram bills through their legislatures as in Wyoming.
After all the infighting with party leadership last year, this year the South Carolina Freedom Caucus has introduced legislation to ban abortion from the point of conception and is looking for broad party support for the measure.
In Missouri, the Freedom Caucus is pushing a ban on abortion even though voters rejected that in November when they approved Amendment 3, a referendum making the right to an abortion at any point up to fetal viability legal under the state constitution.
Last year, members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus filibustered and held up tax legislation for weeks. In a show of reconciliation, this year members say they will work in lockstep with the legislature’s traditional Republicans to push bills on public safety, private education vouchers, and tax cuts.
In Oklahoma, the Freedom Caucus supports a mandate from the head of the state’s education department to buy Bibles for every public school classroom.
In Illinois, the only caucus state where Democrats hold a trifecta — with the governorship and both chambers of the legislature in Democratic hands — the Freedom Caucus is continuing to push the state to stop spending money on migrants.
Not all freedom caucuses are limiting themselves to legislative action. In Pennsylvania, members of the Freedom Caucus obtained a copy of a questionnaire guidance counselors in a school district outside of Pittsburgh had been giving to students that asked about their “identified gender” and preferred “pronouns.” The school district pointed out that the questionnaire had been in use for many years as a way for teachers and administrators to establish understanding around students’ preferences related to gender identity and that it had to be signed by parents or guardians.
When the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus released the questionnaire online, it sparked controversy and drew roughly 300,000 views on X (formerly Twitter). Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X and helped finance Trump’s return to the White House, showed his support for the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus by posting his own succinct comment on the questionnaire: two exclamation points.
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