Over the weekend, many people have asked for my response to Chairman Miller’s open letter posted last Friday (8/28/26).
He got one thing right: in Wyoming, the Republican primary has too often been treated as the election itself. That is not a strength. It is the problem. It has fueled the Republican civil war, intensified the culture war, and left voters asking whether party labels still mean anything at all.
No one should be handed a unity decree in place of conviction. No voter should be told that an unearned “R” settles a question of principle.
Chairman Miller is in a difficult position, and I recognize that. For years, candidates and voters who could not prevail as Democrats found opportunity inside the Republican primary because that was where power was decided—a strategy Democrats and commentators publicly encouraged. The result is plain: party labels remained, but principles were diluted. The once-red party became purple because leadership failed to buttress against party-switching, compromise, and confusion.
The rise of the Freedom Caucus in the House, Wyoming Gun Owners bloc in the Senate, and the public support for true conservative candidates did not create the fracture. They revealed it. These were internal mechanisms from conservatives who wanted accountability. They were not always aligned. At times, they may have worked against one another. That, too, was a failure of leadership. Republican leadership could have united that energy around a common conservative cause. Instead, the divisions have harden and now it blames voters who refuse to accept more failure.
The Constitution Party has become more than a protest because of these shortcomings. Conservatives did not suddenly want a new label. They are done compromising. They are ready for a reckoning. Wyoming is not a competitive two-party state where every third-party vote automatically helps the other side. Wyoming is a dominant-party state. That changes things.
Chairman Miller warns that any vote against a Republican nominee is a gift to the left. But when the Republican label protects candidates who do not govern as conservatives, that gift has already been given. The danger is not November competition, but the August disappointment. The danger is asking conservatives to submit to a label that no longer represents them.
Democrats make up roughly 11-12% of Wyoming’s electorate. The left is not about to conquer Wyoming through a Colorado-style Blueprint strategy; unless institutional Republicans are already helping them and in that case the party is already a lost cause. I don’t think that we are there. Wyoming has something Colorado conservatives did not have then: a rising Constitution Party capable of forcing real competition in November. If the Republican Party drifts further under unendorsed Republicans, the Constitution Party will become the conservative buttress against Wyoming drifting blue.
Republican leaders have already judged beyond the label. They withheld endorsements. They weighed character, record, and principle. Yet now, when conservative alternatives stand before voters in November, they are told the letter alone must settle the question. That is fighting not to lose, not fighting to win—and there is a difference.
If the “R” is the standard, then the standard is no longer objectively conservative. It is the compromise that produced this crisis. We are not asking conservatives to fight one another. We are asking voters to stop surrendering. The choice is simple: principles or party labels. I choose principles. That is the soundest course for Republicans who want their party back and everyone else who wants to hold officials accountable.
That is why we are running Rebecca Bextel for governor and Tamara Trujillo for secretary of state. In both races, the Republican nominee was not the candidate the state party endorsed. Chairman Miller’s letter now asks voters to treat the label as if that judgment never happened. Bextel and Trujillo campaigns can make history and prove that principle, courage, and competition can restore order.
If conservatives want the Republican Party to reflect conservative values again, they must remove the incentive structure that rewards party-switching. Move the real election back to November. Vote Bextel and Trujillo. Send the message: Wyoming will elect principled conservatives regardless of label. When candidates must answer to voters time and again in November, party-switching loses its purpose.
The time for the conservatives to course correct this state is now. Wyoming can cool the culture war by ending the arrangement that fuels it. Real competition is not chaos; it is how voters make parties honest again. Conservatives should not be trapped inside a party that compromises their principles. Anyone who fears that competition should explain why voters cannot be trusted with a meaningful choice.
We are asking voters to refuse the agenda that keeps us fighting while others profit. Let’s restore that freedom together. Refuse to rubber-stamp candidates who trade conviction for convenience. Refuse to reward those who exploit our disagreements and then demand our loyalty.
Our candidates will be on many ballots to come. The general election belongs to the people. Even when the other major parties treat November as a formality, the Constitution Party of Wyoming will do its civic duty. That is not division. It is not a gift to the other side.
That is the reckoning, the time is now, and it is my answer to Chairman Miller.
Strength & Courage,
Joshua Shimkus, Chairman
Constitution Party of Wyoming
