Mark Gordon

Freedom Caucus and the 2025 session

Gordon's relationship with the Wyoming Legislature became increasingly contentious after the Wyoming Freedom Caucus gained control of the Wyoming House of Representatives following the 2024 elections. WyoFile has described the caucus and its allies as far-right Republican lawmakers and described its national sponsor, the State Freedom Caucus Network, as a national right-wing political organization seeking to establish hard-line majorities in state legislatures.

Before the 2025 session, Gordon said that he would work with the Legislature's new leadership but described Freedom Caucus lawmakers as politically aggressive and focused on finding faults in his administration. During the session, he questioned whether caucus members were voting according to their constituents' interests or according to instructions from outside the chamber. He said that their legislative record would give Wyoming voters an opportunity to determine whether the caucus had represented them.

Freedom Caucus voting coordination

The Freedom Caucus received legislative research and voting recommendations from Jessie Rubino, the Wyoming state director of the Washington, D.C.-based State Freedom Caucus Network. The national network paid Rubino's salary as part of its partnership with the Wyoming caucus. Rubino, a graduate of the University of Wyoming College of Law and founder of the university's Turning Point USA chapter, researched bills and supplied voting recommendations to caucus members and allied lawmakers, sometimes by text message while votes were taking place.

Then-caucus chairman John Bear confirmed that text messages summarized Rubino's and the caucus's positions on bills and amendments. Bear said that lawmakers were not required to follow every recommendation, although the organization maintained undisclosed voting-adherence thresholds for membership. He said the caucus was pleased with how consistently its members voted together. Other Republican legislators criticized the practice. Clark Stith said members voted in lockstep according to text-message instructions, while Steve Harshman called the practice a departure from Wyoming's citizen legislators' traditional independence.

2026 primary results

In the August 2026 Republican primaries, the Freedom Caucus lost the House majority it had gained two years earlier. Thirteen incumbent caucus members lost their House seats, six caucus-aligned lawmakers lost campaigns for Senate seats, and the organization gained no new House seats. WyoFile called the result a "stunning upset" and projected that the caucus would be reduced from a House majority to about 10 reliable votes. The losses also deprived the caucus of enough votes to obstruct the two-thirds introductory threshold used during legislative budget sessions.

Responding to the results, Gordon said that Wyoming voters had rejected national political talking points and had instead considered the state's future. He also criticized the Wyoming Republican Party for endorsing candidates aligned with Freedom Caucus priorities and said the party should allow Republican voters to choose candidates for themselves. Rubino directed reporters to a Freedom Caucus statement declaring that the organization was "not going anywhere" and defending its record on taxes, school policy, voting restrictions and legislation about transgender people.

Local authority and gun-free zones

Several disputes between Gordon and the Freedom Caucus concerned whether authority should remain with local governments and public institutions or be transferred to the Legislature. In February 2025, Gordon allowed House Bill 172, which repealed certain gun-free zones, to become law without his signature. The legislation permitted concealed firearms in public schools, the University of Wyoming, community colleges, state-owned facilities, and government meetings. It removed much of the authority those institutions had previously exercised over concealed firearms in their facilities.

Although Gordon supported expanded firearm-carrying rights, he called the measure a "legislative power grab". He wrote that gun-free zones had not actually been eliminated but were instead "determined exclusively by the legislature". Gordon called the legislation a "political bomb" produced by the election that put the Freedom Caucus and its allies in the House majority.

Medication-abortion ultrasound requirement

Gordon also vetoed House Bill 64, which required a patient seeking a medication abortion to undergo an ultrasound at least 48 hours before receiving abortion medication. During early pregnancy, the examination would generally have required a transvaginal ultrasound, in which an ultrasound probe is inserted into the vagina. The legislation had no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

Although Gordon described himself as opposed to abortion, he said that requiring the procedure constituted excessive government intrusion into a private medical decision. He called the mandated examination an "intimate, personally invasive, and often medically unnecessary procedure" and said that imposing it on victims of rape could be cruel and could discourage victims from reporting sexual assaults. The Legislature overrode his veto, with the House voting 45 to 16 and the Senate voting 22 to 9.

Radiant nuclear project

In October 2025, Gordon blamed the Freedom Caucus for contributing to Radiant Industries' decision to abandon plans for a nuclear-microreactor manufacturing facility near Bar Nunn, Wyoming, and instead locate the project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Gordon accused the caucus of employing "Club No" tactics and said that its members objected to the proposal without discussing possible solutions. He told Wyoming Public Media that the caucus was interested in "fearmongering".

Freedom Caucus member Bill Allemand was a leading legislative opponent of the proposed facility. Allemand supported manufacturing the reactors but opposed allowing the company to store spent nuclear fuel at the site. After Radiant withdrew its Wyoming proposal, Allemand said he was "elated". Radiant's senior director of operations said the company selected Tennessee because of the greater regulatory certainty available there.

Gordon contrasted Wyoming's response with Tennessee's willingness to pursue nuclear manufacturing and provide regulatory certainty. He warned that Wyoming could either participate in emerging industries or "gently coast into oblivion". Gordon said Wyoming should be a state to which companies turned for regulatory clarity, infrastructure, and partnership rather than one governed by fear and automatic opposition.

2026 budget dispute

The conflict continued during preparation of Wyoming's 2026 biennial budget. The Joint Appropriations Committee of the Wyoming Legislature, chaired by former Freedom Caucus chairman John Bear and containing a majority of Freedom Caucus members and endorsees in its House delegation, proposed sweeping reductions to Gordon's budget. Wyoming Public Media reported that the caucus led much of the committee's work and that its proposals were frequently supported by a majority of the committee's senators.

The committee proposed reductions affecting the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming departments of Health and Family Services, state employee compensation, and the Wyoming Business Council. Freedom Caucus member Ken Pendergraft successfully proposed reducing the university's block grant by $40 million. The committee also voted to eliminate funding for Wyoming Public Media, reduce funding for university athletics and other programs, and dismantle the Wyoming Business Council. Freedom Caucus member Ann Lucas defended the reductions as requiring government to tighten its belt, while Pendergraft questioned whether the Business Council was compatible with free-market principles.

Gordon attributed the proposal to "Freedom Caucus, aka Club No, members" on the committee and called it a "demolition budget". He accused its supporters of importing "cut everything" rhetoric for political theater and said Wyoming did not have structural debt or runaway spending. Gordon urged the full legislature to restore funding for core institutions and warned that the reductions could cause lasting damage to education, healthcare, economic development and rural communities.

The Freedom Caucus ultimately agreed to restore most of the funding to the levels Gordon recommended. At the conclusion of the budget session, Gordon thanked lawmakers for their work and acknowledged that the relationship had been difficult at times. He said that the executive and legislative branches did not always agree but needed to continue working together for Wyoming.