Natrona County GOP asks Wyoming Republican Chairman Eathorne to resign | 307 Politics

Members of the Natrona County Republican Central Committee passed a resolution 48-35 that demanded Eathorne immediately step down as the party’s top official.

The resolution asserts that “Frank Eathorne has consistently failed to represent the values of the vast majority of Wyomingites” while also dividing the Republican Party here. It found support from a number of state lawmakers who represent Natrona County including Sens. Drew Perkins and Jim Anderson as well as Reps. Joe MacGuire, Pat Sweeney and Tom Walters. (Walters’ vote was secret because he is the parliamentarian, but he disclosed it afterward to a reporter.)

The resolution does not carry a tangible punishment outside of making a statement on a matter. 

Despite the resolution’s success, a number of people at Tuesday’s meeting spoke out against it and questioned the allegations against Eathorne, including statehouse candidate Bill Allemand, who called it a “sham and shameful resolution” as well as a “poppycock liberal vendetta.” 

Natrona County’s call for Eathorne’s resignation is the latest conflict in the ongoing battle between the county party and the state GOP.

Darcie Gudger, a local Casper Republican at her first central committee meeting, was frustrated that Natrona County issues weren’t being discussed and time was being spent on inter-party conflicts.

“All of this infighting is not what the voters want,” she said. “We want action for the people. This is all about egos. As a Republican voter, this is not what I expect from my party.” 

Eathorne has served as Wyoming GOP chairman since 2017. His stature rose during the presidency of Donald Trump, and he’s played a key role in Trump’s efforts to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney for supporting impeachment. Trump mentioned Eathorne by name when he visited Casper for a rally last month. Eathorne, meanwhile, said he would run through barbed wire for the former president.

The resolution gave a number of reasons for why the GOP chairman should step down, including court records that indicate Eathorne, as a police officer in Worland in 1994, barged into a coworker’s home while drunk and armed and tried to convince her to have sex with him.

The resolution also calls out his presence on restricted grounds at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Eathorne said immediately following the Jan. 6 riot that he made a “brief stop in the vicinity” of the Capitol property, but photos published last month showed he got much closer to the building.