Crossover Campaigning

Two sheriff candidates were registered Republican less than a month before filing to run in the Democratic primary. County Assessor Chelsie Mathews briefly flipped parties to win an appointment.

The August primary ballots, Republican and Democrat, will each feature newcomers to their respective parties — candidates who, until recently, were registered as a voter for the opposite party.

These individuals — Democratic candidates for sheriff and the Republican candidate for county assessor — switched for a variety of reasons. Some cited taking an interest in their new party’s policies, while others said they viewed their desired offices as apolitical and simply sought to take advantage of openings where and when those openings arose.

This crossover campaigning mirrors a hot-button issue that’s only grown hotter in Wyoming politics in recent years — the activity known as “crossover voting.”

In a heavily Republican state like Wyoming, “crossover voting” is an electoral tactic that allows members of a minority party to take part in the dominant party’s primary election.

Wyoming has closed primaries, meaning only Republicans may vote in the Republican primary, and only Democrats may vote in the Democratic primary. In many races, particularly statewide races, the winner of the Republican primary is considered the presumptive winner of the general election as members of the majority party rally around their nominee and typically crush the Democratic opposition.

So a registered Democrat might consider switching parties to have a larger say in the Republican primary, viewing it as the more significant and impactful election.

This is crossover voting.

It’s controversial — Republicans have argued that liberals are using the tactic to pull the GOP toward the center by switching parties to vote for “moderates” — but it’s currently perfectly legal.

“People really struggle particularly heading into a primary election with which primary do they want to vote in,” said Carrie Murthy, chair of the Albany County Democrats. “I get excited to see voters struggle over that because these are people taking their civic duty very seriously and really weighing the pros and cons of how to best exercise the power of their vote.”

But it’s not the only crossover taking place in Wyoming politics. And in a blue county such as Albany, the advantageous switch is sometimes to the Democratic party.

The Democrats running for sheriff

All three Democrats seeking the office of Albany County Sheriff were registered Republican as recently as three years ago. The current sheriff, Aaron Appelhans, said he registered as a Democrat less than a year before being appointed in 2020.

“Over the years I’ve been in Wyoming, I have been a registered voter as a Democrat, Republican and Independent (more years as an Independent than the other two),” he said. “I am currently a registered Democrat and have been for the last two years. I chose to register as a Democrat because out of our two-party system (which I am not a fan of), the Democratic Party currently is more aligned with my political views and beliefs.”

His primary challengers, Zeb Gladney and Curtis Lee Moore, switched parties even more recently. While Appelhans was already a registered Democrat at the time of the 2020 election, both Gladney and Moore were still registered Republican.

In fact, both Gladney and Moore were still registered Republicans less than a month before filing to run in the Democratic primary.

Moore said he views the position of sheriff as apolitical, and switched parties to ensure that Appelhans had a primary challenger.

“On the Republican side, there were already two candidates — that was a factor,” Moore said. “And I wasn’t sure anyone was going to run on the Democratic side and I think in any election, there should be some semblance of competition. Somebody shouldn’t be able to just go into the main election. If there’s a primary process, I think somebody should have to go through that process and the people should have a chance to vote for who they think should go forward.”

As far as his personal political beliefs go, Moore said he falls somewhere in the center, depending on the issue.

“I don’t pay so much attention to what the Democrats or Republicans are clamoring about,” he said. “When I’ve voted in the past, I’ve voted for the best person. I don’t even look at what party they’re with. But I can’t say I side with either side. Historically, almost everybody would assume, if you’re law enforcement, you’re Republican. But I think there’s a lot of law enforcement personnel out there that are just right in the middle.”

Gladney also said he has a mix of Republican and Democratic beliefs.

“I was a Republican for a long-time,” he said. “I was kind of the black sheep of the family. Dad was a professor. My brothers were all Bernie supporters. I kind of viewed it differently. But over the past couple of years, I have been watching as the country has faced some pretty significant political turmoil relating to law enforcement.”

Discussion about police transparency, accountability and excessive force has bubbled to the surface of American political discourse — especially after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. As that happened, Gladney saw a divide between the conversations happening among Republicans and the conversations happening among Democrats.

“Republicans are law enforcement supporters by and large — ‘Yeah, do your thing, go out there and bust these guys’ — which is cool, I support that,” Gladney said. “I’m a cop. I didn’t become a cop to not enforce the law and not try to make a difference in the community. I hate people who victimize other people. I don’t like people who steal stuff or threaten other people — I wanted to stop that from happening. So of course, I’m all about stopping and preventing crime.”

But Republicans generally seemed uninterested in having a serious conversation about police reform, Gladney said. The Democrats’ willingness to have the conversation attracted him to the party.

“I like the reform, I like the brainstorming, I like the proactivity, and I want to be a part of it,” he said.

That’s not to say he agrees with every proposal for reform or for increased oversight.

“In terms of law enforcement, the Democratic party is kind of going in the direction I want to be a part of,” Galdney said. “But I’m not going to sugarcoat it or lie: I do have a lot of Republican values still. But with law enforcement, I am leaning toward the Democratic party. And I’ll be honest, sometimes the conversation is ridiculous. But at least they’re brainstorming, at least they’re trying to come up with something to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community, which – by and large – is the biggest problem facing law enforcement right now. I wanted to be a part of that.”

Murthy would not comment on the candidates specifically, adding the party does not favor candidates in a primary.

“I think this is a call for voters to take their civic duty seriously, as they always should, and research the candidates they’ll see on the ballot,” she said. “And I’ll also say we’re a big-tent party. If more people want to switch party affiliation and be Democrats, we welcome them with open arms and we want them to be involved and share their views.”

Once a Democrat has won the primary, the party will provide them more resources to carry on into the general. But until the primary election, Murthy said the party will basically only answer candidate questions about how to set up donation sites or where to order yard signs.

Providing volunteers — an essential component of any local election — is another story.

Murthy said volunteers are most often recruited by the candidates themselves.

“We don’t have lots of volunteers on-tap who are like, ‘Sign me up for anyone,’” she said. “Individuals get excited about specific candidates and they’re going to volunteer with the candidates they want to volunteer with.”

The Republican running for assessor

A Republican in both the 2020 and 2022 elections, Albany County Assessor Chelsie Mathews briefly flipped her party affiliation to take advantage of the vacancy left by her outgoing Democratic predecessor.

Mathews was registered as a Republican voter in 2020. At the time, she was serving as deputy assessor under the previous County Assessor Grant Showacre. Showacre was a Democrat serving his fourth term.

Showacre resigned in 2021 to take a job elsewhere, and his resignation kicked off a vacancy appointment process involving both his party and the county commission.

The Albany County Democrats put up three candidates to finish out Showacre’s term, and the Albany County Commissioners selected one of those three. Mathews had recently switched parties and was put forward as one of the Democrats’ three candidates. She was ultimately chosen by the commissioners and appointed to the role of Albany County Assessor.

She is now once again a Republican, running unopposed to keep her seat.

“I hadn't intended to switch to Democrat,” Mathews said. “My predecessor, Grant Showacre, was a Democrat and he was going to retire at the end of his term. I was waiting for him to retire and then I was going to run as a Republican. But then he notified me — probably a year before he actually retired — that he was going to retire mid-term and advised me to switch so that I could be appointed to his position. So, that’s what I did.”

Murthy said the Democrats knew Mathews was previously a Republican when they chose her as a candidate for the vacancy.

“But voters switch parties all the time,” Murthy said. “So, she switched parties to be a Democrat and we took that in good faith. She came highly recommended and was endorsed by the outgoing assessor. And we, of course, didn’t appoint her. She was one of three candidates we put forward and we felt comfortable doing so.”

Mathews was technically one of three candidates put forward by the Democrats. But during interviews with the county commission, one candidate spoke about Mathews’ “inevitable ascension” to the role of assessor, while the other admitted he was a “filler candidate,” put forward only so that the Democrats could meet their statutory requirement of suggesting three candidates. The filler candidate openly endorsed Mathews for the role during his interview.

Mathews said she was surprised by the lack of interest in the office, but added it’s a highly technical position.

“This position in particular would be really hard to fill, regardless of what party was reaching out,” Mathews said. “Because you have to be certified to do the job, you need to have experience and I think it would be really hard to walk into. Not to say that that’s impossible and that it doesn’t happen. But if you talked to assessors that got elected without any experience, they would say it’s been very tough and it’s taken several years to learn the process.”

Mathews’ party affiliation switch put the Democrats in a bind during this year’s open filing period. Assuming Mathews would run as a Democrat, the party did not recruit anyone else for the position.

“We did not know she was going to switch back to Republican and sure, it was disappointing to see that,” Murthy said. “We would have liked to see a Democrat there on the ballot. We had to prioritize candidate recruitment and there are a lot of positions up for election this cycle.”

Mathews is the only candidate who has filed to run for the role of Albany County Assessor. Republicans will have the option of voting for her or writing in another name when they head to the polls August 16. Democrats will only have a write-in option.

“Ultimately we weren’t able to find someone before that (filing) deadline, which is not to say there won’t be some sort of write-in campaign,” Murthy said. “So, there’s still a possibility of having a Democrat on the general ballot. And we are looking into that.”