Wyoming Legislative Leaders Issue Letter Condemning Precinct Committeeman’s Comments

On September 12, Park County Republican Precinct Committeeman Troy Bray sent a vulgar email to Wyoming State Senator Tara Nethercott of Cheyenne for voting against anti-vaccine legislation that died in the Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee. The failed bill would have had no correlation to the recently issued vaccine mandates issued by the Biden Administration, as it would have only applied to any state-level issued orders. The email Bray sent to Senator Nethercott said “if I were as despicable a person as you, I would kill myself to rid the world of myself.  You sicken me. Thank you for ensuring that the people of Wyoming are subjected to tyranny once again.” Bray also used vulgarity and a derogatory, misogynistic term when referring to Nethercott in the email.

Wyoming Senate President Dan Dockstader and House Speaker Eric Barlow issued a joint-news release Wednesday condemning the vulgar and threatening statements made by Bray in the email. The letter from legislative leadership said attacking a state legislator through use of violent, lewd and derogatory language cannot and will not go unanswered in Wyoming.  We commend Senator Nethercott for her measured and composed response to Mr. Bray’s hateful email.  The statements made by Mr. Bray are the antithesis to constructive discourse in a civil society and are especially repugnant and intolerable when made by an elected official.

In the joint-release, Dockstader and Barlow call for the immediate resignation of Bray from his position as a Park County Precinct Committeeman. The legislative leaders also called upon the leadership of the Wyoming and Park County Republican Parties to join them in seeking Bray’s immediate resignation. Additionally, leadership will be assisting the Republican Party in ensuring there are appropriate statutory means to remove an elected official for such egregious behavior in the future. The release from legislative leadership closed by saying “such a unified response will be a clear signal to all that Bray’s bullying and intimidation have no place in Wyoming.”