Donald Trump Blasts “RINO” Wyoming Legislature Over Runoff Bills

Former President Donald Trump on Friday complained about the failure of the Wyoming Legislature to pass legislation that would have called for runoff elections in cases where no candidate receives a majority of the vote in a primary election.

You can read a bill rejected by lawmakers earlier this year, Senate File 145 here. The measure lost in the Wyoming Senate earlier on a 15-14 vote. A legislative committee earlier this summer voted to draft two more runoff election bills.

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Trump on Friday morning issued the following statement:

''Voters in the Great State of Wyoming want clear majority winners in elections, and the only mechanism that accomplishes majority victors is a Run-Off Election, pitting the top two candidates against each other. Conservative Republicans in the Wyoming State Legislature like Senator Bo Biteman and Representative Chip Nieman led this effort. Unfortunately and sadly for Wyoming voters, RINO State Legislators stood in the way, defeating the Run-Off Election bills. The easiest way to defeat Deplorable Liz Cheney is by having only ONE Conservative candidate run and WIN! Wyoming Patriots will no longer stand for Nancy Pelosi and her new lapdog RINO Liz Cheney!''

RINO stands for Republicans In Name Only. It's used as an insult to members of the Republican Party who are allegedly too moderate or who are elected as Republicans but then pursue policies that are more in tune with the Democratic Party.

Trump and Cheney have engaged in an ongoing war of words throughout this year.

Cheney, who voted for Trump's impeachment in January, has accused the former president of inciting a Jan. 6 riot by his supporters in the Capitol in Washington D.C. Trump has called Cheney a ''RINO" and a 'warmonger.'' Several Republicans have announced they will run against Cheney in next year's Wyoming U.S. House Primary election.

But since most, if not all, of her challengers have been running as Trump loyalists, some observers feel they will split the anti-Cheney vote, allowing her to be re-elected with a plurality, but not a majority, in the primary election. Opponents of Wyoming runoff elections have pointed to the cost of holding an extra round of elections as well as questions as to voter turnout if such elections were to be held.

Some Wyoming supporters of runoff elections in state primaries also point to Mark Gordon's victory in the 2018 GOP Gubernatorial Primary election, where Gordon won the nomination while a field of candidates generally perceived to be more conservative split up what would have been a majority of the vote.

Gordon was later elected governor. Trump did not mention Gordon in his statement.