Bill Allemand (born 1959) is an American rancher, trucking-company owner and Republican politician who has represented the 58th district in the Wyoming House of Representatives since January 2023. A member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, he has served on the House Appropriations Committee. His legislative work has included bills concerning shooting predatory animals from vehicles, foreign ownership of land, and federal land management. In 2025, he became a leading opponent of a proposed nuclear-microreactor manufacturing plant near Bar Nunn, Wyoming. The developer subsequently selected Tennessee for the project, a decision Governor Mark Gordon attributed in part to opposition and fearmongering by the Freedom Caucus.
Allemand was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in December 2025 and spent two days in jail following the arrest. A state test later reported a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.24 percent, three times Wyoming's general legal limit of 0.08 percent. In July 2026, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, received a suspended jail sentence and was placed on unsupervised probation. Court reporting about the case also disclosed earlier Kansas proceedings involving a dismissed domestic-battery charge and a no-contest plea to violating a protection order.
Early life and career
Allemand was born in Casper, Wyoming, in 1959. He grew up on his family's ranch near Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 in northeastern Natrona County, outside Midwest and Edgerton. He graduated from Midwest High School in 1977 and attended Colby Community College in Colby, Kansas, from 1980 to 1982.
Allemand later lived in Kansas before returning to Wyoming. He owns and operates a small trucking company that transports water for oil and gas operations in the Salt Creek Oil Field around Midwest and Edgerton. He has four children and six grandchildren.
Political career
Elections
Allemand ran for Wyoming House District 58 in 2022. He defeated Patrick Sweeney in the Republican primary with 1,369 votes, or approximately 62.8 percent, and was unopposed in the general election apart from write-in votes. He took office in January 2023.
In 2024, Allemand defeated Republican primary challenger Tom Jones with 1,017 votes, or approximately 70.3 percent, and again faced no listed general-election opponent. Allemand therefore ran unopposed in both the 2022 and 2024 general elections, facing only write-in votes after winning each Republican primary.
Allemand sought a third term in 2026 and narrowly defeated Bar Nunn mayor Peter Boyer in the Republican primary. Unofficial county results gave Allemand 800 votes, or approximately 50.3 percent, and Boyer 773 votes, or approximately 48.6 percent.
Campaign Contributions:
Allemand $3,000 Carleen and Daniel Brophy $3,000 Peri Wheeler $1,500 Shannon Wheeler $1,500 Bill Owens $1,000 Curtis E Meier $1,000 John Allemand $1,000 Mary Owens $1,000 Niki Allemand $1,000 Robert Deitz $1,000
Of note is Carleen and Daniel Brophy, Daniel being a former commodities trader in Chicago. It is noted that "Brophy was Wyoming’s biggest single donor in the primary elections in August. He was a one-man version of a political action committee in a state where even donations under the $1,500 cap for primary contributions can go a long way. Almost all donations by Daniel Brophy are matched by his wife Carleen. That means most beneficiaries of his wealth receive up to $3,000 for their primary elections, which in many cases becomes the bulk of their spending money. As one candidate put it, that’s a mailing to every registered voter in his district.
Wyoming Freedom Caucus
Allemand is identified by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as one of its members. The caucus is affiliated with the State Freedom Caucus Network, which WyoFile described as a national right-wing political organization seeking to establish hard-line majorities in state legislatures. Modeled on the congressional House Freedom Caucus, the network supplies affiliated caucuses with staff, legislative research, communications assistance and political strategy.
During Allemand's tenure, Jessie Rubino served as the salaried Wyoming state director of the State Freedom Caucus Network. WyoFile reported that Rubino researched legislation and transmitted the caucus's voting recommendations to members and allied legislators by text message, sometimes while votes were underway. Then-chairman John Bear confirmed that the messages summarized Rubino's and the caucus's preferences, and the caucus frequently voted as a unified bloc.
After release of the body-camera footage from Allemand's DUI arrest, he said that Freedom Caucus leaders had discussed the case with him and indicated that the organization continued to support him. The caucus continued to list Allemand as a member after his guilty plea and after reporting disclosed his Kansas criminal proceedings.
Legislative activity
Shooting predatory animals from vehicles
In 2025, Allemand sponsored House Bill 211, which permitted a person on private property to shoot prairie dogs, predators and specified agricultural pests from a stationary motor vehicle. The measure did not authorize shooting from or across a public road. Allemand said ranchers had long used vehicles as shooting platforms and argued that the previous restriction unnecessarily exposed them to criminal penalties.
The bill drew questions about firearm safety and whether officers and members of the public could readily distinguish lawful shooting on private property from prohibited shooting from a public road. Public reporting on the measure did not identify a statewide count of prosecutions under the former law or a specific case in which a rancher had been unfairly prosecuted. The Legislature nevertheless passed the bill, making it Allemand's first successful individually sponsored measure.
Foreign ownership of land
In 2023, Allemand sponsored House Bill 116, which would have prohibited governments, companies and citizens associated with China, Russia and countries designated by the federal government as state sponsors of terrorism from acquiring more than one acre of Wyoming land. Covered owners would have been required to divest within two years. The measure also created enforcement and civil liability provisions.
During debate, Allemand connected the proposal to the Chinese surveillance balloon that crossed the United States in early 2023. He argued that foreign ownership near military installations, infrastructure and mineral resources presented a security concern. Critics questioned whether the bill's definitions were sufficiently precise and warned that it could affect lawful residents and commercial transactions without a demonstrated connection to espionage.
Opponents compared the proposal with Wyoming's former alien land laws, which were enacted to prevent Japanese immigrants from owning property and settling in the state. Representative Mike Yin referred to the internment of Japanese Americans at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center during World War II and Wyoming's subsequent efforts to prevent them from remaining in the state. "I don't want us to repeat history," Yin said. Other legislators warned that the bill discriminated according to national origin, conflicted with a provision of the Wyoming Constitution guaranteeing resident aliens the same rights as citizens in the possession and enjoyment of property, and could force existing owners to sell under financial duress. Representative Clark Stith said buyers would know that affected owners had to divest within two years and could acquire the property at a significant discount. The House rejected the bill by a vote of 39 to 23.
Rock Springs land-management dispute
In 2023, Allemand opposed a draft resource management plan prepared by the Bureau of Land Management's Rock Springs field office for approximately 3.6 million acres of federal land in southwestern Wyoming. The agency's preferred alternative proposed additional conservation protections for portions of the Red Desert, including designation of approximately 1.6 million acres as areas of critical environmental concern. It would have closed substantial acreage to new oil and gas leasing, hard-rock mining claims and renewable-energy development while leaving 99.8 percent of the planning area available for livestock grazing and about 1.4 million acres open to oil and gas development.
For public recreation, the preferred alternative would have prohibited off-road vehicle use on 225,537 acres while retaining designated motorized routes on approximately 3.37 million acres. It did not propose closing the entire planning area to recreation or public access. Supporters said the proposal better balanced development with wildlife habitat, tribal cultural resources and long-term protection of public lands. Jason Baldes, an Eastern Shoshone tribal member and vice president of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, said the plan would help protect traditional homelands from exploitation. Energy companies, ranching interests and several Wyoming elected officials opposed the preferred alternative, arguing that its restrictions would harm existing industries and depart from the Bureau of Land Management's multiple-use mandate.
Allemand called the proposal "probably the biggest disaster in the United States, affecting more people than the Civil War, Pearl Harbor or the September 11 attacks combined" and urged residents to stop what he called a "state-killing" plan. High Country News characterized his comparison as hyperbolic. The publication reported that the broader campaign against the plan included incendiary rhetoric, misinformation and threats directed at federal land managers. It also noted that claims that the plan would eliminate access and use across the area omitted the extensive grazing, mineral development and recreation that the preferred alternative would continue to allow.
Radiant nuclear project controversy
Proposed Bar Nunn facility
In 2025, California-based Radiant Nuclear proposed building a manufacturing campus outside Bar Nunn for its portable, one-megawatt Kaleidos nuclear microreactors. The company intended to manufacture and fuel reactors in Wyoming and ship them to customers, including the United States military and users in remote locations. The reactors were designed to operate for years without refueling and then return to the factory for servicing.
Radiant subsequently entered an agreement with the Defense Innovation Unit and the United States Air Force to deliver a Kaleidos reactor to a military installation. The federal Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program was established to provide military bases with independent, continuous power, including during disruptions to the civilian electric grid. Reuters described the Department of Defense as accelerating microreactor development to obtain off-grid, 24-hour power for bases and military operations.
Radiant planned to remove the used fuel at the factory and store it in dry casks until the federal government established a permanent repository. The company described the spent fuel from each unit as having a volume roughly equal to two propane cylinders. The proposed site was more than one mile from the nearest home and, according to the company, satisfied Nuclear Regulatory Commission distance requirements. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission states that properly designed dry-cask systems provide sealed containment, radiation shielding and passive cooling and are considered a safe method of storing spent nuclear fuel. Opponents emphasized that the United States still lacks a permanent repository and argued that nominally temporary storage could therefore continue indefinitely.