The 2026 Election, 20th Edition. Primary Voting Commences Edition. Vote like your future and that of your state depends on it, because it does, part four.
When I started this thread and entered what is now the fourth part of what was supposed to be the last pre primary edition, I had no idea that there's be so many posts in that relatively short amount of time.
It's been a busy primary, including a busy final couple of weeks in the primary.
The election is Tuesday.
There's a lot at stake. Indeed, it wouldn't be exaggerating too much to say everything's at stake. The GOP dominates in Wyoming and the Republican primary will determine if the state goes into the fully delusional right, or pulls back, gets a strong cup of coffee, and wakes up to what's happening. So far, it's pretty clear the MAGA wing of the GOP hasn't done that.
I voted for:
Governor: Barlow.
Senate: Mead
House of Representatives: Christensen.
Secretary of State: Short.
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Harshman
There are some candidates that really need to be sent packing this election, which doesn't mean they will be. Earlier editions of this series discuss those people, often in depth.
One prediction on packing. If Chuck Gray loses, and I sincerely hope he does, he'll leave the state. There's nothing to hold him here in the first place, and he truly isn't one of us.
That's been the focus of a late mailer and some television ads. This election cycle has featured both in unprecedented levels. Quite a few of them are disgusting, dealing in lies and half truths, but a few do hit home. The late one on Gray being from Los Angeles, educated in a prep school, and then going to Wharton is one. Anyhow, the money wasted on this election cycle is absolutely unconscionable. Multimillionaire Steve Friess is flooding the zone with them and ought to lose for that reason alone.
Well, this really will be the last of this edition, and it'll be short. We'll start a new one Wednesday, after the primary.
August 17, 2026
Wyoming Public Radio reports almost all of the Freedom Caucus members who received checks in Checkgate cased them.
As of Friday, who candidate still hadn't reported on his campaign finances.
Wyoming Debrief: August 17, 2026
August 18, 2026
This will be the last day for this thread, as a new one will take over. Today is primary election day.
Still, there's some outgoing news. First, this:
August 18, 2026
Good news:
Retired Cheyenne attorney renews legal challenge to Secretary Gray’s handoff of voter data fedsGray violated the law on this and needs to be held fully accountable. Courts looking at this issue have uniformly supported the states that refused to provide the information.
Gray should be made to recover the information he supplied. This was illegal.
What Gray did was absolutely unconscionable. He supplied confidential information to the Federal Government illegally, and only because Donald Trump is President.
There's no earthly way he would have done the same thing if Kamala Harris had asked for the same information. He should suffer the full impact of violating the law, which is a misdemeanor. He's insist the same if somebody had done the same thing and a Democratic President was in office.
Gray's occupancy of the Secretary of State's office has always been because he saw it as a stepping stone to higher office. His campaign was based on lies. He won the office in a nasty three way race, made nasty by him, against lawyer and legislator Tara Nethercott and geologist Mark Armstrong. Nethercott fell about 12,000 votes short, and Armstrong's presence in the race scrubbed away 14,292 votes. Even a candidate who had withdrawn, Dan Dockstader, drew 3,465 votes. Given that, he received less than half the votes caste and there's always been a strong element in the state who opposed him, just as MAGA's have adored him.
This race will show in the bloom is of the love Chuck rose. Chuck didn't anticipate a well funded campaign to his right from another carpetbagger, Steve Friess, and he appears to be in real trouble. Moreover, Christensen has been, according to what data we can derive, really coming up and may be ahead of Chuck at this point. Christensen would make the best choice for the office of Congressman.
Something must be going on in MAGA world as an old friend of mine who is deeply MAGA and who serves as precinct committeeman suddenly indicated he was not supporting Harriet Hageman for Senate, which is almost unthinkable. He's lockstep with GOP recommendations otherwise and has been all along. He's indicating he's not voting for anyone for Senate and he's predicting that a lot of other people will not either.
For a precinct committeeman to openly declare that nobody is worth voting for in their party is extraordinary. He's wrong, Sam Mead is a good candidate. For somebody who is so died in the wool on the GOP's straight jacket endorsement policy this is also remarkable, as now he's in open defiance of the GOP litmus test.
I don't know what occured. Obviously, something did, but you'd have to probably be part of MAGA to know what that is. My guess, and its just that, is that some MAGAs who are working class folks and sportsmen suddenly realized that Hageman is an enemy of Public Lands and always has been.
A reminder on that topic:
SELLOUTS vs. CHAMPIONS
Protect Wyoming's list of legislators and their record on public lands:
SELLOUTS vs. CHAMPIONS
This is really worth knowing. While this is directly copying most of the page, here's what they founds:
top SELLOUTS
Note: While Senators Tim French and Laura Pearson are not up currently for re-election, they are the legislators most actively trying to privatize and sell off our wildlife. So we want folks to take note, even though they’re not on the ballot this year.
top CHAMPIONS
Note: Senator Nethercott is not up for re-election in 2026, but has been one of the most vocal defenders of sportsmen and women on the Senate floor, and deserves a spot in the Top Defenders.
all legislator scores
I don't know all the legislators by any means, but the antis I know are no surprise. The pros I know aren't a surprise either. Unfortunately a couple of them are leaving the legislature.
Anyone on the anti list here should be voted out of office.
And also:
Lex Anteinternet: The 2026 Election, 17th Edition. Primary Voting Co...
Vote like the future of your state depends on it. It does.
In Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico hired a five-year veteran of Republican Sen. John Cornyn's office to help defeat GOP nominee Ken Paxton. And Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs picked Republican-turned-independent Mayor John Giles as her running mate.
These moves aren't stunts. It shows the Democratic Party, in spite of a lot of angst about it becoming Democratic Socialist, is in fact moving to the center in some locations. James Byrd in Wyoming is an example of that, and so are these events.
Talarico was nearly dismissed as a gadfly by Republicans early on but now there's very serious GOP concern that he'll defeat Ken Paxton, who so covered with the crap of his own misdeeds that it won't wash off.
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