Trump wins! Well, at least we think he will win in Wyoming.
Elsewhere in America, however, the outcome of the Nov. 3 election is a matter of some debate.
I always tended to believe polls and thought Donald Trump would lose four years ago. Those same polls again predict he will lose the national election. This time, I am not so quickly going to believe these polls.
For four years, Trump has faced unprecedented opposition. If he wins, it will be the biggest upset since Truman topped Dewey back in 1948.
Here in Wyoming there are three legislative races that have caught people’s eyes.
First is in Fremont County, where the Riverton House seat held by David Miller since 2001 is up for grabs in a race between Republican Ember Oakley and Libertarian Bethany Baldes.
Both are popular candidates and the assumption was the Oakley would easily cruise to a win. That is, until Riverton Mayor Rich Gard endorsed Baldes. And the biggest surprise was when Miller endorsed Baldes, who came within a whisker of defeating Dave two years ago.
Ember’s sister Debbie is married to Colin Simpson up in Cody. So former U. S. Sen. Al Simpson knows Ember well and has been running ads in support of her candidacy lately.
The ultra-right WYGO (Wyoming Gun Owners) is campaigning hard for Baldes. That group had a lot of success in the primary. We shall see if this carries over to the general election in this case.
The founder of WYGO is state Sen. Anthony Bouchard of Cheyenne who just cannot catch a break when it comes to finding an easy opponent to beat. He outpolled a tough challenger in the August GOP primary but now faces an aggressive Democrat in the general election in Britney Wallesch.
Does that Cheyenne district have enough Democrats to replace Bouchard with Wallesch? Bouchard has been a winner for many recent elections by seemingly always by narrow margins. WYGO is pushing hard for him, so we can see how strong their influence is this time around.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Ed Buchanan is investigating WYGO. That could yield some interesting news.
A third legislative race that offers some statewide interest in District 45 in Laramie between Republican Roxie Hensley and Democrat Karlee Provenza. The winner will replace retiring Democrat Charles Pelkey, who unfortunately is enduring a new bout of cancer. Our best wishes are with Charles, who is an attorney and a former newspaperman. It will be interesting if the Democrats can hold this seat.
Cynthia Lummis should easily earn a trip back to Washington, D.C., where she represented Wyoming in the House for four terms. Her longtime service to Wyoming as a legislator, State Treasurer, and U. S. Representative has earned her the right to win this election. I think she will be a terrific U. S. Senator. She is opposed by Democrat UW professor Merav Ben-David.
It is fantastic that we have four women running for the two top national seats. Incumbent U. S. Rep. Liz Cheney should defeat Lynnette Grey Bull, but we are proud to see a Native American Arapaho woman competing in that race. Lynnette has done some wonderful work calling attention to missing Native American women and girls in her other work.
To a lot of folks, the big test is how mainstream media will react after this election is over – will its members return to trying to be impartial or will they permanently become the de facto public relations arm of the national Democrat Party.?
Critics (mainly Republicans) feel it appears that CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, and the New York Times all have become totally partisan for the Democrat side. It is extremely unnerving. The last four years have been very unfair. Fox News and its pro-conservative agenda could also be more balanced.
An unfair national media could be the most dangerous trend confronting our country of all the dangerous things threatening it.
