State Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, held off strong push by Republican challenger Bryan Shuster to retain her House District 14 seat in the Wyoming Legislature on Tuesday.
Sherwood held a slim 106-vote lead over Shuster with only mail-in and absentee ballots uncounted late Tuesday, and by the time those final ballots had been tallied her lead grew to more than 300 votes, 1,950 to 1,619.
Sherwood is the director of Laramie Main Street Alliance. Shuster is a longtime Laramie resident and has served on the Laramie City Council for 20 years.
During their campaigns leading up to the election, Shuster claimed that Sherwood’s views were too left-leaning to suit most Wyomingites, and that held her back from getting bills passed.
Sherwood said she was disheartened by her perception that discourse had been sidetracked by such hot-button and divisive issues as the supposed teaching of critical race theory and transgenderism in public schools.
Democrats went into Tuesday’s general election holding nine seats in the Legislature. They lost one when incumbent Rep. And LeBeau lost to Republican Sarah Penn in House District 33 and another in with a landslide loss by Democratic House District 17 Rep. Chad Banks to Republican Joshua Larson.
Had Sherwood lost after the mail-in and absentee ballots were tallied, Wyoming Democrats would have been knocked down to six state lawmakers.
