A longtime leader of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and Democratic candidate to Wyoming’s legislative district on the Wind River Indian Reservation has ousted his incumbent Republican opponent, unofficial election results out of Fremont County indicated.
Ivan Posey is slated to be the only enrolled tribal member serving on the Wyoming Legislature in the upcoming term.
With all Fremont County vote centers reporting, the unofficial results have him defeating incumbent Rep. Sarah Penn, R-Fort Washakie, 1,675 to 1,210, or 56% to 40.45%.
Penn led Tuesday among people voting in Kinnear and Lander, but Posey took a strong lead through voters casting ballots in Fort Washakie, Ethete and Arapahoe – all reservation towns.
Posey could not be reached immediately for comment when the early voting count - the last vote tally in - reached the Fremont County Courthouse at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Tribal Leader
In his campaign, Posey pointed to his upbringing on the Wind River Indian Reservation, his service in the U.S. Army and his lengthy service as a council member of the Eastern Shoshone Business Council. He also served as Chairman of the business council in the early 2000s.
He is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and also has Northern Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne Heritage, according to his campaign page.
He served as former Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s tribal liaison.
Posey’s platform focused on a strong public education system, abortion access, property tax reform and “backing the blue.”
Penn ran on a small-government, socially-conservative record and platform. She touted her support of a parental rights bill requiring public schools to notify parents before teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation, her attempts to downsize the state budget and her efforts to protect COVID-19 health care autonomy.
She’s been staunchly pro-life, and an advocate of strengthening anti-obscenity laws.
About This District
The majority of the residents of House District 33 are American Indian. The Legislature strove at length to keep it that way during the redistricting process in 2021 at the urging of Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander.
Under federal precedent, legislatures must be careful not to dilute the vote of a regional concentration of racial minorities by breaking them into multiple districts, Case reminded the committee at the time.
So the Wind River Indian Reservation and some of its native-dense outskirts form a majority-minority district, or a district in which the majority of residents are racial minorities.
Though American Indians often form a Democratic voting bloc nationally, House District 33 contained 1,470 registered Republicans as of Friday.
That’s twice as many as the number of registered Democrats: 761. And registered voters classified as “other” numbered 224 on Friday.
The Democratic numbers may have swelled by Tuesday, however. At a voting center in Arapahoe, on the southern end of the reservation, the line slowed to a barely perceptible crawl Tuesday afternoon, because so many voters had to get registered.
In an exit poll of five people leaving, all five said they’d voted for Posey.
Low Registration
Friday’s figures for HD 33 represent the lowest percentage of registered voters in any house district in Fremont County, with a total of 2,462, or about 25%.
By contrast, House District 34 in rural Riverton had 4,744 registered voters (47% roughly); House District 54 within Lander had 5,231 (52%) and House District 55 in urban Riverton had 3,676 (37%).
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
