CHEYENNE – Although the Democratic blue wave skipped Wyoming this year, it left a few dips as well as the sense that voters' political choices were shifting a tad.
Overall though, Wyoming emerged as still a very red MAGA state backing President Donald Trump. The needle might be quivering a bit, but it still is very much where it has been stuck in recent years.
There was no GOP rout here.
The voters elected Harriet Hageman and Chuck Gray to the two open federal seats: Hageman to the U.S. Senate to replace the retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis, and Gray to Hageman's seat in the U.S. House.
Some controversy has arisen over Gray's more recent TV campaign spots. Previously he always highlighted his Trump endorsement. But for the general election he had a different TV ad; this one lamented how families are struggling and the need to do something about “affordability,” and nothing about Trump, his endorsement or the MAGA agenda.
Kind of a switcheroo for the general election.
This sudden omission could mean something like waning of support for the Trump program, or nothing.
Anyway, we hope Gray, who at 36 is much younger than most members of Congress, will appreciate that the seat he will occupy is a pretty special slot.
It is not only the only seat Wyoming has in Congress, it was filled in the past by outstanding leaders like Republicans Dick Cheney and Craig Thomas, and Democrat Teno Roncalio.
Back here again in Cheyenne, we now have two outstanding legislative leaders running state government.
Our new Governor is Eric Barlow and our new State Superintendent of Public Instruction is Steve Harshamn. Both are Republicans and were House speakers; Harshman held that office twice.
They will join three other members of state boards and commissions to form a group that is the most experienced executive branch in many years.
That includes Auditor Kristi Racines, in office since 2019, and Treasurer Curt Meier, also a former legislator. The other board newcomer is Robert Short, a former Converse County commissioner and entrepreneur who ran previously for the U.S. Senate but lost the primary to Cynthia Lummis.
His campaign motto was “to make the Secretary of State's office boring again,” as an antidote to the near constant stream of statements and information from Chuck Gray's office.
The Democratic party picked up one seat in the Wyoming House. Britney Tennant, a founder of Black Dog Rescue and director of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter, was the victor in a contested three-person race in a Cheyenne district.
Her election gives the Democrats nine seats in the 62-member House of Representatives, one more than during the last session.
Wyoming Democratic Party Chair Lucas Fralick made the most of it.
“Britney Tennant showed what is possible when a candidate listens to her neighbors, builds a strong campaign, and talks about the issues that matter in their daily lives,” he said.
One of the weirder ads that popped up recently wasn't a campaign ad.
It was an attack ad aimed at retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis for her role in handling a bill dealing with crypto. An AI creation, it showed Lummis confused by bills; it said she failed her duty to pass a certain one.
According to online sources, the conservative group Frontiers of Freedom paid for the campaign that cost at least $100,000.
The ads accuse Lummis of stalling the “Digital Asset Market Clarity Act” in favor of her own Senate proposal.
It seems like a lot of money aimed at a lame duck congresswoman who will be gone from office early next year.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
