The 2026 Election. 28th Edition. The Count (before the coup).
Counting Mayfield, Hill County Texas, ballots, 2/20/24.
November 3, 2026. 0000.
And so the fateful day has arrived.
Election Day, November 3, 2026.
And a fateful day it will be. The election of 2026 is the most important election since that one held on November 3, 1860. By the end of the day, if predictions hold, it will have taken a step back from fascism. The question will be how big of step back it will be, how much of a step in a new direction, and whether the step is so decisive that a major GOP/Fascist coup attempt can be averted.
I have my doubts.
What seems certain, if early predictions are correct, are that the Democrats, as disliked as they seem to be, will regain the House of Representatives. Polling seems to suggest that there may be a "blue wave" that swamps the GOP in the House. If that's correct, the House may have taken a major Democratic Party turn and a turn back towards real democracy. It seems likely that the Senate may be taken by the Democrats, but it's not likely that it'll be a "wave". But it's not impossible either. It'll take both to really arrest a Trump coup attempt, and it will take both to really being to turn the arch of history back towards democracy.
Another question is to what degree Wyoming participates in this. Wyoming is so ignored in the overall polls that, going into this day, we really don't know.
People who are of the betting persuasion would have placed their bets on Chuck Gray and Harriet Hageman right after the primary. But bets on Gray are much less certain now. Gray is widely despised and rightly so. The best thing that could happen to him, and for him, and for the state, would be to send him packing. He needs to become a real boy and get a real job. Lisa Kinney might be the person who symbolically does that for him, and to him, although if that's the case, she'll be a one term Congressman, elected solely to put an end in a carpetbagger's career, which would be a service to the state in and of itself.
A much better candidate, all the way around, is James Byrd. Byrd's chances of defeating Harriet Hageman are not as good as Kinney's are of defeating Gray, but they are real.
Otherwise, the big question is whether gadfly Rebecca Bextel of the "Constitution" Party, and Shawn Johnson of the Libertarian Party, draw enough votes to qualify both of those parties as "major" parties.
Bextel, who is engaged in a hopelessly naive campaign against Eric Barlow for the Governor's seat, comes across as a potty mouth, ignorant, Southerner, but there are right now enough potty mouth, ignorant carpetbaggers to perhaps give her 10% of the vote. It's ironic in that the Constitution Party candidate for the House isn't a Southerner or ignorant, but the Constitution Party is smart enough to mount up a Southern Mule when they see one, if it profits them. Their beliefs are genuinely wacky, and Bextel pegs out on the wacky meter, and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is the Woodstock of wacky, so she is likely to draw at least 10%.
My guess is that Shawn Johnson will as well. Wyoming Libertarians aren't real Libertarians, so some disaffected Republicans can in fact feel comfortable voting for them. Some Anybody But Chuck Republicans' who can't stomach voting for a Democrat will vote for Johnson instead.
Overall, if this election broke the back of the two party system, which is unlikely, in Wyoming, it would be a good thing. The batshit crazy wing of the GOP should be in the Constitution Party. The flirting with anarchy wing of the GOP should be Libertarians. Would that we had an American Solidarity Party that was viable here. The Two Party System is moronic.
And, due to its failure, we have Donald Trump as President.
The next two years will not be easy. The best thing that could happen for the republic today is that there was such a blue wave that Trump could, and would, be impeached. That would allow the GOP to save itself, as spineless bastards like John Barrasso realized that they had to save themselves, his primary instinct, and moved towards the middle. Other GOP figures held captive by cowardice would as well. That would leave National Conservative chameleon J. D. Vance as President. Vance is actually conservative, extremely so, but with some sort of a philosophy. Trump is just about Trump. Vance also has a survivors instinct.
But will that sort of majority happen by the end of the day? Probably not.
Recovery takes years for many things. We are likely to start on that path today. A lot of us won't be around anymore by the time we probably get there. But a lot of us probably will.
04:10
The Tribune reports that 5,000 people have voted early in Natrona County. Only 1,500 did in the last election.
Absentee ballots with a postmark no later than 7:00 p.m. today will be counted. If races are close, this may make a difference.
04:37
The United States Supreme Court rejected a request to review a coup attempt on California's mail in ballots. The coup working through the U.S. Attorney's office sought to require verification of citizenship for 20,000 California mail in ballots.
07:00
The polls in Wyoming are now open.
07:32
Wyoming Public Radio reports that absentee ballots must be received by 7:00 p.m., contrary to the item noted above. I think this is correct.
14:19
Guam's non voting U.S. House delegate seat flipped from the GOP to the Democratic Party with Democrat Alicia Anne Garrido Limtiaco defeating incumbent James Moylan. It appears the election for Governor flipped from Democratic to Republican, with the Republican Ada-Calvo team winning the race over the Democrat Terlaje-Perez team, although it's quite close and that result is uncertain.
While I hate to say it, neither result really matters much as Guam has no vote in Congress.
15:01
Apparently Guam's representative can introduce bills, vote in committees, and offer amendments.
17:44
The inside news must be really bad for Republicans. Trump is having a meltdown:
Trump cannot handle being blamed for failure, and yet he knows this is a referendum on him. At the Oval Office he's clearly being told that this is going badly.
He's also unstable and has his hands on the nuclear trigger. We're entering a very dangerous period.
18:00
First called race of the night, incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff retains his seat as senior Senator from Georgia.
I don't know if that's a surprise, or not, it's just the first to be called.
18:08
Incumbent Democrat Kathy Castor of Florida won the Florida 14th district which had been gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
If this trend holds, it's going to be an extremely bad night for Republicans.
November 4, 2026
Donald Trump leading the GOP into the 2026 midterms.
It was an outright slaughter of Republicans across the nation yesterday.
Donald Trump asked the nation to pretend he was on the ballot. They did.
They completely rejected him, his cabinet, his family, his policies, and the Republican Party.
The slaughter was so vast it appears that even Trump won't attempt to challenge them. He probably is aware doing so will result in his impeachment.
The Democrats flipped Senate seats in Maine, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alaska, and even Texas, Susan Collins 30 year career in the Senate was put to an end. Dr. Annie Andrews prevailed over the poorly chosen Senator Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan.
Mississippi may be added to the toll, where as of this morning, only 50 votes separated what had been a safe Republican state.
In terms of Governor's races, which had been trending GOP for years, Democrats also reversed the tide. Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first black woman to be elected governor in U.S. history, taking Georgia. Gina Hinojosa ousted three term Trump lackey Gov. Greg Abbott. Dr. Amy Acton became the first woman elected governor of Ohio. The Democrats retook Nevada.
Locally, results were as predicted, but disappointing.
Harriet Hageman is now the incoming U.S. Senator. Given Wyoming's history, she'll be able to retain the seat a decade after she's dead, as Wyoming reelects incumbents no matter how bad they are. So we replaced one bad Senator with an even worse one, based on her history as a Congressman.
Her challenger, Byrd, took about 35% of the vote, which was underperforming in my view.
Chuck Gray, who is widely despised, took the House, but in a closer race. He still drew 55% of the vote, which is amazing. Lisay Kinney underperformed at 34%. Libertarian Johnson got the balance, 7.5%, vastly underperforming.
All this shows how Republican Wyoming remains. Wyomingites will blindly vote for the GOP candidate because he or she is the GOP candidate.
In terms of underperforming, Republican candidate Eric Barlow blew the doors off of carpetbagger Rebecca Bextel. Bextel did so badly that even the hopeless Democratic candidate took about the same number of votes that she did.
She should take that as a message.
Her Make Alabama Great again campaign did draw 17% o of the vote, to Casner's 15%. Barlow took 69%.
This means the Constitution Party will qualify as a Major Party in the 2028 election.
Proposition 1 failed, a major victory for common sense and an additional rebuke to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Democrats did pick up a State House seat in Laramie County.
In Natrona County people voted, apparently, for familiar names, even reelecting a 1,000 year old county commissioner and returning a 2,000 year old candidate to the Casper city council.
Turning back to the national results, Trump had the unmitigated gall to congratulate the Democrats and assumes they'll work with him. They ought to impeach him.
05:28
In really tight races, it looks like Cindy Holscher will become the Democratic Governor of Kansas and that Lauren Boebert has lost her seat in Congress.
Last edition:
The 2026 Election. 27th Edition. The Impending Clerico-Fascist Coup.
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