The 2026 Election, 25th Edition. The casting the vote edition.
I have now voted.
October 13, 2026.
I went down to the old county courthouse and caste my votes. I've now weighed in for 2026.
In some ways, it wasn't easy for me. I knew who I wanted to vote for, but I was a bit tortured between not voting for Chuck Gray and Harriet Hageman and leaving my ballot blank, or for casting a vote for one of their opponents.
I did the latter.
The situation facing the country is just too dire. We are, effectively, in the 1932 German election where the choices are boiling down to a desperate few. Or, perhaps, we're in the June and November 1946 French election where the Catholic Christian Democrats were in a coalition with the Communists, which shows how dire the situation was in the Fourth Republic. The choice now is to vote against a rising force of bloody fascism and acknowledge that the opponents retain some real taints, or to allow the country to do down the Via dei Fori Imperiali.
It's that dire.
The last few days made up my mind for me. A government that makes an open spectacle of execution and then sides with Vladimir Putin.
I'm not going there, and I cannot tolerate going there.
Nien, Non, No.
In two years I'll reassess. Chances are that at least one of the candidates I voted for I won't vote for again.
So, how did I vote?
Let's look at the state elections, that was easy.
Governor:1
Eric Barlow. He's the only real choice, and he's a good one. Rebecca Bextel thinks she's a conservative, but she's a Dixiecrat through and through. She needs to go home to Sweet Home Alabama, where she is literally from. Kenneth Casner is an overdone, baked in the sun, left out to dry, joke of a candidate. He symbolizes the pathetic state the Wyoming Democratic Party is in. The Democrats used to have some fine candidates, and it wasn't all that long ago that they were in the Governor's chair. Casner? Give me a break.
Barlow's election will be the death of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, whose Bittereinders are already retreating to the Constitution Party Redoubt.
Good riddance to them.
So, here, I voted for a straight Republican ticket.
The other state races.
Other than Governor, we had a host of uncontested or barely contested races in which incumbents sought reelection. Fortunately for all of us, they are all really good candidates.
The one contested one is Superintendent of Public Instruction. In that race Ana Cordova, a Democrat, contests with Steve Harshman, a Republican.
There's' no doubt that Harshman, an local educator of long and respected standing, is an excellent choice. Still, I thought about voting for Cordova, a young educator with an impressive background. Harshman is 62 or 63, Cordova much younger. I suspect that Harshman might look at running for Governor, but he'll be 72 years old at least before he can, given that Barlow will win two terms.
Again, here, on state races, I voted a straight Republican ticket.
The property tax initiatives
There is a Freedom Caucus ballot initiative to cut residential property taxes in half, which benefits the carpetbagger class. It would but local governments like a fish, but hey, hey, the carpetbaggers have already educated their children and live behind walls, so they'll be okay.
I actually had a county commissioner explain this one to me in detail. Rank and file property owners voting for it, given the other deductions a property owner is eligible for, are screwing themselves.
I voted against it.
Frankly, I'd impose a tax, if I could, on the property of the carpetbaggers, which drives up property values for anyone else. Raise your kids in California? Well, you weren't here while we were enduring the ups and downs of the Wyoming economy and now you can pay for it. Stay in California if you don't like it. Even if you do, stay in CAlifornia.
Anyway you look at it, I'm not for giving the Bextels and Biens an advantage in taxes at our expense.
Representation in Washington D.C.
It was this set of choices that were difficult for me.
There was never any question that I would never vote for Chuck Gray. I never have, and I never will. Chuck needs to go back to Los Angeles and work for a good twenty years at a convenience store in Watts so he knows who real people are. Likewise, there was never any question I'd vote for my law school near contemporary Harriet Hageman, whose evolution from farm girl, polo shirt wearing, cute student to dressed in black lawyer for the rich and powerful is a disappointing memory of a very long career.
She didn't have to turn out like this. If she'd gone to work for one of the real civil firms in the state, she would not have.
No, the question was whether I'd vote for Kinney, Johnson, or Byrd or nobody at all.
In the end, given the dire situation, I voted for the Democratic candidates.
Now, I'll note that I think Byrd is an excellent candidate. Better than Hageman in every way, save perhaps for two ways.
Gray symbolizes everything wrong with the GOP in Wyoming except that instead of being a carpetbagger from the Confederacy, he's a carpetbagger from Los Angeles, and a pathetic one. California conservatism was real conservatism. Gray's father was an admirer of Reagan, not Strom Thurmond. Gray is an example of how Sun Yat-Sen tragically gave us Mao Tse-Tung. A movement gone preversely wrong, although Reagan's embrace of the fowl Dixiecrats made that predictable. And Gray, about whom we know very little, is still young enough that he can be forced into evading the fate of Donald Trump, a rich kid who publicly putrefies to the detriment of us all.
Gray's only platform is that he loves Donald Trump more than Trump loves Trump, that he's a latter day opponent of wind energy, for what appears to be opportunistic, and that as a 36 year old man whose not married and not known to have a publicly acknowledged interest in any identified female, he's opposed to transvestites in women's sports.
Seems like populist bullshit.
Gray would support Trump in anything, which in the next two years is going to be extremely dangerous. I could not vote for him.
Which left me voting for Kinney.
Kinney is a moderate left Democrat, and I'm not. I'm sure she's for "choice" or "reproductive rights', which infanticide, and I am not. I suspect this would be Byrd's position as well Should she be elected, in two years I'm voting for whichever rational Republican emerges. If a better GOP candidate emerges for the Senate, abortion would be my defining issue there as well, in six years. The next two years are the key, however. The Democrats are going to take the House and its necessary they do so. Giving Chuck Gray a titanic dope slap, or better yet send him crying in his knee pants back to Los Angeles, is necessary.
As for the Hageman/Byrd contest, Byrd would make a really good Senator. If the Democrats take the Senate, we couldn't be better represented. He has the same, I assume, pro choice problem, but my guess is that isn't deep with Byrd, but I base that on nothing other than instinct. He would be a real voice for Wyoming and we're going to need one, should the Democrats take the Senate, and leave John Barrasso wandering around the halls of Congress giving deep stares at John Thune, or whomever.
Do I think the Democrats can take these races? Frankly, no. But if they do well, that sends a message to at least Hageman, who probably would moderate her positions. Gray, if elected, will face a challenger in 2028 and be sent packing.
So here I voted a straight Democratic ticket.
The local races
I haven't said much about these.
My City of Casper ward race featured a guy with a business background facing a young women with fishing tackle on her face. I'm not voting for fishing tackle.
The county commission race featured one incumbent, Dallas Laird, one former commissioner who was later assessor, who was not great in either role, Matt Keating, one former Casper mayor, Ray Pacheco, one Evansville former mayor, Candace Machado, and somebody else.
I had to vote for three.
I voted for Keating, Pacheco, and Machado. Two Republicans and one Democrat.
On this race, I frankly voted against Laird, who is as old as dirt. He's been in local politics since Sitting Bull was in grammar school and it was time for him to go. Besides, he came into office promising to do something about the county selling the hospital to Banner health, which was by then impossible to do anything about, and he didn't do anything about it. He never could have, once something is sold, it's sold. As a lawyer, he knew that, or should have known that.
I'm not keen on that sort of misrepresentation.
Pacheco I have reservations about, but he tries to please people in the best way, so I'm okay with him.
Machado is a gadfly, but down at the county, which is sort of a geezer reservoir in transition, I figure that might be a good thing.
Governor Gordon wrote an op ed opposing the property tax initiative.
(OPINION) Why passing Prop. 1 would have a devastating impact on Wyoming
As noted, I voted against this initiative which would have the impact of mostly benefitting people with really high dollar residences.
This entire cutting property tax movement strongly resembles something that was done in California some decades ago and really hurt it. It's notable that it's strong in the Freedom Caucus camp, which is heavily populated by carpetbaggers. They don't have the same connections to their communities that real Wyomingites do. A prime mover in the initiative was failed Gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien whom, as we've noted, spent most of his adult life sucking on the Federal Government's tit which means he didn't have to worry about local services and education like the rest of us did and do. The element of Solidarity seems to be completely lacking in the populist far right
And that, frankly, is not a very Wyomingite or Western way of looking at things.
cont:
FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION: Why Passing Prop. 1 Would Have A Devastating Impact On WyomingByline: Governor Mark Gordon Word Count: 799 On December 10, 1869 our first Territorial Legislature approved, “An act to provide a territorial and county revenue.” In doing this Wyoming modelled the Framer’s ideal of local control, of decisions and responsibilities kept at the local level where citizens can have a direct impact on how those decisions are shaped and financed. Wyoming voters are faced with the proposition on this November’s ballot to reduce the property tax in our state by 50%. This initiative, called Proposition One is the first step in what could be a further call to completely dismantle a system of taxation Wyoming has relied upon since before statehood. The reduction by 50% would have an immediate and devastating effect on the services most Wyoming citizens rely upon in their communities. Property taxes are not always ideal. But they do provide a direct mechanism for citizens - not politicians - to decide on and pay for the services they desire and benefit from. Wyoming saw rapid increases in residential valuations and those increases have been hard to bear for some. Accordingly, the legislature, with my support over the past few sessions, enacted meaningful property tax relief while preserving citizens’ rights to determine what and how best to fund the services they see as essential. Nevertheless, property tax as a mechanism for building and maintaining our communities is not improper. It is the cost that has become burdensome. Tax reform is fundamentally different from destroying a tax base or relying on the legislature to fund essential services. Some things are universal - safe neighborhoods depend on services such as firefighting, emergency responses, good schools, and maintained roads. All of these are essential to Wyoming’s long term strength and vitality. They make our communities places where families can stay, businesses can grow, and the next generation can build a future they can call home. Local control is a conservative principle - it means that decisions about community needs should rest as close as possible to those people who live there, who pay the taxes there, and who can hold their local elected officials accountable. How responsible do we find Congress these days? Our communities need both the authority and the financial ability to meet those needs. Every property owner having “skin in the game” helps to assure the citizenry pays attention and demands accountability at the local - very most responsive - level. In my time in office, in successive budgets, I have seen the legislature continuously reduce its commitment to towns and counties, to make them fight harder for Cheyenne’s attention. Property tax does not go to the state - it stays at the local level. Reducing and/or eliminating an essential obligation’s funding does not eliminate it, and remarkably this ill conceived Proposition lacks any plan to cover those costs other than counting on the fickleness of future legislatures. Wyoming families deserve affordable taxes and a disciplined government, and during my terms as your governor you have gotten both. We cut government, streamlined regulations, provided tax relief, and ensured a healthy and strong state. We did not cut the legs out from under communities and counties. They also deserve ambulances when they call, firefighters when their homes are threatened, safe roads to work and school. They expect meaningful taxpayer relief that maintains strong communities. "The Wyoming people have already benefited from powerful property tax relief like the 25% homeowner exemption or the 50% long-term homeowners exemption among other relief measures." Cutting just to cut is not a responsible way forward for Wyoming. Wyoming can, has, and will continue to help reduce tax bills to homeowners, but smaller local revenue does not make essential services less expensive. Fuel, emergency equipment, road repairs, and the people who protect our communities still cost money. All but our most wealthy local governments are feeling the same pain we are in paying for fuel, the same decisions on what we can afford. For the past half century, Wyoming has worked to protect her communities from the booms and busts of a commodity economy. It has been good work and we have all benefitted from those who laid solid groundwork. If the only answer for the loss of locally derived revenues that fund essential services like educating our children, should Proposition One pass, is for the state to “backfill” local communities from limited funds depending on favorable markets, we must also prepare ourselves for hard times ahead and remind ourselves, dependency on state government in Cheyenne weakens our local communities opportunity to set their own destiny. Protecting the essentials means protecting Wyoming’s capacity to govern itself. We must never walk away from that fundamental, conservative principle. If you care about the essential services in your communities, join Jennie and I in voting No on Proposition One. For more information: Amy Edmonds, Communications Director, amy.edmonds@wyo.gov |
October 14, 2026
Frank Eathorne, who was the head of the State's GOP when it turned full Freedom Caucus, and who was such a MAGA that he went to DC with Bob Ide to be there on the day of the insurrection rally (he missed the insurrection himself, as did Ide), has endorsed Dixiecrat Alabama Becky Bextel.
What hypocrisy.
Eathorne was part of the group that brought in the absolute loyalty to the GOP era, which meant absolute loyalty to the Dixiecrats. The voters tossed out the Confederates in the last election, but there's still a lot of them in county committees, and they've been sulking ever since. Going into into the election Meine Ehre heißt Treue was their motto, but since then they've wandered around mostly pouting. Some have endorsed Alabama Becky.
Eathorne owed an apology to Joanna True. She won't be getting one, of course.
As we've noted before, there's a good side to this. Becky, Frank, Allemand, Sanchez-Williams, Bear, Bien and their ilk are not Republicans and they are not Conservatives, a least not of the normal type. They're Populist Dixiecrats with more in common with the pre 1970s South than anything in Wyoming. A couple of them are in fact bonafide Southerners and show strongly Southern beliefs. Some are Wyomingites showing a pretty strong streak of narrow-minded ignorance. They deserve their own party, and the Constitution Party, which believes in a double secret Constitution only they know about, is their natural home. The more than de facto migrate over to it, the better.
An example of Republicans moving over to the Constitution Party is given by an old friend of mine. We don't discuss politics. He's a really nice guy who moved in here from Kansas in the 80s and has fallen off the WFC deep end. He was, or is, a figure in his county's organization and it was clear heading into the race he was beginning to get upset by how things were going. One thing that upset him was that Hageman, endorsed by Trump, knew where her bread was buttered and didn't endorse the official GOP sanctioned Brent Bien, who ended up going down in flames. That caused him to abandon Hageman.
Now, doing the same thing that Hageman did that upset him so much, he's backing Constitution Party Tamara Trujillo for Secretary of State. This is all the more remarkable as Robert Short, a really good candidate, is from the same county.
Trujillo is so unknown that she'll be lucky if she recognizes her own name on the ballot. But what's interesting here is that a diehard MAGA member of the GOP is going for a Constitution Party candidate who will lose so badly that nobody will ever remember her name. The WFC Dixiecrats are actually moving over to the Constitution Party. If they muster 10% of the vote, which isn't a wholly good thing, they'll probably bolt en masse before they come crawling back in 2028 as defeated lap dogs.
Trujillo is originally from Cheyenne, and indeed reading her biography, she's from the district in Cheyenne that's heavily Hispanic. Her biography is pretty minimal, but it's clear that she married somebody who was in the Navy and seems to have had a 17 year career in that service. She notes that she was a registered Democrat. Without it really being clear, it seems she's a Catholic, and she certainly would have been originally. Her position statements and issues are so bland they literally could apply to a person running from any party whatsoever. I can understand what brought her over to the GOP from the Democratic Party, but what drew her to the Constitution Party is a complete mystery.
Alabama Becky has an op ed in the Oil City News in favor of Prop 1.
Prop 1 would gut local governments like a fish. She doesn't believe that but instead believes that "spending priorities" will make it all okay.
People who say that about local governments are naive or ignorant. Wyoming's local governments are stretched to the financial limit right now. The Tribune ran an article on it asking the following question:
Prop. 1 could slash Wyoming fire budgets. What happens when help can’t get there in time?
I'll make a prediction here on what the answer to this is if Prop 1 passes.
As long as the property destroyed and the residences burned up belong to regular people, or people living in trailers, etc., the WFC will be happy. If schools get slashed, they don't believe in education anyway. Education causes people to realize that things like Global Warming are real, which can't be true as they don't want it to be. Fire that burn up trailers are burning up the homes of peasantry whom they don't hang out with even though they depend on their support.
But as soon as one Carpetbagger McMansion is destroyed. . .that'll matter. They'll demand something be done, and that something will probably be a large increase in sales taxes, or an income tax.
And we'll regret passing Prop 1.
And, on tonight:
I've already voted, of course.
The most notable thing about these debates is that there won't be a Senatorial one as Hageman won't show up.
What a brave lass.
Chuck Gray won't show up either.
Rebecca Bextel, who apparently will be there, should be asked if Chuck's failure to show up means that not only does not have big balls one of her favorite topics, but perhaps no balls at all.
Back to Gray, somebody I know who is on the periphery of the Gray campaign, and somebody I know who thinks they're a conservative Republican while actually being a fairly ignorant MAGA Dixiecrat, have been posting cartoons from the "Rino Rocket". They have the same general theme, Republicans are smart, Democrats are evil, etc. They seem to have the same panicky "oh crap, we're going to lose" feel to them, which makes me wonder if Republican circles feel that they stand a chance of going down in Wyoming.
One, by the Gray acolyte, shows MAGA/WFC in the way it sees itself. A cartoon busy women who is overflowing her shirt but who has a cross handing down into her cleavage warns that its cheaper to vote Republican than to move when the Democrats take over.
The person who posted that has been in the region his entire life. Our migrant problem here is the Dixiecrats moving in. It'd be cheaper to go back to the real GOP and protect the state, which they claim they want to do, than to bring in Nathan Bedford Bextel Forest and Confederate things up. But the image is interesting. As I've noted before the Daisy Duke image of female Republican came in with Carpetbagger Foster Friess. A cartoon, however, warning you not to vote for Democrats sporting an image of Christianity between overflowing cartoon tits is sending a rather peculiar message.
Branching out to a local sheriff's race, probably for the first time, incumbent Sheriff, Democrat Aaron Appelhans faces a challenge from carpetbagging Daron L. Wyatt, a retired Anaheim California police officer. Wyatt and his wife, Misty, permanently moved to Albany County around 2019 after buying property there some time earlier.
An interesting thing about this race is that Sheriff Appelhans is the first African American sheriff elected into office in Wyoming. His race wasn't an issue in his first campaign at all. He seems well liked, and he came into office at a time that Albany County was having some controversial law enforcement issues.
Wyatt's campaign, whether he means for it to or not, really seems to have the "I'm from ________, which I hated, and I'm here to tell you how to run things.
It's nice that Wyatt wants to continue his law enforcement career. He should move back to Orange County and run for sheriff there.
In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Collom is lampooning Cindy Hyde-Smith's suggestion that if beef is too high, you can choose another protein.
October 14, 2026
I haven't watched it, so I have no comments, yet.
It sounds like Alabama Becky was into name calling.
Nor have I watched this one, and I very well might not.
cont:
Some initial debate comments.
Kenneth Casner looks absolutely ancient. Way older than his campaign photo. He sounds ancient too, and looks like a very elderly man in his daily loungy clothes.
Casner keeps babbling about the "money situation". He doesn't seem to grasp what he's talking about.
Becky has learned how to pose.
Becky's understanding of municipal budgets is dim and, additionally, shows that she lives in wealthy Teton County. Like a lot of WFC members, she oddly wants central control over municipal expenditures.
Bextel's accent is thick. She can't pronounce the word "Wyoming". It come across as "Wyooomin"
Bextel hates the Wyoming Business Council. She seems to have a beef with the University of Wyoming and specifically referenced wiping out "German studies", which UW doesn't have. Did she mean the German department? The German study abroad program?
A lot of the specific things she claimed about Barlow were false, based on subsequent reporting.
Bextel, of course, is a graduate of the University of Alabama.
Barlow basically ignored Bextel's taunts and answered the questions.
Casner doesn't understand how judges are appointed. Bextel said the nominees are chosen by "deep state swamp creature lawyers".
I gave up on the debate at about that point.
October 16, 2026
Before I move on, I'll note my final observations on the half of the debate I watched.
Bextel isn't impressive intellectually. She repeats the usually far right bromides about how the government is a fat calf that needs to be slaughtered so that a golden age of, well, they'll be no servivces.
Casner is embarrassingly old. Dressed like an inmate at a nursing home, the Democrats should be ashamed.
Barlow didn't rise to the bait and he will win the election, but he's not a good speaker. Stilted is how I would describe his performance.
Another view:
Four takeaways from the Wyoming governor’s debate
Now, on to a candidate avoiding debate, Harriet Hageman. She gave a town hall in Evanston where she oddly took the position that the November elections will break the deadlock in Congress.
They might, but only because the Democrats might take control of both houses.
On that, the Republicans since King Donald the Usurper took control of the country and started ruling by decree have been amazingly ineffective. The one piece of legislation they can point to is the Big Ugly Bill Bankrupting the Country, and that was forced upon him by the Orange Monarch.
But, oddly, the Senate, where's she's attempting to camp, might have had a bit of a back door role, in the GOP, in keeping things from getting any worse. That might be a partial positive legacy, even though it certainly isn't a spectacular one, of the Republicans in the 119th Congress. If they turn out to have been a reluctant clandestine guerilla army, I wonder if we'll even ever know.
Of course, that's supposing a lot. More likely, they were a bunch of toady cowards.
The House debate happened, with one notable candidate missing.
On the debate that Chuck Gray avoided:
The Education Super debate occured as well.
And the mail is apparently about to get ugly.
Better Wyoming PAC Attack Mailers Targeting Republicans Hit This Week
October 17, 2026
Five takeaways from Wyoming’s superintendent of public instruction debate
Two good candidates.
As noted, I've already voted. If I had not, this debate would have changed my mind, and I would have voted for Cordova.
The Cornfederates can't seem to grasp the connection between property tax revenue and local services.
Prop 1 Supporters Blast Fire Dept's Cancellation Of Trunk Or Treat As 'Propaganda'
An an extremely interesting sign of the times:
Is the GOP so screwed that Wyoming flips?
I sense that possibility is more real than people might imagine.
In 2024 the election for the House looked like this: Hageman: 70.61%, Cameron:23.24%.
And Cameron was a complete unknown.
In 2022, when people were mad at Liz Cheney, the race looked like this: Hageman: 68.18%, Grey Bull: 24.37%.
So the Democrats pull about 24% of the vote no matter what.
Lots of people hate Chuck Gray. A lot of people who don't hate him hold him in contempt. Only the real Cornfederates like the guy.
So, what we know is that in any normal year, Kinney would pull 24% of the vote.
This isn't a normal year.
I'd guess that Kinney will pull at least 35% of the vote bare minimum.
Then there's Johnson, who is an effective speaker. The Libertarian is going to pull at least 5% of the vote, I'd guess.
And this year, there's a Constitution Party candidate who might pull in about 4% simply because he speaks fairly well and the Constitution Party is making a lot of noise.
Now, if that's right, that would mean that Gray opponents would pull 44% of the vote. Gray would still slide into Washington.
But. . . .
The level of Gray contempt is epic. The legal community and professional business class despise him. So if these numbers adjust just a bit.
It's not impossible that Kinney might pull down 40% of the vote, Johnson 10% and Haggit 5%. That would leave Gray with 45%. He's still win.
But adjust it just a tad, say Johnson 15%, maybe Haggit at 10%, and Gray is out on his ear going back to Daddy's radio station.
What about the Senate Race.
This race is to fill Lummis' seat. In 2020, when she was elected to the Senate, the tally was: Lummis, 72.85% to Ben David 's 26.76%
Byrd will do better than Ben David.
Look again, therefore, to Hageman. She's never done better than 71% of the vote. That's good, mind you. She's also never faced a candidate as tough and good as Byrd. Byrd will pull in at least 30% of the vote even if Hageman doesn't move. But can he pull down more?
Getting to 51% is really a stretch. But these are extraordinary times.
And with that, we'll close out this edition.
Footnotes:
1. As always, I'm going with the conventional color conventions. Blue is conservative, red left of center. This is how it is the world over.
Orange, well I used that for a distributist sort of view. It's the color of Christian Democracy.
Last edition.
