What is in Store for the WY General Election

Posted by Bobbie Frank on August 26, 2026

Gubernatorial candidate Eric Barlow

As reported in the post primary update, the primary election resulted in some solid credit union supporter candidates winning in the primary, a significant loss in seats held by Freedom Caucus aligned legislators and all but one of the legislators involved in the “check gate” scandal losing their seats.

On the congressional level, Republican level Harriet Hageman easily won the Republican race and Jim Byrd, former state legislator won the Democrat race. On the House side, Chuck Gray won with a mere twenty-five percent of the vote. Seventy-five percent of the vote split among the remaining eight candidates. As a result, there are rumblings in conservative circles of write-in campaigns and rallying around the Libertarian candidate Shawn Johnson. Democrat candidate Lisa Kinney a former Wyoming state legislator won the primary.

Wyoming Credit Union PAC supported gubernatorial candidate Eric Barlow won with 45 percent of the vote. He will face democrat Kenneth Casner, of Elk Mountain in the general and Constitution Party candidate Rebecca Bextel. Bextel was at the center of the check gate scandal, handing out checks from Teton county donors on the house floor while simultaneously advocating for a bill affecting Teton county. Details on the remaining top five elected positions will be covered in a future post.

In the state legislature, the House will see 29 new members out of the 62-member body and the Senate there will be seven new members, a few who are former legislators are moving from House to Senate.

Wyoming Senate

Nineteen candidates winning their primary and facing no challenger in the general include:

Senators Driskill (SD 1), Steinmetz (SD 3), Love (SD 6), Rothfuss (SD 9), Jones (SD 13), Schuler (SD 15), Gierau (SD 17), Kost (SD 19), Butcher (SD 21), Angelos (SD 23), Case (SD 25), Helling (SD 27), and Engebretsen (SD 29).

Four of the senate seats will be contested races in the general:

SD 5 – Lauren Schoenfeld (R) vs Ted Hanlon (D)

SD 7 – Mark Rinne (R) vs Jim Lee (D)

SD 11 – Bob Davis (R) vs Jim Wilson (D)

SD 31 – Evie Brennan (R) vs Shifa Hamid (D)

Wyoming House

There are forty-three uncontested races in the House. Candidates who won their primary include: Troy Claycomb (HD1); JD Williams (HD2), Earl Colier (HD 3), Haroldson (HD 4), Speckner (HD 5), Strock (HD 6), Fornstrom (HD 3), Styvar, Thayer, Yin (HD 16) , Roberts (HD 18), Stephans (HD 19) Sommers (HD 20), Erickson (HD 21) Byron (HD 22), Quin Blair (HD 24) Wetzel (HD 25) Banks (HD 26) Hogg (HD 28) Sturtevant (HD 29) Koltiska (HD 30) Moore (HD 31) Clouston (HD 32) Posey (HD 33) Ottman (HD 34) Dresang (HD 35) Wylie (HD 39) Connolly (HD 40) Crowder (HD 43) Filer (HD 44) O’Toole (HD 47) Wamsley (HD 48) Walton (HD 49) Hill (HD 50) Bratten (HD 51), Boller (HD 52), Knapp (HD 53), Larsen (HD 54) Manning (HD 55), Campbell (HD 56), Niemiec (HD 60), Server (HD 61) Campbell (HD 62)

Nineteen House seats will be contested races in the general:

HD 7 Bob Nicholas vs Gavin Lobmeyer

HD 8 Luke Reiner vs Brenda Lyttle

HD 9 Boyd Wiggam vs Stephen Latham

HD 11 Dan McIntosh vs Briteny Tennant

HD 13 Shane Swett vs Ken Chestek

HD 14 Emily Study vs Trey Sherwood

HD 17 Elizabeth Bingham vs Rah Reinholz

HD 23 Shannon Brennan vs Liz Storer

HD 27 Martha Lawley vs Theresa Livingston

HD36 Art Washut vs Stewart McAdoo

HD 37 Brian Costello vs Betsy Erickson