CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation recently announced that the community is invited to a series of events happening on July 18 and 19.

The weekend will feature the Wyoming Governor’s Match, as well as the Firearms & Outdoor Recreation Expo.

A release from the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation says that the 10th Annual Wyoming Governor’s Match, hosted in partnership with the Casper Shooter’s Club, will run July 18–19 at the Stuckenhoff Shooters Complex, 10 minutes outside of Casper.

The event will bring together spectators, shooting sports organizers and elected officials to interact with more than 360 competitive shooters from across the country.

Eye protection is required for spectators, and ear protection is highly recommended.

Additionally, on Saturday, July 18, the fourth annual Wyoming Firearms & Outdoor Recreation Expo is taking place at David Street Station from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The expo is free and open to the public, and it will feature exhibitor booths, a legislative panel and family-friendly activities. It will also feature local food and drink vendors, including WY Knot Pretzel Co., The Dog House and Kuver’s BBQ.

Expo attendees will be able to explore products and gear and will be able to witness demonstrations by the following Wyoming-based brands and organizations:

• 3C Guiding LLC
• 9×19 Fabrication
• ACG
• Adventure Ready RV Solutions
• Cutting Edge Tactics and Training
• Diamond R Saddlery
• DVL Custom Lures
• FEROX
• Freedom Tactical Firearms
• Guardian Warrior Solutions
• Gunwerks
• High Carbon Mercantile
• Kimber Tracks Big Game Recovery/Rocky Mountain Big Game Recovery
• Lucid Optics
• Maven Optics
• MOD Outfitters
• National Wild Turkey Federation
• Red, White and Blued
• Ridgeline Customs LLC
• Rocky Mountain Discount Sports
• Scouting America
• Sheridan Fly Rod Co.
• Thunder Beast Arms
• Wilkinson Tactical
• Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
• Wyoming Game & Fish Department
• Wyoming Gun Company
• Wyoming Motorcycle Trials Association
• Wyoming Patriots

The release notes that from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation will facilitate an Outdoor Recreation Legislative Panel on the lawn of David Street Station. The panel discussion is also free and open to the public and will offer legislators and elected officials an opportunity to discuss the importance of growing and sustaining the outdoor recreation and shooting sports industry.

To RSVP or learn more about the Wyoming Firearms & Outdoor Recreation Expo, visit wyorec.info/Expo2026.

To register or learn more about the Wyoming Governor’s Match, visit wyorec.info/GovMatch2026.

Related

(KRON) — A 32-year-old man has been missing in San Francisco for two days, police said. Gabriel Carreon was last seen at noon on July 7, when he left his home in the Castro neighborhood to go see a movie, the San Francisco Police Department said.

The following morning, a 911 caller told dispatchers that Carreon was missing.

Police described the missing man as Asian, 5’8’’ tall, and weighing 170 pounds. He has black hair dyed pink, and brown eyes.

Anyone who locates Carreon should call 911 and report his current location, police said.  Anyone with information on his possible whereabouts should call the SFPD Missing Persons Unit Tip Line at 415-734-3070.

Victor Marx, a first-time candidate and nonprofit leader with a controversial personal history that’s drawn intense scrutiny, has edged out his more establishment opponent and will be Colorado Republicans’ gubernatorial nominee in November.

The Associated Press called the race for Marx late Thursday afternoon, nearly nine days after polls closed. He led the runner-up, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, 39.9% to 39.4%, with 99% of ballots counted, according to the AP.

Marx had taken his first narrow lead over Kirkmeyer the day after the June 30 primary, and though the race remained close, he never lost the advantage. While outstanding deficient and overseas ballots helped delay a final call on the race, those votes only served to expand Marx’s margin. He led by 2,524 votes at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, out of about 522,000 ballots cast.

State Rep. Scott Bottoms was a distant third, with 20.8% of the vote.

A veteran lawmaker and former Weld County commissioner, Kirkmeyer had jumped to an early advantage on the strength of early ballot returns. But as votes returned on Election Day began to filter in, her lead thinned and collapsed. Within 48 hours of polls closing, and with few ballots left to count in Kirkmeyer’s Front Range strongholds, her path to retake the lead had all but vanished.

Marx will next face Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser in November. No Republican has been elected to the governor’s office in more than 20 years. Four months out, Weiser appears to be heavily favored to continue Democrats’ electoral dominance.

In an email to supporters after the race was called, Marx said he was humbled to be the nominee and that the victory was “the starting line.”

“My team and I have put together this special message that I want every Coloradan to hear — Republicans, independents, unaffiliated voters, and Democrats who are open to a better way,” he said. “Because what we’re building now is bigger than a primary victory.”

In a video, he appealed to Coloradans who are frustrated with the status quo and don’t think things can change — citing his victory as proof they can.

“Now Phil Weiser, he’s a smart fella — but he represents the current system, because he is part of it,” Marx said. “And that current system has made Colorado more expensive, less safe and harder for regular families to trust government.”

In a separate statement, Kirkmeyer said she was proud of the race that she had run and the “clear vision” she had laid out for the Republican Party here.

“While we came up short in what appears to be the closest Republican gubernatorial primary in Colorado history, I’m grateful for every voter who placed their trust in us,” she wrote.

Echoing the pledge she’d made before Election Day, she pointedly did not endorse Marx. She said only that she hoped voters “choose the path that is best for Colorado” in November.

Kirkmeyer also threw a final jab at Marx, who declined in late May to tell 9News how many people he’d killed as an adult.

Kirkmeyer wrote that, “for the record, I still haven’t killed anyone.”

First-time candidate shrugged off questions

Marx’s primary win is a remarkable result for the embattled Colorado GOP and for Marx, a former Marine, martial arts instructor and nonprofit leader whose extensive and much-scrutinized personal history had drawn national headlines. It’s also attracted sharp criticism from other Republicans.

In his video, Marx appealed to Republican primary voters, saying there was room in his campaign for those who supported his opponents.

Marx had entered the fray last fall with no political profile and no experience as a political candidate. But by the time voters began receiving ballots last month, he’d ridden an atypical — if thoroughly modern — campaign to fundraising dominance and front-runner status.

Kirkmeyer’s support largely flowed from northern Front Range counties, nudging her ahead initially. But Marx picked up bigger margins among Election Day voters — meaning those more conservative voters skeptical of mail-in balloting.

He also won ruby-red El Paso County while racking up smaller wins in rural counties and grabbing enough in the Front Range to edge Kirkmeyer.

Map: Where did the votes come from in the Colorado primary races for governor?

In a pitch reminiscent of President Donald Trump, the arch-dealmaker, Marx has cast himself as a solutions-focused negotiator disinterested in partisan squabbles. In 2003, he founded All Things Possible Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that has provided stuffed animals and trauma support to people. It has also done work in conflict areas in Syria and Iraq, where Marx primarily worked away from the front lines as a funder and facilitator.

By 2024, the nonprofit’s annual revenue had surpassed $7.5 million, and Marx has said the group — from which he has resigned — now primarily works to help law enforcement.

Despite his outsider status, Marx was considered the likely winner in the weeks before Election Day. His narrow victory, then, came as something of a surprise, and, on election night, he speculated that Bottoms — a conservative pastor from Colorado Springs — had pulled votes from him. In El Paso County, Bottoms earned more than 20,000 votes, or 24% of the county’s Republican total.

Though Marx out-raised and out-spent both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms, it was Kirkmeyer who had been perceived as the expected nominee when she entered the race last year. Marx had never run for office before, and the stories he’s told about his life — that he’d killed a man at age 7, been involved in “high-risk humanitarian” operations across the globe and could free people from demonic possession — drew intense scrutiny and national punchlines.

But he repeatedly shrugged off questions about his background and said he stood by all that he had said and written.

Through his personality-heavy, direct-to-voter campaign, he encouraged Colorado Republicans to shrug it off, too. He spent heavily on direct mailers, which provided a boost to both his fundraising and name recognition.

Marx eschewed policy discussions and skipped nearly every debate. When he did participate in one, he spent part of the event leaning on the lectern, with his dog at his feet. Rather than deliver a closing statement, he prayed.

Campaigning his own way

Though he leaned into his outsider status, the aw-shucks appeal belied a careful campaign shaped by Marx’s emergence from a political environment forged by Trump: He skipped one debate after a moderator pressed him about his background, and he held a rally instead; his campaign later highlighted how many more people attended the rally than the debate.

His media operation was led by a former Turning Points USA staffer, and his campaign touted its social media posts’ views at Marx’s watch party last week. He was comfortable as a podcast guest, regularly released videos of himself and repeatedly assured voters that he was no politician.