SEATTLE – One of the last remaining U.S. House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump and a candidate endorsed by the former president have advanced in Tuesday’s primary to the general election in Washington state’s 4th Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse is seeking a sixth term in the conservative Washington district that runs from the Canadian border to the Columbia River. He will face Republican Jerrod Sessler, a Navy veteran and former NASCAR driver, in November.

This was a rematch for the pair from 2022, when Sessler earned a distant fourth in the primary. This time, Sessler said things have gone his way. He was endorsed by the Washington State Republican Party and nabbed Trump’s backing early on, which he called a “game changer.” He said he communicates regularly with Trump’s team, referencing a text he said he received from the GOP presidential candidate this year saying, “The country is counting on you.”

“In ninety days, this district is going to vote overwhelmingly for President Trump,” Sessler said in a statement. “I will work hard to make sure we also elect a member of Congress who will be his greatest ally in our fight to enact a pro-Constitution, pro-MAGA agenda and heal our nation from the disaster of the Biden-Harris administration.”

Newhouse has mostly steered clear of the subject of Trump. The third-generation farmer has instead focused on agriculture and border security in a state with millions of acres of pastures, orchards and cereal grain lands where immigrant labor is extremely important.

In the lead-up to the primary, Newhouse’s opponents repeatedly touted his vote to impeach Trump as a huge liability. But political experts have cautioned that it’s difficult to say whether the endorsement will sway voters who already stuck with Newhouse two years ago.

Newhouse and U.S. Rep. David Valadao, of California, are the only Republican Congressional lawmakers left among the 10 who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Others retired or were defeated by Trump-endorsed primary challengers.

As of July 17, Newhouse, who was endorsed by the NRA and the National Right to Life, had raised $1.6 million – far more than the $409,000 raised by Sessler.

They prevailed over Tiffany Smiley, a former nurse who entered the race after losing to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray two years ago. She received a backing from Trump just three days before the primary, marking a unique, though not unprecedented, dual endorsement by the former president. But the backing for Smiley likely came too late to impact many voters in the vote-by-mail state.

Under the state’s primary system, the top two vote-getters in each of the contests advance to the November election, regardless of party.

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It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, August 8th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom – brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair! Beginning August 13th in Douglas, the Wyoming State Fair has something for everyone. For more info visit WY-STATE-FAIR dot com”

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The Campbell County Sheriff says a Wright, Wyoming, man who shot at a deputy just as the deputy exited his car Sunday has been identified as 55-year-old Christopher Morales. 

Sheriff Scott Metheny told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that the deputy’s body cam video shows that, just as the car dings to indicate that the deputy has opened his car door, Morales fires a shotgun.

“In that moment, the shotgun blast hits the windshield in front of the deputy, or very near to where the deputy was, and so we know that there had to be this split decision, duck back into the car, or rush out and take refuge behind it. Matheny said that the deputy followed his training in using the car as a shield. And then, of course, he yelled, ‘drop the gun,’ and he returned fire and he killed Morales on scene.”

Metheny told Cowboy State Daily he believed that divine intervention was at work, protecting the deputy.

Read the full story HERE.

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Dede Anders knew she was too sick to ride 620 miles across Mongolia, then was abandoned halfway around the world Wednesday. The Powell woman was there to compete in the Mongol Derby, but race organizers left her in a hotel room without medical care. 

Anders told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that she didn’t even get to start the race.

“She recognized she wasn’t well enough, and then all they did was they got a driver to take her back to Ulaanbaatar from the start, which was an eight hour car ride while she had a pretty intense gastrointestinal illness… She had to reserve her hotel herself through Expedia and find her own flight home. So to say she’s not a happy camper is a bit of an understatement.”  

Anders said the earliest she’ll be able to leave Mongolia is August 11th.

Read the full story HERE.

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Now that Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for this November’s election, the midwestern politician’s energy policies are in the spotlight.

No surprise, Walz is a big proponent, just like Harris, in pushing for clean energy initiatives – which for Wyoming, means a sharp turn away from fossil fuels, according to energy reporter Pat Maio.

“I think the buzzword here is green grid. He’s big on that, going completely green on alternative forms of energy like wind and solar by 2040, which kind of aligns with the Biden administration. So it’s going to be more of that with Tim Walz.”

During his tenure as governor of Minnesota, Walz placed his state on track to transition to “clean” energy even faster than California, which for decades has been at the forefront of efforts to tackle climate change.

Read the full story HERE.

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Landon Brown’s Republican primary opponent has resurrected a 2022 CNN interview in which he praised Liz Cheney and called former president Donal Trump “unfit for office.” 

But in a Wednesday interview with Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland, Landon Brown called Exie Brown’s Facebook post “old news” and questioned whether it’s relevant in 2024. 

“He said, ‘Well, I still don’t like the almost cult-like following of Trump. I reserve the right to disagree with him,’ but he said that he’s noticed more humility in the former president since the July 13 assassination attempt against him… he said he agrees with many of Trump’s policies, but he wants to hold conservative ideals higher than he holds the man.”

Brown doesn’t back away from standing by Cheney in 2022, saying he believes she defended the U.S. Constitution while in office. He also pointed to her conservative congressional record.

Read the full story HERE.

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A historic Wyoming ranch that has been in the same family since 1895 has just landed on the market, and it’s a humdinger of a listing.

The Antlers Ranch near Meeteetse is listing for $85 million. That makes it the most expensive listing in Wyoming now and, for once, it’s not from Jackson Hole. The property ranges from river bottoms and valleys at the low point to timbered alpine peaks at the high point — and everything in between, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean.

“There aren’t many opportunities to own something like this. This ranch controls more than 40,000 acres, including 16,532 deeded acres. It’s been in the same family since 1895 – that’s almost as long as Wyoming has been a state. The history of this ranch, it’s just the history of Wyoming itself.”

Antlers Ranch is a working ranch with plenty of housing for both its next owners and its staff, as well as a variety of buildings associated with making this a turnkey ranching operation, if the next owners so choose.

Read the full story HERE.

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Just when it seems Wyoming has hit its boiling point with 100-degree temperatures in some spots, a cold front from Canada will cool things off in a big way Thursday and Friday.

The cold front started moving across northwest Wyoming on Wednesday and will shock people’s summertime systems with daytime high temperatures plunging anywhere from 10-30 degrees, depending on where you are, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.

“We’re seeing close to a 30 degree difference between Wednesday in Cheyenne and Thursday in Cheyenne, the high is going to be 58 on Thursday. But the thing of it is, these kinds of cold fronts can bring seasonal change, but it’s still, too far in the summer for that to happen. So once we get into Monday, we’re going to get back into the 80s and the 90s that we’ve been experiencing.” 

The cold front from Canada won’t last long, and the summer heat will return by next week.  

Read the full story HERE.

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Questions about the integrity of Wyoming’s voting machines grew a little more pointed this week after observers say a Monday test of Laramie County equipment was suspect.

Laramie County Republican Party Chairman Taft Love on Tuesday filed an official complaint with the Laramie County District Attorney targeting Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee about the voting machine test she performed Monday. Love and others believe the test produced untrustworthy results, according to politics reporter Leo Wolfson.

“The ballots are supposed to be tested with different amounts of votes for each candidate. Well, that was not done in Laramie County. Most of the candidates had the same exact amount of votes. They performed two tests. And there were some other issues that happened, as well as like such as the ballots becoming crumpled and not really appearing to be read the correct way.” 

State law requires that all election tests be performed at least two weeks prior to an election, a deadline that came Tuesday.

Read the full story HERE.

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Even while auto manufacturers are pumping the brakes on investing in the future of electric vehicles, as car buyers think twice on making expensive purchases and recharging them, signs of a slowdown in Wyoming aren’t necessarily materializing.

Energy reporter Pat Maio says EV registrations are up in Wyoming, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is getting ready to see who can build out an infrastructure of charging stations along the Cowboy State’s interstates, and one major auto dealership in Cheyenne is seeing an uptick in sales.

“I spoke to Daryl Turrell, who owns the Chevrolet and Honda dealerships here in Cheyenne, and he says… there’s a lot of people coming up from Colorado to buy EVs, and what they’re getting are the big the new Silverado truck that just rolled off. Plus, he says there seems to be high demand for Chevy Bolt, another electric car.”  

Some analysts think it may be a while before EV acceptance in the region is ever embraced, though it is taking baby steps.

Read the full story HERE.

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Jackson’s Dierdre Griffith was the first Wyoming woman to win the Mongol Derby, splitting the victory with fellow rider and friend Willemien Jooste in July 2022. She knows what an arduous, strategic and life-changing experience it is to follow Genghis Khan’s horse messenger route through inner Mongolia.

Griffith told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that the ride was stressful, adventurous and lots of fun.

2:22 7/31 “Her story was incredible. She did it with a South African writer who became a lifelong friend. And it’s not that she raised over $100,000 for charity in the process. It’s the fact that she used that money to … set up a postpartum depression program at St. John’s Health in Jackson … because the thing that fueled her into the race in the first place was she had just had her second child, and she struggled with postpartum depression both times.”

Griffith’s victory in 2022 was the first time in the history of the race – not only that two people from the same nation, but two people from the same state – won back to back victories. Wyoming riders won in 2019 and in 2022, with a two-year gap because of the COVID pandemic. 

Read the full story HERE.

Amid San Francisco’s controversial homeless encampment sweeps, city officials are struggling to find places to put all the unhoused people with only about 4,000 shelter beds available to accommodate twice that number of people.

And that does not include people living in their cars or RVs.

Evidence of the RV community on Winston Drive in San Francisco – necessities, simple joys, vices and everything in between – is still visible on the stretch of road near the Stonestown Galleria.

But as of August 1st, the community itself was gone.

At the beginning of August, the city started enforcing the 4-hour parking limit on Winston Drive. That came after two months of rallies and protests by the families that lived there.

The move was a long-time coming, not out of the blue. But it meant the people who lived in RV’s along the road, many of them being families from Central America, had no choice but to leave and find somewhere else to go.

Many of the people relocated to Zoo Road, just about a mile or so away from Winston Drive.

That included Juan Carlos Madrid and his family.

“Everyone who is here, we are the same people who were living on Winston,” he said in Spanish.

Prior to the pandemic, living in an RV wasn’t his reality. He came to America from Honduras 23 years ago. He lived in Daly City, had an apartment and a steady construction job. His life was normal. But that changed with COVID, and his family ended up on Winston Drive.

“We were there for almost five years, until they moved us out,” he said.

Madrid says this is not a long-term solution, but it works for now.

“Here, we live one day at a time,” he said.

Tuesday was not an easy day for the people who have relocated to Zoo Road. SFMTA officers were there doing outreach and parking enforcement.

A spokesperson tells CBS News Bay Area they encourage those experiencing homelessness to take advantage of the SFMTA discount and citation waiver programs if they’ve been impacted by parking limits.

For Eusevia Rosales, it was difficult to watch this unfold just days after she and her family also left Winston Drive.

“I don’t know how to tell you,” she said in Spanish. “I don’t know where we can go.”

She and her family came to the USA from El Salvador about a year ago, hoping for a better life away from gang violence, where she could work and help support her family. She had a job, but says an injury has since prevented her from working. At one point her family had an apartment, but it became too expensive. 

Like Madrid, they ended up on Winston Drive. The little money she has goes towards taking care of her family, she says.

“I’m thinking about a lot of things. But we have to keep going,” she said.

She says she’d like some kind of direction and is pleading for city officials to come up with a solution for families like hers, such as a safe parking zone.

“I’m so stressed out,” she said. “Without knowing where we could go, knowing that we have the kids, and nobody understands the situation that you’re living through.”

The mayor’s office provided CBS News Bay Area with the following statement:

“The city will continue to do outreach and offer support, housing and shelter, while enforcing parking laws in areas where people live in their RVs. Many of the people now on Zoo Road were previously on Winston, where city outreach teams have done extensive outreach with offers of alternatives to parking on the street. The mayor’s office will continue to work with city departments, including SFMTA and HSH on these efforts.”

The City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) has hosted five services fairs with the people who lived on Winston Drive, including one as recently as June 27. HSH reports engaging with 27 households in an outreach fair, and says 23 successfully moved out of their vehicles and into housing.

But Yessica Hernandez with the non-profit Coalition on Homelessness, says many of the people who are in the RVs ultimately don’t qualify for some services. Getting them into stable housing situations isn’t simple.

“Not a lot of people qualify for housing. The other families who qualified for something was only for the deposit and the first month’s worth of rent,” she said. “They need to find a site where people can park safely.”

Her organization released a statement on Wednesday going into more detail, that reads in part:

“For over three years, the Coalition on Homelessness and our dedicated allies have worked tirelessly to support these communities. We have engaged with city officials, advocated for better housing solutions, and provided as much assistance as resources allow. However, the need far exceeds the available resources, leaving our most vulnerable residents in a precarious situation.  About half the families were able to get subsidized housing over a year ago, but none of the remaining families qualified, not scoring high enough on the city’s coordinated entry assessment tool. Several vacant lots have been identified for safe parking, but action to turn those lots into safe parking has not been taken by San Francisco city officials.”

Hernandez says moving the families around is not a solution; a designated parking lot alone, isn’t either. But she believes a safe parking zone will help bridge the gap as they work towards long-term solutions.

“The best solution is to have a safe parking site, if no housing solutions are available right now,” she said. “We know there are a lot of empty lots around the city. We just need a yes from one of them. We just need a safe parking site where they can park in the meantime, while they find other solutions that are more permanent.”

Madrid says a designated parking place where they can live for now, without worrying if they’ll be forced out, would really help provide a sense of stability.

“We are not a community that makes problems. Just because of the fact that we’re here doesn’t mean that we’re bad people. We’re not bad people,” he said.

On the contrary, he added, saying the majority of people who live in this RV community are families just looking for a better life.

“My dream, is to have a good life with my kids,” he said. “I don’t ask for anything. Only to have a normal life, have an apartment, to have food and clothes for my kids – that’s the American dream.”