Wyoming
Wyoming’s Primary Election Is Set: 167 Candidates In 72 Contested Races
As of 5 p.m. Friday, the official 2024 election candidate roster in Wyoming is signed, sealed and delivered.
Overall, 167 candidates have filed to run for state and federal offices in Wyoming. This does not include future write-in candidates or people who choose to run as Independents for the general election. There will be at least 74 contested state and federal primary races. This does not include county commission and other local races.
“We had a robust candidate filing period to kick off Wyoming’s 2024 election cycle, in which we have seen a number of candidates filed with our office,” Secretary of State Chuck Gray said. “With the candidate filing period now closed, our office is focused on continuing to serve the people of Wyoming and working with Wyoming’s county clerks to oversee and administer a great election here in Wyoming.”
Participation is a bit down this year. In 2022, there were 193 candidates and 82 contested races throughout the election cycle.
Both U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman will have primary and general election challengers.
U.S. Senate
In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, Barrasso will take on Casper resident Reid Rasner and Laramie resident John Holtz. Rasner is a relative newcomer to Wyoming politics but has aggressively campaigned around the state over the past year, but also has drawn some criticism.
Holtz was a longtime judge in Douglas who now runs a private law practice. Holtz ran in the 2020 U.S. Senate Republican primary race against Sen. Cynthia Lummis, finishing seventh. He also ran for interim Secretary of State in the fall of 2022.
The winner of the Republican primary will face Laramie Democrat Scott Morrow in the general election, who has no primary challenger.
U.S. House
In the Republican primary for U.S. House, Hageman will take on Casper attorney Steve Helling. Helling ran in the 2022 Democratic primary for U.S. House, finishing last out of three candidates. During that race, Helling said he supported former President Donald Trump and expressed virtually no views of the Democratic Party.
The winner of this race will take on Cheyenne Democrat Kyle Cameron in the general election, who has no primary challenger.
Key Legislature Races
There weren’t too many surprise candidacy announcements in the waning days of the filing period, but a few were eye-catching.
One of the biggest themes to watch will be that of former state legislators trying to get their seats back.
In House District 6, former legislator Aaron Clausen will take on Freedom Caucus member Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas, in a rematch of the 2022 election.
The only contested Democratic race in the state will involve former legislator and LGBTQ advocate Sara Burlingame, who will go up against Teresa Wolff in the House District 11 primary in Cheyenne. This is the seat now held by Rep. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, who announced this spring he’s running for the Senate.
Also running to get their seat back is former legislator John Romero-Martinez, who will take on his cousin Rep. Tamara Trujillo, R-Cheyenne, and Lee Filer in the House District 44 primary in Cheyenne. Filer is a former Democratic member of the Legislature. Trujillo beat Romero-Martinez, then an incumbent, in the 2022 primary.
Former Libertarian Rep. Marshall Burt is now running as a Republican for House District 39 in Sweetwater County against Rep. Cody Wylie, R-Rock Springs, and Laura McKee. This is another rematch as Wylie beat Burt by a large margin in the 2022 general election.
Former legislator Bob Wharff, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2022, is taking on Rep. Ryan Berger, R-Evanston, in the House District 49 Republican primary.
Who’s Not Coming Back?
There were also a few unexpected departures from current legislators who did not file to run again.
One of the most significant is Rep. Don Burkhart, R-Rawlins, who has served in the Legislature since 2011 and is chair of the House Minerals Committee.
Other departures that weren’t previously announced include Reps. Sandy Newsome, R-Cody, Forrest Chadwick, R-Evansville, and Kevin O’Hearn, R-Mills.
Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, first elected in 1978 and the longest serving member of the Legislature, is running for reelection in the Republican primary against former Natrona County Commissioner Rob Hendry and Charles Schoenwolf.
Every member of the farther right Wyoming Freedom Caucus is running for reelection.
Near-Guaranteed Wins
There are also a number of uncontested races, which unless changed by the entry of an Independent candidate for the general election, means that the lone candidate is nearly guaranteed an election win.
Some of the most notable legislators who won’t face a primary or general election challenger include Reps. John Bear, R-Gillette; Steve Harshman, R-Casper; Mike Yin, D-Jackson; Liz Storer, D-Jackson; Art Washut, R-Casper; Chris Knapp, R-Gillette; and Reuben Tarver, R-Gillette.
Democrats
There are 19 Democratic candidates in the current election cycle, with every currently serving Democrat up for reelection running again. There are no Democrats running in any part of northern Wyoming.
In 2022, there were 33 Democratic candidates.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
Wyoming
Casper veteran David Giralt joins race for Wyoming U.S. House seat
Wyoming
Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate
It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.
WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026
Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)
Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic
Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.
Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)
Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)
Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)
Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)
Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)
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CLASS 4A
Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)
Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)
Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)
Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
Wyoming Boys 4A Swimming & Diving State Championships 2026
4A Boys State Swim Meet for 2026 in Cheyenne
Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com
Wyoming
Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers
Controversy has engulfed Wyoming’s state legislature after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to Republican lawmakers on the state house floor, in an incident that has highlighted intra-conservative divisions and the role of money in the Cowboy state’s politics.
The political storm started on 9 February, when Karlee Provenza, a Democratic lawmaker, took a photo showing Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist and committeewoman for the Teton county Republican party, handing a check to Darin McCann, a Republican representative, on the legislative floor. Marlene Brady, another Republican representative, stands in the photo’s background, a similar piece of paper pinched between her fingers.
“You have a person from the richest county in the country coming down to Cheyenne to hand out checks on the house floor,” Provenza said. “I have never seen something so egregious.”
Questions around the checks were soon swirling, and answers weren’t forthcoming. When asked what Bextel gave to her, Brady told a reporter for local outlet WyoFile: “I can’t remember.”
Then Bextel herself addressed the incident. “I raised $400,000 in the last election cycle for conservative candidates, and I will be doubling that amount this year,” Bextel wrote on Facebook on 11 February. “There’s nothing wrong with delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton county donors when I am in Cheyenne.”
Since then, it has emerged that the checks came from Don Grasso, a wealthy Teton county donor, who told the Jackson Hole News and Guide that he wrote the checks for Bextel to deliver to 10 Freedom caucus-aligned politicians. Grasso said the checks were intended as campaign contributions, and were not tied to specific legislation. It is unclear how many checks were ultimately delivered, but two of four confirmed recipients include the speaker of the house, Chip Neiman, and John Bear, the former head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
The Wyoming house has formed a legislative investigative committee, and the Laramie county sheriff’s office said they’d open a criminal investigation.
Bextel declined to answer questions from the Guardian. Brady, McCann and Bear did not respond to requests for comment.
Neiman said he considered the criticism a “wraparound smear campaign”. He said: “It never once crossed my mind that this was bribery.
“These legislators, myself included, are now guilty until we can prove that we’re innocent. How is that right in this country? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?”
The scandal has highlighted long-standing divisions in Wyoming’s Republican party, which in recent years has seen a growing divide between old school, more moderate conservatives and a harder-right Freedom Caucus.
Several former Republican lawmakers forcefully condemned their colleagues for accepting the checks, and a local Republican party branch called for the lawmakers’ resignations.
Ogden Driskill, a Wyoming Republican senator, told the Guardian he does not consider Bextel’s actions to be illegal, but that “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should”.
Bextel has spent years pushing against housing mitigation fees in Wyoming, and Driskill noted that she distributed the house floor checks just days before a bill she had publicly supported was set to be heard. Bextel was registered as a member of the press, not as a lobbyist when she delivered the checks.
“Ethically and morally, it’s bankrupt to a massive degree,” Driskill said.
Neiman said that he and other legislators who received checks have supported similar bills in the past: “Bribery is paying somebody to do something they would not otherwise do.”
Nationally, the 2024 election cycle saw record-spending from the mega-wealthy, as well as dark money groups. Wyoming followed the trend, in a tense red-on-red primary season.
For those gearing up to campaign this year, Teton county, the richest in the US, and Bextel’s picturesque home turf, is an essential stop. Its extreme wealth gives it a foothold on the national level as well. Palantir chief executive Alex Karp and Donald Trump attended an annual Republican leadership fundraiser at Jackson Hole in 2024, and JD Vance attended the same one in 2025.
Bextel pulls dollars from Teton county into the Freedom Caucus side of Wyoming’s conservative split. She hosted no-press-allowed meet and greets earlier this year benefitting leading candidates for Wyoming’s governor and open US House seat.
In an interview with the Open Range Record, a media network she co-founded, Bextel said controversy around the checks was solely because she was making “even playing field” in Wyoming against the state’s more moderate Republicans, who she calls “George Soros” candidates. She said that she will be sure to keep raising money – just away from the legislative floor.
“I guess I’m gonna ask all the gentlemen and gentleladies to step outside the Capitol while I hand them a check,” Bextel said. “Let me be clear: I’m doubling down.”
But it’s not just wealthy local donors putting their weight behind the factions. Last election cycle, out of state groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anonymous and often inaccurate mailers.
“These actors, especially from the far right, they like to push the bounds of the norms,” said Rosa Reyna Pugh, an organizing and advocacy consultant at Western States Center, an Oregon-based non-profit focused on democracy in the western United States. “They like to see what policies they can kind of push, and see where they can play a piece,” Reyna Pugh said.
While Neiman and Driskill fight politically, they do agree on one thing: summer will bring an expensive and brutal campaign season.
“You’re going to see more dark money than you’ve ever seen. We’ve done absolutely nothing to enforce it. Our secretary of state has not even made a slight attempt to deal with it,” Driskill said. “You’re going to see lots and lots of outside money and I think you’re seeing it on both sides.”
As national questions swirl around pay-to-play politics and profiteering in the Trump administration, Provenza wants better for the Cowboy State.
“We should not be aligning ourselves with how the federal government is conducting itself or how federal elections conduct themselves,” Provenza said. “We owe something far better and more honest to the people of Wyoming than that.”
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