Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
Abraham Lincoln.
October 18, 2026
When we last posted, we noted who we had voted for and why.
That post was on October 13, and it had already grown too unwieldy by yesterday to keep on keeping on, so we're starting a new one. The last one was fairly up to date, but over the past, national and international events have made it plain that the GOP is hopelessly captive to a declining Donald Trump.
Some new items:
Who showed up for Wyoming’s US House debate and key takeaways
October 19, 2026
Tom Lubnau: Governor's Debate — Louder And Faster Doesn’t Make It True
Gail Symons: Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics On Prop One
Joan Barron: Tax Referendums Hot Here And In Colorado
Cont:
October 19, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
Victim of Russian missile strike:
Impeach Donald Trump and allow him, and Putin, to be tried for crimes against humanity. Putin, Ukraine. Trump, selling his sold for diesel to Russia, killing people extrajudicially off of South America and launching an illegal war against Iran.
October 20, 2026
Governor Gordon endorsed Eric Barlow in the Governor's race.
While others certainly are disagreeing, more and more it looks to me as if Gray may really be in trouble. The GOP itself seems to be adrift here to some extent, given that people are drifting away from an increasingly erratic Trump. People are sick of the Freedom Caucus, of which Gray was an original member, and Gray himself is deeply unpopular.
A question is whether Johnson's presence in the race hurts or helps Gray. I suspect he hurts Gray by drawing away candidates that won't vote for Kinney, but you can argue it either way.
The local ballot:
October 21, 2026
October 22, 2026
"Pisses Me Off": Rock Springs Businessman Angered At Gov Candidate's Accusations
He should be angry.
Everyone who knows Bruce Pivic likes him and he's adamant that he didn't confront Alabama Becky about funding the University of Wyoming.
Not that people shouldn't confront Alabama Becky. Based on her statements she's very ill informed. She wanted, for example, UW to eliminate its German studies program, which it doesn't have. She probably meant its study abroad in Germany program, which isn't the kind of thing that young Wyomingites only suitable for driving semi trucks and working in the oil patch, the only jobs suitable for young Wyomingites if you watch adds from the Carpetbagger class, need.
Golly gee, if Confederate great great grandpappy didn't need no German, well you don't either.
While she would like to see Wyoming become what Alabama was, that doesn't provide an excuse for asserting that it was Pivic who talked to her at a UW tailgate. That's interesting in and of itself as Alabama Becky made a point of showing up at UW, even though the Freedom Caucus basically hates education and has really gone after UW. He says he didn't, and he seems to have proven it, even managing to show that contrary to her description of Bruce as a man who spoke to her below head level couldn't be him, as he's 5'10". She declined to show her height, but a law enforcement record showed it at 5'9". He'd be at face level.
Casper College Trustees unanimously approved a resolution outlining how Prop 1 could affect the college.
Wyoming's AAPG wrote an op ed for the Casper Star Tribune outlining potential harm to the geezer class by Prop 1.
That's important as the measure is often camouflaged by its backers as a means of keeping the elderly in their homes, rather than carpetbaggers having more money in their bank accounts. A major miss point is:
Currently, older Wyomingites benefit from the Long-Term Homeowner’s Exemption, which provides a 50% property tax reduction on home and land to qualifying homeowners who are 65 and older, and who have paid property taxes for 25 years. Proposition 1 only applies to “the assessed value of the dwelling” and states “...no more than one exemption shall apply to a single property or be claimed by a single owner per year.
Natrona County eyes two school closures. One is 40 miles away, the other is right around the corner
One of the schools is in Midwest.
I"m disregarding Facebook in general as comments there by anybody about anything are extreme, but I noted that there are still some people who are upset that Hageman hasn't endorsed Bextel. They seem less upset about Chuck not doing so, perhaps because expectations for Chuck are low in general. There's a real "get real" aspect to this. It's hard to see Hageman putting an anchor around her neck in the form of Alabama Becky and then jumping off the GOP boat. That wouldn't help Hageman a bit.
On that, however, another aspect of this is that Hageman just doesn't need the Freedom Caucus anymore. It's dying out in the field, a victim of self inflicted wounds. Hageman was once a big colleague of Cheney's and wasn't afraid to stab her in the back, there's no reason she'd go to breath new life into the dying carcass of the Freedom Caucus.
Chuck is a founding member of it, but he's dangerously close of seeing his adulthood dream of being a real boy, um politician, evaporate. He's sure not going to step out in the line of fire either.
And so we have the irony of Trump endorsed Hageman and Gray, both of whom were darlings of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, endorsing Eric Barlow, whom they hate.
Basically, they observed the dying body on the deck of the train station and have boarded the train leaving town.
cont:
It would appear that Gray is in trouble:
Tom Lubnau: A Party That Wants to Flush Fifty Years of Winning
Lubnau is spot on in his comments. The GOP has told huge numbers of rank and file Republicans in the state that they are not welcome in the party. I'm one of them. This year, while I'm still registered as a Republican, I took my votes elsewhere for the House and Senate.
What's more, I'll say something Lubnau didn't. The GOP isn't run by Republicans at all. They're Dixiecrats. They should be the ones who are not welcome.
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