The last edition of this was already sufficiently confusing that a new one is in order.
In this one, when we list the candidates to start with, we're not going to try to comment on each for the most part, as we've already done that in the prior edition. Having said that, we've made some exceptions.
February 1, 2026.
U.S. Senate
GOP
Harriet Hageman. On our don't vote for list.
Jimmy Skovgard.
U.S. House of Representatives
GOP
Jillian Balow
Chuck Gray. On our don't vote for list.
Reid Ransner. On our don't vote for list.
David Giralt
Independant
Daniel Workman.
Governor
GOP
Eric Barlow: At least so far, Barlow seems to be by far the best choice for this office. I'm seeing some of his signs around.
Brent Bien. On our don't vote for list.
Meggan Degenfelder. On our don't vote for list. Degenfelder is from the relatively hard right and has been tarred with the brush of a Trump endorsement, which she really doesn't seem fully comfortable with. She may be aware that it's problematic.
Democratic Party
Gabriel Green: Green is listed here for the first time. He's associated with the DINO movement, so while he's running as a Democrat, it's "in name only". Indeed, he founded the state's DINO movement, and he might be the only person to run under that banner. He's aggressive in this strategy, and is nearly as hard on the Democrats as he is the Republicans.
This is an interesting approach, and I've wondered why somebody hasn't tried it before. It'll be interesting to see how he uses it. Many of the state's past Democratic Governors were as conservative as any Republican, in actual terms, so there is something to be exploited here.
Independant
Joseph Kibler. On our don't vote for list.
Kibler announced as a Republican, but now is running as an independant.
Kibler is a carpetbagger and has the typical carpetbagger "I just moved here from California for all your freedom and now I'm going to run things".
Go back to California.
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On this race, WyoFile has asked the candidates, asd seems to have caught all of them, on what they think about the Freedom Caucus budgetary nonsense.
Where Wyoming’s gubernatorial candidates stand on budget cuts: WyoFile asked the five candidates whether they supported some of the more drastic proposals lawmakers will consider in the upcoming legislative session.
Treasurer
GOP
Curt Meier
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In election related news, Chuck Gray turned over the entire state's voter rolls to the Federal Government.
UPDATE: Gray defends voter roll compliance after Wyoming’s League of Women Voters slams transfer
I'd really question the legality of this, but if the Trump Administration ordered states to run over kittens with bulldozers Gray would gleefully comply. His actions provoked the criticism of the League of Women Voters which Gray accused of being liberal fanatics, his standard retort to everything.
We're stuck with Gray until the end of his term, assuming that he doesn't get elected to the US House, which we should dearly hope he does not. If he fails to get the House, we can be assured that he will not run for Secretary of State again, as his only point in running for the office in the first place was to try to position himself for higher office. He'll wonder off to some other state at that point.
In another developments, Texas continued a nationwide trend of Democrats advancing at the state level in advance of the November election. In a district that voted heavily from Trump in the last general election, a Democratic candidate defeated a Trump endorsed Republican candidate whom Gov. Abbot had attempted to assist. This means that the GOP holds the Texas Senate by a mere five seats. They hold the House by 22 seats. Some of these state legislatures are going to flip in the next election.
More locally, Harriet Hageman has been taking flak at town halls, with the one in Casper directly confronting here on her claims to be a "Constitutional lawyer", a status itself which I've never really figured out what it was supposed to mean.
February 3, 2026
Donald Trump has called for nationalizing the elections.
Chuck Gray turned Wyoming's voters rolls over to the Federal Government, which is seeking them. Wyoming apparently was the first to comply with this outrageous request which not all states intend to honor.
This should disqualify Gray from being considered for anything further in Wyoming, right down to Walmart greeter.
Ranser is running piles of images of himself with rifles on his social media, apparently seeking to boost the view that he's an outdoorsman. Perhaps he is, but brings up the necessity of asking certain questions. He's also come out with a statement that public lands should always remain in public hands, which I fully agree with but which is surprising given Ranser's generally slavish loyalty to the extreme far right. This may be his genuine view, or he may realize that this is what the overwhelming majority of Wyomingites' hold.
There's clearly a current effort to take on the Wyoming Freedom Caucus that's developing. It's late to the game, but it's definitely on. A lot of focus has been given to it's funding which is overwhelmingly from out of state organizations with a far right political view.
February 5, 2026
Bo Biteman is considering running for the House.
And a candidate has entered the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction:
Tom Kelly Announces Run For Superintendent Of Public Instruction
And in addition to Kelly, a Chad Auer is considering running.
Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer has announced a run against Freedom Caucus member Bill Allemand. Allemand, who is currently facing charges for DUI in Johnson County is a member of the Freedom Caucus who is very much on our Don't Vote For List. We hope Boyer handily defeat Allemand.
February 7, 2026
The Tribune has an interview of Skovgaard in today's edition.
It's better than most local candidate interviews, but again frustratingly light on background. I don't know why local reporters ask such lightweight questions.
Cowboy State Daily took a look at the race against Bill Allemand.
'No-Nuclear’ State Rep. Bill Allemand Has Challenger For House Seat
February 8, 2026
And it's happened again.
Democrat Chastity Verret Martinez has won the special election for Louisiana House District 60, defeating Republican challenger Brad Daigle by a wide margin in a district that supported President Donald Trump in 2024. The district is traditionally Democratic, but like a lot of the traditionally Democratic blue collar or socially conservative regions of the country, it had been going to the GOP recently.
That's over.
February 11, 2026
Trump stated in an interview that the GOP should win in "a landslide" this November.
It's clear the opposite is true, which makes this clear.
Trump intends to steal the 2026 election.
February 18, 2026
And now a Democrat has entered the race for the Senate.
Former Wyoming Rep. James Byrd announces bid for U.S. Senate: Byrd is the first Democrat to enter what's now a three-person race to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Cynthia Lummis.
James Byrd is a well known Democrat from Cheyenne. And what he's saying in the Wyofile article ought to make him an extremely strong candidate if people are able to get over the fact that he's a Democrat.
So far, we have, in the Senate race, as of now:
U.S. Senate
GOP
Harriet Hageman. On our don't vote for list.
Jimmy Skovgard.
Democratic Party
James Byrd
On the Republican side, I've been following Jimmy Skovgard's blog to try to figure out what he's about and its massively underwhelming. He posts nearly daily, and his blog reads like; "Bananas, average people, oatmeal, I like pie".
I know that he's trying to be erudite and come across as a third option, but it sound the writing of somebody who really can't write.
In the race for Governor, we have this:
Related posts:
Blog Mirror: WYOMING: IT’S TIME TO TAKE OUR GOVERNMENT BACK
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