Saturday, March 21, 2026

Lex Anteinternet: The 2026 Election, 6th Edition, Campaigning before defeats.

 


March 20, 2026

The Oil City News has put up its updating election tracker, something we've done here as well, although theirs is an article that updates over time whereas we have to update blog entries, which is getting dicey due to some glitch on Blogger.

Anyhow, a good place to check on who is running, without, of course, our brilliant and amusing running commentary.

2026 Election Tracker: Who is running for office in Wyoming?


March 21, 2026

Former Casper Vice Mayor and City Councilor Shawn Johnson announced this wee that he is seeking the Libertarian Party of Wyoming’s nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives.

The House race has been very active, due to one term Representative Harriet Hageman taking aim at the Senate.  The current candidates are:

U.S. House of Representatives

GOP

Jillian Balow

Chuck Gray.  On our don't vote for list.

Reid Rasner. On our don't vote for list.

David Giralt

Bo Biteman   On our don't vote for list.

Kevin Christensen On our don't vote for list.

Independent

Daniel Workman.

Libertarian

Shawn Johnson

As an aside, we heard a public radio discussion of Christensen the other day, which was neutral, but which makes it plain he's sucked on the government tit pretty much his whole life and now comes in as a far right figure.  These sorts of campaigns, of which there seem to be a lot this year, are much like a new high school graduate being an expert on parenting as he's lived at home for 18 years.

We better list the Senate as well.

U.S. Senate

GOP

Harriet Hageman. On our don't vote for list.

Jimmy Skovgard.

Skovgard has so far failed to impress, unfortunately.  For awhile I subscribed to one of his two blogs which I gave up on as it might be kindly described as blather.  Hopefully some other Republican will announce for this position, as I will vote for him in the primary when I'd rather not, as Hageman is a no/go..

Democratic Party

James Byrd

And the Governor's race:

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 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.

Constitution Party

Joseph Kibler.  On our don't vote for list.

Kibler announced as a Republican, switched to being an independent and is now in the Constitution Party..

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". 

Wyoming State Superintendent

Tom Kelly

Wyoming Secretary of State

GOP

Robert Short

Rachel Williams.  Williams, formerly Rodriguez-Williams, is on the don't vote for list.  She's the chairperson of the Freedom Caucus.

A carpetbagger from California, she always used a hyphenated name up until filing for this office.  The WFC is packed with far right Evangelicals and generally MAGA has a strong New Apostolic Reformation element that is anti-Catholic as well as anti Hispanic.  She is Hispanic and Catholic and in the category of people that is abandoning MAGA like crazy.  She isn't, but she may instead have wanted to camouflage her Hispanic ethnicity a bit.  I don't know that, but it's pretty odd that she suddenly changed her name for the campaign.

As a politician, she's had all the WFC views.

Democratic Party

Bryan McCarty

Wyoming State Auditor

GOP

Kristi Racines

Apparently State Auditor is too boring to bring very many candidates out to run for it.

Some interesting State House races.

House District 37

GOP

Steve Harshaman

Ross Schriftman

Democratic Party

Betsy Erickson

HD 37 is an interesting race as Harshman is one of the best legislators in the House, and yet he's drawing opposition. 

Schriftman, who apparently attended Casper City Council meetings frequently, is running as a "constitutional conservative" which makes him a no/go, as that uniformly means that they don't grasp the constitution whatsoever.

Erickson is a young Democrat whose already adopted the seas of blood stance of the Democratic Party.

House District 57

GOP

Julie Jarvis 

Jeanette Ward  On our don't vote for list.

Jarvis took out Ward in the 2024 race and Ward, who is an extreme Freedom Caucuser, wants the seat back.

House District 58

GOP

Peter Boyer

Bill Allemand.  On our don't vote for list.

Allemand, who is facing legal trouble for drunk driving, is one of the worst members of the legislature in our view and needs to go.  Boyer is the Mayor of Bar Nunn.

Last edition:

Lex Anteinternet: The 2026 Election, 5th Edition, part two: The Saddle Up Edition

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