Counting Mayfield, Hill County Texas, ballots, 2/20/24.
November 3, 2026. 0000.
And so the fateful day has arrived.
Election Day, November 3, 2026.
And a fateful day it will be. The election of 2026 is the most important election since that one held on November 3, 1860. By the end of the day, if predictions hold, it will have taken a step back from fascism. The question will be how big of step back it will be, how much of a step in a new direction, and whether the step is so decisive that a major GOP/Fascist coup attempt can be averted.
I have my doubts.
What seems certain, if early predictions are correct, are that the Democrats, as disliked as they seem to be, will regain the House of Representatives. Polling seems to suggest that there may be a "blue wave" that swamps the GOP in the House. If that's correct, the House may have taken a major Democratic Party turn and a turn back towards real democracy. It seems likely that the Senate may be taken by the Democrats, but it's not likely that it'll be a "wave". But it's not impossible either. It'll take both to really arrest a Trump coup attempt, and it will take both to really being to turn the arch of history back towards democracy.
Another question is to what degree Wyoming participates in this. Wyoming is so ignored in the overall polls that, going into this day, we really don't know.
People who are of the betting persuasion would have placed their bets on Chuck Gray and Harriet Hageman right after the primary. But bets on Gray are much less certain now. Gray is widely despised and rightly so. The best thing that could happen to him, and for him, and for the state, would be to send him packing. He needs to become a real boy and get a real job. Lisa Kinney might be the person who symbolically does that for him, and to him, although if that's the case, she'll be a one term Congressman, elected solely to put an end in a carpetbagger's career, which would be a service to the state in and of itself.
A much better candidate, all the way around, is James Byrd. Byrd's chances of defeating Harriet Hageman are not as good as Kinney's are of defeating Gray, but they are real.
Otherwise, the big question is whether gadfly Rebecca Bextel of the "Constitution" Party, and Shawn Johnson of the Libertarian Party, draw enough votes to qualify both of those parties as "major" parties.
Bextel, who is engaged in a hopelessly naive campaign against Eric Barlow for the Governor's seat, comes across as a potty mouth, ignorant, Southerner, but there are right now enough potty mouth, ignorant carpetbaggers to perhaps give her 10% of the vote. It's ironic in that the Constitution Party candidate for the House isn't a Southerner or ignorant, but the Constitution Party is smart enough to mount up a Southern Mule when they see one, if it profits them. Their beliefs are genuinely wacky, and Bextel pegs out on the wacky meter, and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is the Woodstock of wacky, so she is likely to draw at least 10%.
My guess is that Shawn Johnson will as well. Wyoming Libertarians aren't real Libertarians, so some disaffected Republicans can in fact feel comfortable voting for them. Some Anybody But Chuck Republicans' who can't stomach voting for a Democrat will vote for Johnson instead.
Overall, if this election broke the back of the two party system, which is unlikely, in Wyoming, it would be a good thing. The batshit crazy wing of the GOP should be in the Constitution Party. The flirting with anarchy wing of the GOP should be Libertarians. Would that we had an American Solidarity Party that was viable here. The Two Party System is moronic.
And, due to its failure, we have Donald Trump as President.
The next two years will not be easy. The best thing that could happen for the republic today is that there was such a blue wave that Trump could, and would, be impeached. That would allow the GOP to save itself, as spineless bastards like John Barrasso realized that they had to save themselves, his primary instinct, and moved towards the middle. Other GOP figures held captive by cowardice would as well. That would leave National Conservative chameleon J. D. Vance as President. Vance is actually conservative, extremely so, but with some sort of a philosophy. Trump is just about Trump. Vance also has a survivors instinct.
But will that sort of majority happen by the end of the day? Probably not.
Recovery takes years for many things. We are likely to start on that path today. A lot of us won't be around anymore by the time we probably get there. But a lot of us probably will.
04:10
The Tribune reports that 5,000 people have voted early in Natrona County. Only 1,500 did in the last election.
Absentee ballots with a postmark no later than 7:00 p.m. today will be counted. If races are close, this may make a difference.
04:37
The United States Supreme Court rejected a request to review a coup attempt on California's mail in ballots. The coup working through the U.S. Attorney's office sought to require verification of citizenship for 20,000 California mail in ballots.
07:00
The polls in Wyoming are now open.
07:32
Wyoming Public Radio reports that absentee ballots must be received by 7:00 p.m., contrary to the item noted above. I think this is correct.
14:19
Guam's non voting U.S. House delegate seat flipped from the GOP to the Democratic Party with Democrat Alicia Anne Garrido Limtiaco defeating incumbent James Moylan. It appears the election for Governor flipped from Democratic to Republican, with the Republican Ada-Calvo team winning the race over the Democrat Terlaje-Perez team, although it's quite close and that result is uncertain.
While I hate to say it, neither result really matters much as Guam has no vote in Congress.
15:01
Apparently Guam's representative can introduce bills, vote in committees, and offer amendments.
17:44
The inside news must be really bad for Republicans. Trump is having a meltdown:
Trump cannot handle being blamed for failure, and yet he knows this is a referendum on him. At the Oval Office he's clearly being told that this is going badly.
He's also unstable and has his hands on the nuclear trigger. We're entering a very dangerous period.
18:00
First called race of the night, incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff retains his seat as senior Senator from Georgia.
I don't know if that's a surprise, or not, it's just the first to be called.
18:08
Incumbent Democrat Kathy Castor of Florida won the Florida 14th district which had been gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
If this trend holds, it's going to be an extremely bad night for Republicans.
November 4, 2026
Donald Trump leading the GOP into the 2026 midterms.
It was an outright slaughter of Republicans across the nation yesterday.
Donald Trump asked the nation to pretend he was on the ballot. They did.
They completely rejected him, his cabinet, his family, his policies, and the Republican Party.
The slaughter was so vast it appears that even Trump won't attempt to challenge them. He probably is aware doing so will result in his impeachment.
The Democrats flipped Senate seats in Maine, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alaska, and even Texas, Susan Collins 30 year career in the Senate was put to an end. Dr. Annie Andrews prevailed over the poorly chosen Senator Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan.
Mississippi may be added to the toll, where as of this morning, only 50 votes separated what had been a safe Republican state.
In terms of Governor's races, which had been trending GOP for years, Democrats also reversed the tide. Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first black woman to be elected governor in U.S. history, taking Georgia. Gina Hinojosa ousted three term Trump lackey Gov. Greg Abbott. Dr. Amy Acton became the first woman elected governor of Ohio. The Democrats retook Nevada.
Locally, results were as predicted, but disappointing.
Harriet Hageman is now the incoming U.S. Senator. Given Wyoming's history, she'll be able to retain the seat a decade after she's dead, as Wyoming reelects incumbents no matter how bad they are. So we replaced one bad Senator with an even worse one, based on her history as a Congressman.
Her challenger, Byrd, took about 35% of the vote, which was underperforming in my view.
Chuck Gray, who is widely despised, took the House, but in a closer race. He still drew 55% of the vote, which is amazing. Lisay Kinney underperformed at 34%. Libertarian Johnson got the balance, 7.5%, vastly underperforming.
All this shows how Republican Wyoming remains. Wyomingites will blindly vote for the GOP candidate because he or she is the GOP candidate.
In terms of underperforming, Republican candidate Eric Barlow blew the doors off of carpetbagger Rebecca Bextel. Bextel did so badly that even the hopeless Democratic candidate took about the same number of votes that she did.
She should take that as a message.
Her Make Alabama Great again campaign did draw 17% o of the vote, to Casner's 15%. Barlow took 69%.
This means the Constitution Party will qualify as a Major Party in the 2028 election.
Proposition 1 failed, a major victory for common sense and an additional rebuke to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Democrats did pick up a State House seat in Laramie County.
In Natrona County people voted, apparently, for familiar names, even reelecting a 1,000 year old county commissioner and returning a 2,000 year old candidate to the Casper city council.
Turning back to the national results, Trump had the unmitigated gall to congratulate the Democrats and assumes they'll work with him. They ought to impeach him.
05:28
In really tight races, it looks like Cindy Holscher will become the Democratic Governor of Kansas and that Lauren Boebert has lost her seat in Congress.
06:31
Democrats took ever single statewide office in Georgia.
Every, single one.
To add to it, the winners were black Democrats. This hasn't happened ever.
A political party that is morally and intellectually bankrupt deserves the rebuke of the American people.
Bobo lost in Colorado to Eileen Laubacher, a retired two-star United States Navy rear admiral.
That last race is pretty symbolic of what just occurred this week. White trash lost to education.
cont:
The reaction to Trump has been so large that suddenly conservative Democrats are back and have to be contended with. The Blue Dog Caucus in Congress is back, now with 22 members. In contrast the Democratic Socialist whom cause MAGA's to lose their bowels is a whopping six people.
This is really significant. Democrats are moving to the center. The Blue Dogs were always the center of reason in Congress.
November 6, 2026
The initiative to repeal Idaho's relatively strict ban on abortion failed.
For some reason, conservatives in Wyoming will not take on the initiative created statute on making your own "medical decisions" which is why Wyoming's abortion bans failed. Idaho's result shows voters will in some cases support a strict ban. Wyoming might as well find out if they will here.
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.
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.
Mark you, John Barrasso, Cynthia Lummis, Chuck Gray. By not taking action, you are taking action.
Voters, are you voting for this?
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.
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.
Boomers, in other words, of average income, will screw themselves directly just by voting for this.
That's going to be another irony of this, if it passes. Some retiree from California will build their dream home in the woods and have it burned up, and then be pissed off.
Voters had a chance, as noted, to dump Allemand in the primary for a really good candidate. Allemand barely survived that challenge, and is going to be a completely worthless House member if he's reelected. He's one of the few Wyoming legislative candidates facing a challenge in the general, and in his case there are two candidates seeking to take him on, Keenan Morgan (D), and Joe Porambo (L). Morgan has put up a billboard near the Center Street underpass in Casper. He holds the typical slate of Democratic views. I don't know anything at all about Porambo.
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.
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.
And in Albany County:
October 23, 2026
And the start of the attempted 2026 Coup commences: