Monday, September 14, 2026
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 154th Edition.Trump's approval rating in Wyoming falls from 75% to 54%. Privation. The idiotic "republic not a democracy" line surfaces again. Viking funerals. Miley.
Barely hanging on in Wyoming.
Which is really remarkable
Wyoming is one of the few states where Trump has a positive approval rating, probably mostly attributable to the importance of the extractive industries to the economy, and due to agriculture. Trump actually has farmers and ranchers upset now and as he's set to import foreign beef and hasn't really made any immediate actions addressing agriculture's concerns, this trend may continue.
Trump's endorsement of Megan Degenfelder fell flat in the state, and hardcorse Freedom Caucus rank and file were actually upset with his endorsement of Degenfelder followed by Hageman's endorsement of her as well. So some cracks are actually appearing.
And now Trump's at odds with his Wyoming voters over data centers.
We don't see these statistics for Wyoming very often, which is no surprise given the low population of the state, but it will be interesting to see how this develops. If he falls below 50%, and that's close to being the case, it may start a sort of freefall.
Trump only has a positive approval rating in 13 states. Most of these states are ones in which he barely has a positive rating. Wyoming has the highest approval rating of any state, which shows the extent to which Trump's really in trouble. All of Wyoming's neighbors also have positive Trump approval ratings except for Colorado.
I've long thought that most of the Trump "supporters" are just followers. When things begin to fade, and paying high prices at the pump and supporting data centers is creating fading, a lot of former supporters will claim to have never supported him. We see stuff like that all the time.
Just wait for the upcoming toilet paper shortages due to Trump tariffs on Canada.
Suffering privation
One thing about all of this is how absolutely tone deaf the Administration is to the suffering its causing, both here and abroad.
He's cutting off access to foreign good that Americans use (Bombardier also makes snow machines) and wiping out foreign markets for US products (Canadians used to buy a lot of American bourbon). At the same time, he's telling fairy tales about how you shouldn't mind, with the most recent example being that while you are paying a little more at the pump, it's not a big inconvenience and your sacrifice is worth it so Iran doesn't get the bomb.
Whether or not Iran was close to getting a bomb at any point during the Trump administration is an open question. But beyond that, Americans, in spite of what we may collectively choose to imagine about certain eras, don't do sacrifice on the home front very well. World War Two was the biggest example of restrictions for a national effort and people hated it. Cheating and the black market was absolutely rampant. The whole concept that the nation all pitched in and glady endured shortages is complete crap. Even one of the most patriotic demographics, farmers and ranchers, notoriously evaded rationing illegally by selling livestock under the table. And that was in a big national effort.
Americans aren't keen on high prices on anything. Protectionist efforts only really work well in an economy if they're introduced really early, or they cause resentment. If you are going to put up restrictive trade barriers, including tariffs, you need to do it nearly immediately, and you better have a really good reason for doing it.
We're doing it because Peter Navarro has Trump's ear and Trump has always liked the concept. Trump's mind on this is rooted in the 1970s when the US was worried about Japanese imports. Navarro is 77 years old. Pining for the economy of the post World War Two world won't work, and making Americans suffer for a pipe dream won't either.
It particularly will not when a rich guy like Trump doesn't join in the suffering. His fans like to note that he's not taking his pay. . . but not that he flies everywhere, including on golf trips, on the government dime.
We are a democracy, dumbass.
The moronic line "we're a republic, not a democracy" has been around for years. I've heard it many times myself and corrected the speaker, usually with the speaker then looking deflated. Democracy and republic are not only not mutually exclusive, they don't even describe the same thing.
Ancient Athens was a pure democracy, everything could be voted on by its citizens. The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy, people vote for the House of Commons and the Parliament then functions as the government. We're a democratic republic, which isn't actually all that difference but which does make for problems if the elected representatives won't do their jobs, as they won't right now. In a parliamentary democracy, they have to.
People who spout the "republic not a democracy" line have not thought out what they're saying at all. Recently, in the MAGA crowed, it's "constitutional republic". I've heard that from MAGAs great and small, including one Harriet Hageman.
It's frankly a stupid comment.
It's been going around the last week, however, so somebody is feeding it out as a talking point for idiots.
And then there's this:
I guess it's humorous, sort of, but then, sort of not.
Miley
Miley Cyrus is provoking outrage as she's put out her last album as "Miley", which apparently somehow upsets fans of Dolly Parton. As I don't care for Cyrus' music or Parton's, it doesn't mean much to me, but what struck me is that when I hit on the news story Cyrus was there wearing see through everything so you can see all of her really horrible tattoos.
They are truly bad.
They're the sort of tattoos that people who are junkies get from other junkies. What the heck?
Last edition:
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 153rd Edition. The Hunt for the Golden Pheasants, Delusional monuments, Recovering the imaginary 1950s.
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Saturday, August 29, 2026
The Agrarian's Lament: Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food
Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food
Trump tries to backstep after a major screw up.
Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food
While this will aid beef producers, it doesn't address the existential problem of the packing industry monopoly. Breaking that, and particularly breaking that on Distributist principals, would have a massive impact. That won't be happening, however.
Instead, this basically would allow producers to sell their own beef across state lines. While some people will buy beef in that fashion, most people won't, and that doesn't do much at all for the cost of beef sold at restaurants and the like.
As noted, applying the Sherman Anti Trust Act to the meat packing industry would have a real impact. A bigger one would be limiting corporate ownership to a single packing facility.
All of this will have no immediate impact on meat prices. The US cattle inventories, i.e.., the herd size, have not been this low since 1941. The reasons for that are varied, by herd reduction due to drought caused by climate change is a major part of it. In some ways, this is just a minor way of trying to repair the damage done by Trump allowing the importation of foreign beef, which has the added theater element of being introduced, supposedly, by Glenn Beck in an interview, something that just screams out the entire thing being something that is pitched towards farmer and rancher ignorance.
Small herd size is a problem, but it will take years to address. By that time, given the very small herd size, we may very well be seeing a meat production climate that hasn't existed since the introduction of refrigerated rail cars in 1878. The massive increase in the Western herd during the Civil War and the invention of the refrigerated rail car shifted the American diet from pork to beef. Various factors have been making inroads on beef for years, and the price at the counter, which this will certainly not immediately address, is shifting it once again, and has been for many years.
Whether this will serve as a salve on farmers and ranchers so they can justify voting for a party that has screwed them for years is yet to be seen.
Related thread:
The GOP's useful idiots in agriculture.
Friday, August 28, 2026
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 153rd Edition. The maddening intersection of all politics being local and the two party "system".
We need to participate for the common good. Sometimes we hear: a good Catholic is not interested in politics. This is not true: good Catholics immerse themselves in politics by offering the best of themselves so that the leader can govern.
For a long time, we've been in a spot due to abortion and, more recently, gender issues.
Abortion is murder. There's no two ways about it. Mutilating the body to change genders isn't murder, but it is a mental disease and entertaining it is gravely wrong. At one time there were Democrats who acknowledged these things. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas is the last pro life Democrat in the body. Generally, Democrats are in favor of seas of infant blood flowing out of doctors' offices everywhere.
Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated
Pope Leo XIV
Undeclared wars of aggression are also gravely wrong. Under at least Pope Leo's view, only defensive warfare is morally licit. Attacking Iran was not only illegal under the U.S. constitution, it was not morally licit. Attacking Venezuela was illegal and illicit. Murdering people in boats off South American coasts as they're suspected of being drug runners is illegal and immoral. The people ordering these things are committing homicide, as are the people doing them. The US is killing people illegally and immorally as a matter of national policy, or rather the policy of handful of illegally acting people.
Threatening to take property? or life because we can is gravely immoral. Threatening to steal Greenland, or whatever, is immoral. Taking the mineral wealth of Venezuela is immoral.
We are a deeply immoral nation.
How does a person weigh these thing?
Well, in my case anyhow, it means that I will not vote for Republican members of Congress. I just won't. I won't vote for people who are supporting military murder or extrajudicial killings.
Indeed, I do not think it's morally licit to do so.
Nor is it moral to demonize people based on their race or inclinations, which this administration has done and continues to do.
Finally, as a Catholic, and the same would be true for an Orthodox Christian, or a Mainline Protestant Christian, this administration is thickly populated by a certain sort of Evangelical thought that would convert the nation into a Calvinist theocracy. People find that, it seems, to far fetched to consider, but it's a fact and many other things that were only recently too far fetched to imagine have now occurred.
Moreover, abortion, at the Federal level, is no longer constitutionally protected. That takes that fight down to the state level, at least for the time being, although it is certainly not impossible to imagine a Democratically government, House, Senate, and Oval Office, acting to protect it on that level. Whatever is going on in regard to transgenderism seems to have sort of stabilized and there doesn't seem to be anything going on with same sex "marriages". Indeed, nervous Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is in one, putting him in the same category as Pete Buttigieg who was routinely lampooned by MAGA for being a homosexual in a same sex union.
Indeed, it's hard not to notice all the hypocrisy in the Republican Party on all of the remaining moral issues. Bessent is homosexual and in a homosexual "marriage". Vance is a Catholic but was boosting IVF. Trump is a serial polygamist. Republican politicians engage in marital infidelity and misbehavior with the GOP ignoring it ,while the opposite is true for Democrats when they transgress.
And finally, Trump, in order to remove the threat from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., made a deal with him to appoint him to the head of the nation's health, resulting in a further moronic decline in vaccinations and a major boosting of health stupidity.
All of this, again, haunts the Apostolic Christian. Does a person vote for Republicans on the threat of abortion reviving, and thereby vote for war, childhood death by disease, ICE shooting in the streets, and on and on, let alone just voting for the patently stupid.
Of course, the two party system really isn't. And often you really don't have to vote for the Republican or Democrat. I haven't voted for a GOP nominee for White House in at least the last three elections, nor have I voted for the Democratic one. I voted for the candidates from the American Solidarity Party.
The trouble there is that there often isn't a ASP candidate on the local level. There are none here. The third parties that show up here are the Libertarian Party and the idiotic Constitution Party. The Constitution Party is worse than the Republican Party, and always has been.
So for this year, I will vote for Barlow for Governor He's a good choice. I'd like to vote for Byrd for Senate, and I won't vote for Hageman, but I have yet to decide what I will do. For House I'd like to write in Christensen and I won't vote for Gray while I want to avoid Kinney.
All somewhat tough races to face.
Locally, I'm lucky that I don't have to make such decisions for my local legislative districts. The City Council race is non partisan. The County Commissioner race is partisan, however, and one of the finalists is simply awful, and I'd guess, quite frankly, actually extremely liberal in spite of running as a Republican, and another nice but not a great candidate. That leaves the two Democrats to consider. Abortion and whatnot will not be a county issue and while I have not made my mind up on who I will vote for, I won't vote for two of the three GOP finalists.
If any come by, I'll flat out ask; "why are you in a party which picks on Canada, declares illegal wars, and hates the original native name for a large lake?"
Last edition:
King Donald's War, Part 12. The "Economic D-Day" edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 152nd Edition, the irony edition.
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 8. $40,012,700,535,679.44
The National Debt at some point on August 21,
Republicans are flocking to decry it, after having participated in causing it.
They didn't cause it on their own, but they sure helped. And Trump has spent money like a drunken sailor.
Part of the reason that Trump spends this way is that Trump drank deeply of Peter Navarro's economic kool aide.
Navarro believes heavily in tariffs and Trump, whose always liked the concept of tariffs, but who appears to no longer understand how they work, liked what Navarro had to say.
Tariffs have always existed as a means of boosting local businesses. What they really are, is a species of sales tax. The concept is to make stuff coming in expensive so that people won't buy it, and will buy something made locally instead. That's about it.
The problem is that when you do that, you have to actually be making the things locally. Tariffs might have made good economic sense if the US had started easing them in during the late 1960s when the post World War Two economy started to fade. But we didn't, as we saw no need to.
By the 2020s, it's really a little bit late. In fact, it's way late. The world's economy is now highly integrated, surpassing the level that had only previously been obtained prior to World War One. We don't have what people complained about, for example, in the late 60s and early 70s of cheap Japanese products taking the market (something that wasn't anywhere near the threat it was imagined to be). What we have instead is an economy where anything serious has parts made all over the globe. Nothing you are using, if has multiple parts, was "made in America". It was made all over.
Given that, what tariffs really do is simply make everything more expensive. It'd take at least a decade for high tariffs to "bring back manufacturing", if it can do that at all.
Whether it can ever bring in jobs is questionable at this point. Since January 2025 the US has in fact lost manufacturing job, with about 75,000 departing . Trump likes to claim that new factories are springin gup all over the place. In fact, a factory construction boom peaked in 2024, under Joe Biden, and has been crashing since.
It may just be that it isn't the late 1890s any more.
So all the Trump administration has really done is ineffectively switched income tax for a national sales tax. It's hurting everyone, and it is largely illegal, resulting in a lot of the money being collected, having to be sent back out.
Congress can fix this, if it has the will. Republicans right now are pretending that they do, but with few exceptions, like Thomas Massie, they're rank cowards and voted for Trump's economic fantasies. It may take a Constitutional Amendment to force the matter, which at a bare minimum should provide that save in the time of war and bona fide emergency, the budget must balance and retire a portion of any built up debt, with taxes to automatically rise to balance any budget that isn't balanced.
What needs to be done first of all is to get the budget under control. That would technically be easy to do. And part of that needs to be a sincere effort to eliminate the debt. It's now completely impossible to do so rapidly, so it'll have to be done slowly.
On expenditures themselves, the Federal budget breaks out this way:
Social Security: 22%
Medicare: 15%
Net Interest (on the national debt): 15%
Health (including Medicaid): 13%
National Defense: 13%
Income Security: 10%
Veterans Benefits and Services: 6%
Social Security is in trouble due to slow down in population growth. Nothing can be done about that or should be. Medicare is in the same boat.
National Defense should be cut by 2/3s. That can be done by eliminating the insane level of weapons expenditures and by going to a reserve based defense. That'd help, but that won't accomplish everything, obvious. Military retirement age should be changed so that thirty years rather than 20 are the qualifying number. That'd help a bit.
Indeed, there are actually a fair number of Federal jobs that require twenty years in order to retire at some level. Save for policing roles and military ones,. Fed retirement should require thirty years and only be capable of being drawn when you reach 60 years of age.
And yes, this is a crisis.
So, you might perhaps note, you are a Distributist. Does this square with Distributism?
Overall it does. At one time I would have considered tariffs a policy option to address foreign manufacturing, but nothing fails like failure and its obvious that isn't the solution to that. Boosting U.S. manufacturing has to come some other way, and frankly technology is probably what would do it. Technological revolutions tend to bring industry to where they occur. Our problem here is that this is entirely in the hands of the super wealthy right now, who don't have your interest or that of the country's in mind.
Additionally, our current President is addled and looks back with romanticism on the past . He's actively working to destroy American industry as a result. Electricity is the future of transportation, not petroleum. Wind, solar and nuclear are the future of power generation, not coal (Trump does support nuclear). We need to really get with the program and we can do that through regulation. Phasing out fossil fuels should be an economic priority for obvious reasons, and an environmental one for obvious reasons, and a defense one for obvious reasons.
August 22, 2026
Another Trump Call For Imported Beef Riles Up Wyoming Ranchers
This is really an example of ranchers and farmers being members of the Leopards Won't Eat My Face Party.
Why ranchers and farmers vote for Republicans is beyond me. So they're getting screwed by Trump?
What did they expect?
U.S.-Canada trade talks collapse just before deadline for tariffs
Using debt to buy back debt:
We're in huge financial trouble.
August 23, 2026
Trade talks between the US and Canada ended and the countries are now in a trade war. Canada has made it clear that the US is about to suffer through energy imports.
August 24, 2026
From the CST:
Well boo hoo, cry me a river.
I'm a cattleman and frankly we're amongst the most reliably stupid voters for the GOP there is.
Vinegar Hill posted this yesterday:
The GOP's useful idiots in agriculture.
An old friend of mine who is a rancher has been somewhat active in this year's election cycle. He is, of course, a far right Republican.
I say of course as just about every rancher and farmer in Wyoming over the age of 40, and quite a few over the age of 35, are diehard right wing full blown MAGA Republicans. Below the age of 40 things start to change a lot. Most are Republicans, but a lot aren't diehard. They're Republicans the same way everyone in Wyoming is a Republican, pretty much. Generally conservative.
But above 40, they're in lockstep with Donald Trump.
My friend, this cycle, had a big Chuck Gray up near the DOT fence. This wasn't too surprising as his grandson works for Gray.* **
Well, now, all of a sudden the noted friend is posting on the disaster of letting foreign beef into the country. So are a bunch of other ranchers I know.
The Republican Party has been pretty much screwing ranchers and farmers since 1929. It was the Democrats who save farmers and ranchers during the Great Depression. Most small and mid sized ranches would have been utterly destroyed but for the Taylor Grazing Act.
The Trump Administration, for its part, looks at farmers and ranchers the way the Democrats once looked at African Americans, people who could reliably be counted on to vote for the party no matter what. In recent election cycles African Americans proved they were no longer reliable. So far, people in Agriculture aren't showing any thought at all.
Indeed, they're showing cognitive disconnected.
This morning I've seen all sorts of complaints from ranchers about how they're getting killed in this economy, as noted.
And now Trump's bringing in below market cost foreign beef.
No shit. YOU VOTED FOR IT.
Inflation, particularly of fuel, caused by Donald Trump's pet illegal war. The same with fertilizer costs.
WAKE THE CRAP UP.
The GOP is not coming to save you. It's coming to screw you.
Indeed, trade talks just broke off with Canada.
Double digit inflation, caused by a massive rise in energy costs, is about to occur.
Footnotes:
Gray has more affection for Trump than Natalie Harp and Melanija Knavs combined.
The grandson is an interesting case in and of himself. He's undoubtedly the first member of his extended family to go to university. He's in law school right now. He's also a diehard MAGA, and indeed, maybe even beyond that. Now the question of how that happens is another matter.
The common myth, and it is a myth, about young people in conservative homes is that they go to college, where they lose all of their values, and their faith, emerging hardcore screaming liberals if not Bolsheviks. This is, it is believed, because they're indoctrinated in college by leftist professors.
It's largely bull and in the scientific disciplines definitely bull. Majors in geology, for example, aren't going to have time for liberal indoctrination.
For that matter, majors in English probably don't either.
So what's going on here.
Well, a person from a really conservative Protestant background may in fact find a lot of what they learn in college shocking. The Earth isn't 5,000 years old. Evolution isn't a fib. Conquering the West wasn't bringing enlightenment to an oppressed people and, in fact, some of those being conquered where already Christian. The US isn't bestowed by God with a new Israelite like mission, and for that matter, the modern state of Israel does some outright horrible things.
Faced with that onslaught, young people are in fact faced with the choice of accepting that Pastor Jim back at his own do it yourself Evangelical Church is flat out wrong on a lot of stuff, and Mom and Dad are ignorant, or concluding that everything they're being taught is a fib.
Most will conclude, to some degree, that Pastor Jim is wrong on a lot, and that Mom and Dad are ignorant on a lot of stuff.
Now, I'll note, this shouldn't impact member of the Apostolic faiths at all, but in the US some Apostolic Christians are heavily Protestantized and have bought in, through ignorance, to a lot of what the Evangelical far right believes.
Anyhow, a lot of this is about to collapse on an enormous scale, as we'll soon see.
**There was a good Republican candidate running against Gray, Christensen. He had worked for the BLM.
Well, we're getting instead a Californian who worked for his daddy's radio station.
He's completely correct.
Cattlemen and farmers will sit around in gatherings and support Trump on every other horrible thing he does, and then they're surprised when he turns on them.
Now they can share the pain they helped bring about.
On Canada, the Canadian government is absolutely furious over demands that were made of the country, including that Canada abandon the use of French and that it agree to mirror the US's trade polcies.
One Canadian figure called the demands "insane".
This administration at this point is so stupid on these matters its indescribable.
August 25, 2026
It's pretty clear that the Trump administration has no idea whatsoever as to what it's doing.
Last edition:
Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 7. The jackass in a tin barn edition.
Monday, August 24, 2026
The 2026 Election, 20th Edition. The 2026 Wyoming Primary Results.
August 18, 2026
Today is primary election day.
Quite a few of us have already voted of course, myself in cluded.
Early voting in Wyoming’s primary election trails historic 2022 contest, clerks say
Wyoming’s primary election live: The consequences of today’s election
This will bed a consequential day. After the polls close, most of the races in Wyoming will have been determined.
The polls, for that matter, just opened.
August 19, 2026
Results are in.
Like most elections, it's a mixed bag. Some good results, and in this instance, some really awful ones.
Governor:
Erick Barlow trounced his opposition including Trump endorsed Megen Degenfelder. A win for Wyoming and a loss for Trump and a major loss for the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. The GOP/WFC endorsed Bien came in a career ending third.
A very good result. Barlow was the only good candidate, and stands to be a better Governor than Governor Gordon.
Senate:
Harriet Hageman, in spite of holding views on public lands and being fairly nasty publicly, handily beat out her competition. She'll face Democrat James Byrd whom is likely to lose, but who would win this contest in any normal situation.
A very bad result.
Wyoming will regret this choice, and almost immediately, if it sticks and Byrd doesn't win, which he's not likely to in spite of being the clearly better candidate.
House:
Chuck Gray took a minority of overall votes but more than anyone else to squeak by with 25.4% of the vote./ Friess came in second with 20% and Christensen just behind him.
How anyone could vote for Gray is a complete mystery. 75% of Wyoming Republican voters didn't.
He'll face Lisa Kinney who will lose. Gray will be our horrific complete Trump sycophantic Congressman. He'll be the worst Congressman in the state's history.
A very bad result. My guess is that he might be a one term Congressman, bucking the normal Wyoming trend.
Secretary of State
Robert Short won beating out WFC Rachel Williams. Wiliams was the titular head of the WFC, and her career is now over.
He'll face Bryan McCarthy, who will lose.
A very good result.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Harsham easily beat his opponents and will win in the fall.
He'll face Ana Cordova, which is surprising. She's likely a good candidate, but will lose.
Local races.
Really interesting results locally. The night was a disaster for the well funded Freedom Caucus.
Freedom Caucus candidates in Natrona County were trounced. Bob Ide was sent packing, which was a great result. Tony Locke was booted. Jayme Lien was booted. Jeanette Ward lost big to Elissa Campbell in her bid to recapture her seat. Allemand retained his seat by only eight votes, which is pathetic and surprising.
Major Freedom Caucuser John Bear is out, a huge defeat for the WFC.
Elsewhere, Ogden Driscoll kicked out Freedom Caucus member Neiman
Melissa Butcher kicked out WFC member Ken Pendergraft.
Eve Brennan booted Daniel Singh, a WFC member.
Conservative Republican Albert Sommers is back in the House.
All in all the Wyoming Freedom Caucus lost at least fourteen seats in the legislature with two of its main figures, Ide and Bear, going down in defeat. Reps. Steve Johnson, Tony Locke, Ocean Andrew, Ken Pendergraft, Marlene Brady, Jayme Lien, Nina Webber, Mark Jennings, Gary Brown, Daniel Singh, Ann Lucas, Robert Wharff and Darin McCann, Chip Neimann and Sen. Bob Ide, all lost.
A very good result.
In the Natrona County Commissioner GOP race, where six candidates advance, ancient Dallas Laird took the highest number of votes, which is franky bizarre. The other candidates advancing aren't too surprising.
An interesting night, and a bit difficult to explain. At the statewide level, the voters made a hard correction towards the center, where as for Congress, they sent two people who don't represent Wyoming's views, and one who is a pathetic sycophantic liar.
Of course, the general is yet to come, but it's very difficult to imagine Lisa Kinney, who is ancient, beating screaming whiner Chuck Gray, even though 75% of Wyomigites voted against Gray. It's not impossible to imagine Byrd defeating Hageman, but it'll be hard.
August 20, 2026
The impact of Tuesday's primary in Wyoming is still being widely discussed. The rejection of the WFC was on the historic level.
They are not all taking it well.
As earlier noted, they're back out of control of the House having suffered an election massacre and have reduced influence in the Senate. Their members are pouting and declaring that they'll come back, which they will not, and that they have had a positive impact on Wyoming, which they haven't.
Some news articles:
Nine of 10 Republican candidates tied to ‘Checkgate’ lost in Wyoming’s primary
In stunning upset, Wyoming Freedom Caucus loses most of its House seats, backslides in Senate
It's dead.
Freedom Caucus Champion John Bear Upended By Political Newcomer In Campbell County
Majority Floor Leader & Founding Member Of Freedom Caucus Scott Heiner Ousted
Freedom Caucus Leader Ken Pendergraft Ousted From Sheridan County Senate Seat
UW Professor Cameron Wright Defeats Incumbent Ocean Andrew in Laramie's HD 46
On the Freedom Caucus, right now it's defeated members seem to largely be a state of shock, but as noted, there's some angry defiance there. The WFC posted this:
As a movement, they will be.
And much of what they did in the legislature, which was darned little, will pass like a fart in a windstorm.
It's a shame, frankly, that most of the carpetbaggers who represented the face of the movement won't be packing up and moving back to where they acquired their extremism. This election should have informed them that the Wyoming they live in isn't the imaginary one that they thought they did. The far right tends to be delusional, but a defeat of this magnitude is such that a delusion will be hard to maintain.
Still, one of the first Freedom Caucusers in the legislature, who lost her position two years ago and lost again this week, Jeanette Ward, commented that it was "curious" that she lost as it didn't reflect her canvassing results which shows that people who answer doors are a lot more politie to visiting politicians than I am.
On the Freedom Caucus/MAGA hard right, it turns out that fifty Republican Sheridan County voters tried to change how votes were counted by getting the county to conceded that its electronic voting was out of date and revert to the really out of date hand counting, giving the county less than a week to accede to their demands. Almost all of the signatories to the letter signed it on August 9 and were members of Cowboy Church of the Big Horns, which was founded by Mark Jennings, who was running for House District 30.
I have another thread I'm working on regarding the association of the Evangelical hard right with the conspiratorial thinking of MAGA/hard right/WFC, but this provides an example. The church proclaims itself to be "Nondenominational Bible-based Worship" which means it is denominational and a member of a minoritarian view of Christianity that's common in the US.
The incoming legislature will return to sanity. Before we get there, however, we have the outgoing legislature holding hearings on proposed legislation now, and will all the way until the new legislature convenes. The Freedom Caucus influence in those has been felt, but by the same token its been muted as they never controlled the Senate. This probably kills off Freedom Caucus bills for the 2027 legislature, although it may also mean that they'll work to stall any bills contrary to their desires as well.
The next session is a budget session.
Tempering the general rejoicing over the death of the Freedom Caucus has been the bad news on the primary victories of Gray and Hageman.
On the costs of that:
Primary Election Winners: Curt Meier Got The Best Deal Per Vote, Chuck Gray The Worst
Distress over Gray's victory is widespread. He only took 25% of the vote and a lot of Wyomingites are not happy about his winning the primary. There's already serious discussion of a write in campaign for Kevin Christensen.
Some disaffected Republicans are indicating that they'll vote for Democratic nominee Lisa Kinney. I'm sure some will, but Kinney is a weak candidate and stands very little chance of beating Gray. Christensen would stand a real chance. It'll be interesting to see how this develops. Suffice it to say a large number of Republicans are unhappy with Gray's candidacy and its pretty clear but for the vote splitting he would have gone down with the rest of the Freedom Caucus.
Hageman would not have.
Hageman took 65% of the GOP votes in the primary, which is not only stunning, it's mysterious. Sam Mead seemed to be a good candidate, but he took 28%, well below expectation.
Hageman took 70% of the vote in the general election for House two years ago, riding on a Trump endorsement and the sudden outbreak of far right hatred of Liz Cheney. A disadvantage that Cheney had which is often missed is not only that she stood up for what was right, but she had been a plurality candidate in her first run for the House, like Gray, and she was a carpetbagger, like Gray. Indeed, I was very much opposed to her early on and only came to respect her as she grew into her office in her last two terms. Be that as it may, she was an import branded by the GOP as a Wyomingite and only got in as the vote was split between two other good candidates originally.
Again, note the similarities to Gray there.
Anyhow, Hageman has been a horrible Congressman, supporting anti public lands positions in the GOP while being anti science. That she did so well is really hard to explain.
She's facing James Byrd in the general.election.
Byrd is a Democrat from a Democratic family, but his platform reads like that of a Republican. In his campaign website he states:
James Byrd is a native son of Wyoming, a man who has spent his life working on the front lines of our state. With a distinguished career spanning business leadership and public service, James brings a deep understanding of the challenges facing our families. His platform is built on the core values of transparency, economic resilience, and the unwavering protection of Wyoming’s unique heritage.
James has proven his ability to deliver results under pressure. He is running for the United States Senate to act as a fierce advocate for our energy independence, rural education, and veteran support services. His vision for the future is as bold as the Wyoming landscape itself, focused on creating a legacy of prosperity for generations to come. Join James in fighting for the heart and soul of Wyoming.
Any Republican could have stated the same thing on his website.
Not only that, but Byrd has strong Wyoming credentials. Hageman is a fourth generation Wyomingite, but Byrd is a fifth generation son of the state, which is phenomenal. He was a geophysicist who worked for the Compagnie Générale de Géophysique and British Petroleum Amoco before going into high tech in the 1980s. He served in the legislature up until 2018.
Operating against him is that he's a Democrat. That shouldn't matter, but in Wyoming it will. . . or perhaps we might say might. Hageman can't take him on, really, on anything else in regard to his declared positions which means that Hageman will resort to ignoring him at first, and then accuse him of being from the far left, which he isn't. As a last ditch fall back she'll claim that electing Byrd will help flip the Senate to the Democrats which would be betraying the Dear Leader.
Hageman is going to have to handle her disdain for public lands and science. Byrd will have to handle the Democrats general positions on social issues. He'd be well advised to surprise Hageman by saying he's opposed to abortion (I don't know that he is) and to transgenderism (and I don't know his position on that). That might upset some true hardcore Democrats but it would leave Hageman floundering on inflation, disdain of public lands, an illegal war in the Middle East and that she's genuinely not likeable.
That should give Republicans a reason to cross over and vote for him frankly. And some will. Hageman, as noted, drew 70% of the vote in the last election, when pro Trumpism and anti Cheneyism were at peak levels. Now that Wyomingites have returned to conventional conservatism Hageman will not do as well. But overcoming her simply being a Republican will be hard to do.
In other races, former Democratic U.S. Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska will advance to the general election for U.S. Senate in Alaska in that state's unique election system. She'll facie incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan and two other candidates, one of whom might be another Dan Sullivan.
Alaska's system is unique in that it uses ranked choices. So, you can vote for your favorite and second favorite. If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and voters that ranked that candidate first have their vote counted for their next choice. Peltola has a really good chance of winning.
Her campaign is using the catchphrase The fight for "Fish, Family, Freedom" which is a really good one. I wish some Wyoming candidate stood for that. Chuck Gray's, as far as we can tell, is "drill baby drill but oppose any industry which it seems that Wyomingites might be against while kissing Donald Trump's ass." Hageman's comes across as "Shut up, I"m smarter than you and a Republican".
Peltola booted back an effort by Kamala Harris to supporter her, which was wise, but also shows her political savvy.
In Florida DSA member Angie Nixon, who had just joined the DSA recently and then didn't campaign on its issues, defeated the much better-funded former national security official Alexander Vindman, for the Democratic Senatorial ticket reflecting a turn to the left in Florida, the state that Trump claims to be his home state. She'll face Republican Senator Ashley Moody in November in a special election for the final two years of former Senator Marco Rubio’s term. Trump backed African American Republican Byron Donalds won the GOP nomination to succeed term-limited Governor Ron DeSantis. He'll face former Republican turned Democrat David Jolly. Other Florida races are difficult to gauge as the legislature redrew Florida's election map in an effort to wipe out their Democrats in the House of Representatives. Suffice it to say, if the Democrats are in control in 2028, preventing this short of gerrymandering will be a priority for them.
On a really minor note, Stephanie Kessler, long associated with conservation efforts in the state and Fremont County, was elected to the Fremont County Commission.
And with this, which was focused on this week's' primaries, we'll end this edition and go on to a new one.
No, Closet Democrats Didn't Nominate Republican Barlow For Gov., Politicos Say
Libertarian Party Nominates Republican Cale Case And Democrat Karlee Provenza
One Wyoming lawmaker with criminal history loses reelection bid. Another ekes out a victory.
Alleman's reelection is really a blight on his district.
Not too surprisingly, election post mortems are being written:
Rod Miller: Tuesday Night Massacre And Life In Post-Freedom Caucus Wyoming
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus can blame itself for its resounding defeat
In more ways than one:
Campaign Signs Are Classified As Trash By All Of Wyoming's Municipalities
In California, Progressive California state Sen. Aisha Wahab won a special election to serve the remainder of Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term in the US Congress. She defeated a centrist AIPAC backed Democrat.
This is a developing story in the upcoming 2027 general election. A lot of people are really sick of unquestioned US support for Israel and a major backlash to it is forming.
August 23, 2026
Lien asked for a recount which was held yesterday, confirming that she lost.
August 24, 2026
Albany County went for Harriet Hageman, but not Chuck Gray
In all races other than the Republican primary for U.S. House, Albany County tracked the state vote. Moderate Republican candidates won by greater margins in Albany County.
FWIW Teton County overwhelmingly voted for Christensen.
And this concludes this primary results edition.
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