August 2, 2026
I wasn't going to do this, but the last thread just became too darned long and was creating havoc in the blog accordingly.
So, here we have our 18th edition for this season. We'll abstain on predicting this one will run all the way until the primary, but the primary is only a little over two weeks away.
Here we note a very interesting item:
Joan Barron: Is A GOP Sea Change On The Way?
Phil Roberts, the legally trained University of Wyoming professor predicts that Harriet Hageman will lose. That amounts to a prediction, without him saying so, that Sam Mead will win.
I sure hope he's right.
Hageman has been characterized by being nasty in public, while in the background she behaves more like a conventional Congressman. Be that as it may, up until just a week ago or so she was a diehard Trump fan and in the category of enemies of public lands. When concerned Wyomingites wrote to her about their concerns on public land she basically called the stupid.
She needs to go.
A prediction if she does. Wyoming "ranch girl" or no, she'll never come back. She owned a house in D.C. before she was even elected.
The author here notes that he voted last week. And, we voted for:
Governor: Barlow.
Senate: Mead
House of Representatives: Christensen.
Secretary of State: Short.
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Harshman
On people needing to go, Chuck Gray needs to depart politics, and preferably the state, as well. Based on early rumors, that might well happen, but if it does, it looks like it may be Steve Friess who gains the state's seat in Congress. Friess is seemingly really cutting into Gray's numbers.
At the same time, it's pretty clear that Kevin Christensen is also rising. Christensen is gaining the support of moderate Republicans and those concerned about public lands. Early on it was assumed these votes would go to Balow but Balow has really disappointed in this race to date, including making statements that would cut towards Trump when, as Barron has noted in her article, people even in Wyoming may be moving in the opposite direction. I expected Balow to lead this race early on and hoped for her to replace Gray, but now I'm in the camp that has gone to Christensen.
August 4, 2026
A variety of odds and ends.
First, the real Republicans placed an add with Real Republican candidates in the CST:
(OPINION) Plenty of Jack
Stubson is correct, Friess is basically flooding the zone with money and this is a test of whether, basically, a candidate in Wyoming can buy a seat in Congress. That well trod road is the same one that Gray managed to trod to his current position as Secretary of State, albeit barely.
Friess flyers who up in my mailbox constantly and the last one was really telling. It promised to pass the SAVE Act.
Any candidate promising to pass the SAVE Act shouldn't be voted on for anything ever as its wholly anti democratic. It also promises to "Buck mail-in voter fraud" which it claims will help prevent liberals from stealing the election.
There's no threat liberals are going to steal an election, but the MAGA GOP is trying to steal the 2026 election right now.
Freiss was the target of a black money mailer by some group styling itself the Hometown Action Network. It's shows Friess being bucked off a horse and notes he's not local. It doesn't come out for anyone, however. We'd have to presume it's pro Gray, who nobody has ever seen with a horse.
Indeed, of those running for this position who are the top contenders, Gray, Friess, Christensen, Rasner, and Balow, we know by far the least about Gray. Indeed, hardly anything at all is known about him personally.
Neither Gray nor Friess deserve a vote.
Rasner, of course, will receive very few. His candidacy is doomed and he's sort of faded from view. I did see one large Rasner sign the other day, but it's safe to say at this point his political career in Wyoming is over. What he's serving to do right now is to carve votes away from Gray, and that is a public service. The question is whether those votes carved away end up going to Friess or a better candidate.
Going back to Albany County, a former Democratic candidate for the US House is running for a seat as an Albany County Commissioner.
Ben-David promises a scientific approach in bid for Albany County Commission seat
A climate change activist and former researcher, Merav Ben-David said water security is her top priority. She is one of four Democrats competing to be one of the party’s two nominees.
August 5, 2026
This notes an interesting feature of this election, that being politicians taking more credit for something than their entitled to, or backing something that isn't controversial at all.
First the backing:
This is the flipside of the false accusation:
Barlow Says Attack Ads On Sex Changes And Illegal Immigrants Aren't True
And then there's the bold position on a non issue. Every single candidate claims to support the 2nd Amendment. From Wyoming? D'uh.
The campaign propaganda is therefore really not helpful. Some PAC is pointing out that Friess is a rich carpetbagger. Well, so is Gray. So was Chapman.
Still, some things are revealing. Friess notes he'd back the SAVE Act. That means he's in favor of reducing democracy. Friess, Gray and Degenfelder would all propose marriage to Trump.
People are looking beyond these. Yesterday a really conservative Republican I know, and a thoughtful one, told me he was supporting Giralt I'm not, I'm going for Christensen, as are two other people I personally know.
August 6, 2026
Rep. Jayme Lien called WYDOT to complain about the placement of Rob Hendry sign. Rob noted it with bemusement and posted a photo of a questionable Lien sign in terms of placement.
Chuck Gray was apparently his recently spastic self in a debate for the House. He posted thereafter a peppy owning the libs post, but he's coming across as an ass, as he is one. His interview by a Cowboy State Daily female reporter, which is on video, is really a prime example. That alone would preclude his election in a decent society.
All indications are that Christensen is really moving up.
Bob Ide called Lisa Engebretsen's supporters "Camo Clad Leftists"
Ide runs around dressing like a cowboy, and apparently has some ranching background and some cattle, but he's landlord. The Camo Clad Engebretsen supporters are local outdoorsmen who are awake to Ide's grab the Federal land stand.
Ide needs to leave the legislature. Better yet, he can give up on being a landlord and head out into the sticks and punch cows full time. He already has the clothes and everything.
This is the first time, by the way, I've seen a politician accuse sportsmen of being "leftists".
August 7, 2026
One to close the week out on:
Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 7. The jackass in a tin barn edition.
We weren't really ready to start a new one of these, but Chuck Gray has been in such rare form recently as it starts to look like he's going to lose in ten days and his dreams of a carpetbagging political career be crushed, that it mandates it.
Gray, as Secretary of State, sits on a variety of state boards and has been using that position to attempt to advance his campaign for higher office, any higher office, all along. Generally in the global warming is a fib camp, he at one time was okay with development projects of all types but now is anti "woke wind". Lots of people don't like the viewscape and land use aspect of wind and solar farms, and he's hoping to tap into that dislike, but he's such a disagreeable pissant he can't seem to say it that way. Nor can he explain his prior positions.
The real gem in this is that he almost voted to preclude use of an access road to a power substation that provides power to farmers on the basis that it might receive electrical power from solar farms or wind farms or provide power to data centers.
When the State treasurer noted that this meant, he changed his vote, but had to blame the whole thing on somebody else.
Data centers are now big in the news around here, and for good reason. Gray is opposing them as he figures it's good politics. Put a gigantic strip mine in over the same area, and he'd be all for it. It's difficult to tell from one moment to the next if Republican candidates this year are members of the Flat Earth Society or Greenpeace.
Gray is particularly disgusting. He's consistently rude and nasty. It's difficult to understand why anyone would vote for him, unless they're really duped.
On Chuck, columnist Tom Lubnau came out with a column belatedly endorsing Steve Friess. The column is a good one.
I like Lubnau but there's no way on earth I'm voting for Steve Friess. Friess is higher grade of carpetbagger Trump suck up than Chuck Gray, who is simply vile, but they're cut essentially from the same cloth. Friess, granted, isn't a jackass, but that's the main difference between the two of them.
Lubnau admits he had another favorite but started to be swayed by the big mass endorsement of Friess last week by a collection of Republican figures. He'd earlier criticized Friess campaign which he criticized as "anyone but Chuck", and there is some of that view going around. Quite frankly, I can say that anyone would be better than Gray. But that means he abandoned a better candidate at least in part because he through Friess is the second in line contender.
We're not so sure of that. It appears that Christensen has been coming up like crazy. He's the only Republican whose views actually alight with most of the state's voters and the only one who has a background common to Wyomingites.
He might be able to pull it off.
August 8, 2026
Trump backed U.S. Rep Andy Ogles, Tennessee, went down in defeat to Charlie Hatcher, the Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture from 2018-2025.
Trump backed Navy Veteran Amir Hassan lost his primary bid Michigan's 8th Congressional District to Thomas Smith, who had actually earlier dropped out of the race.
Hmm. . . .
News reports have shown that Friess, Rasner and Gray have spent massive amounts in their bid for the House. Friess has now spent more than Rasner, who has spent a huge amount.
Frankly, the expenditures here justify not voting for any of these people in no small part because, in relative terms, very little of the money comes from inside of Wyoming and quite a bit of it is self funding. A person who would spend $1M or more in family money for an office that pays what these do, isn't acting prudently and won't once they take office, if they do.
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