AP 8.21.18
Wyoming State Treasurer Mark Gordon has won a fiercely contested GOP primary to replace Republican Gov. Matt Mead.
Gordon won the nomination Tuesday against five opponents, including GOP mega-donor Foster Friess and Cheyenne businessman Sam Galeotos.
Mead is term-limited after serving two full terms.
Wyoming is among the reddest states, and Gordon is favored to win the general election and become governor.
The 61-year-old Gordon ranches near Buffalo, Wyoming, and served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. His quiet and non-confrontational demeanor makes him the candidate most like Mead.
Gordon is finishing his first full term as treasurer, a job to which he was appointed in 2012
Former Wyoming state Rep. Mary Throne has won the Democratic primary to replace outgoing Gov. Matt Mead.
Throne beat three little-known candidates Tuesday to secure her party’s nomination. She now faces a tough fight in heavily Republican Wyoming to become the state’s first Democratic governor since 2011.
Throne would also be Wyoming’s first female governor since Nellie Tayloe Ross left office in 1927. Ross was the first female governor of a U.S. state.
Throne and Freudenthal have much in common politically. Both are staunch supporters of Wyoming’s coal industries and deeply knowledgeable about the workings of state government.
Throne grew up on a ranch in Campbell County and graduated from Princeton and Columbia law school. She was a state representative from Cheyenne from 2007 to 2017 and served two years as House minority leader.
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso has fended off a well-funded challenger in Wyoming’s Republican primary.
Barrasso on Tuesday beat five opponents, including investor and Stanford University lecturer Dave Dodson of Jackson Hole. Dodson put $1 million of his own money toward a campaign that questioned Barrasso’s ties to corporate interests and Washington political insiders.
Barrasso won with help from long-standing name recognition and an endorsement from President Donald Trump. Trump won Wyoming by the largest margin of any state in 2016.
Barrasso’s campaign, meanwhile, questioned Dodson’s campaign contributions, including $1,000 to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Dodson explained that he gave the money out of opposition to Sanders’ opponent, Hillary Clinton, but regretted it.
Barrasso faces Wilson businessman Gary Trauner in the general election. Trauner ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Trauner was unopposed Tuesday.
Trauner ran two unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. House a decade ago. In 2006, Trauner came within half a percentage point of beating Republican Rep. Barbara Cubin.
In 2008, he lost by a 9-point margin to former state treasurer and legislator Cynthia Lummis.
Trauner faces an uphill battle to win the general election. Wyoming hasn’t had a Democratic U.S. senator since Sen. Gale McGee left office in 1977.
Incumbent Liz Cheney has won the Republican nomination for Wyoming’s lone seat in the U.S. House.
Cheney beat two other Republicans in Tuesday’s primary, Blake Stanley of Cheyenne and Rod Miller of Buford. Stanley and Miller both characterized themselves as blue-collar conservatives and ran low-key campaigns.
Cheney now seeks a second term against either of two candidates competing for the Democratic nomination, Laramie businessman Greg Hunter and Laramie attorney Travis Helm.
Cheney won over 60 percent of the vote to win her first term in 2016. She dominated a field of Republican candidates to win her party’s nomination earlier that year.
