Two local incumbents lose Wyo House seats

By Bryon Glathar, Herald Managing Editor
Posted 8/28/24

EVANSTON — With last week’s Primary Election in the books, citizens will see a shakeup among representation in January.

Incumbent Rep. Ryan Berger of Evanston won’t be …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Two local incumbents lose Wyo House seats

Posted

EVANSTON — With last week’s Primary Election in the books, citizens will see a shakeup among representation in January.

Incumbent Rep. Ryan Berger of Evanston won’t be reelected. He lost to Robert Wharff, who collected 812 votes to Berger’s 725.

Rep. Jon Conrad, incumbent for HD-19, lost by a couple of hundred votes to challenger Joe Webb. Webb earned 1,019 votes to Conrad’s 792 in the valley contest.

Green River’s Scott Heiner, who is more aligned with the far-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus than the more moderate Wyoming Caucus, received 1,190 votes to advance to the General Election. Heiner, the incumbent in House District 18, beat Tom Crank of Kemmerer, who received 733 total votes. Heiner beat Crank 603 to 408 in Lincoln County and 194 to 71 in Uinta County.

Mike Schmid picked up Sommers’ current seat in House District 20. Schmid beat Cat Urbigkit 1,755 votes to 1,029. Lincoln County residents preferred Shmid with 170 votes to Urbigkit’s 23.

Laura Taliaferro Pearson of Kemmerer beat current House Speaker Albert Sommers of Pinedale, who was trying to make the leap from the House to the Senate. Pearson took home 2,211 votes to Sommers’ 2,025 votes to succeed Sen. Fred Baldwin in Senate District 14.

Lincoln County was especially pro-Pearson as she earned 841 votes, and Sommers received only 323. Pearson also beat Sommers in Uinta County, where they received 117 and 95 votes, respectively. Sommers, however, got well more votes than Pearson in Sublette County. The current legislator received 1,446 votes to Pearson’s 929 there.

In SD-6, which includes much of Lincoln County and part of Teton County, Dan Dockstader of Afton earned 3,168 votes in his unopposed primary.

Sen. John Barrasso will move forward with his reelection bid after knocking out opponents Reid Rasner and John Holtz in the Primary Election. Barrasso earned 70,437 votes statewide and 2,335 from Uinta County residents. Rasner received 957 local votes and 25,424 across the state. Holtz brought up the rear with 7,867 total votes, 248 of which were local.

Barrasso will face Scott D. Morrow in November. Morrow ran unopposed and earned 10,088 from statewide Dems and 246 locally.

Congresswoman Harriet Hageman cruised to an even easier victory than Barrasso did Tuesday. She beat Steven R. Helling 82,765 votes to 19,738; locally, Hageman tallied 2,932 votes to Helling’s 603.

Democrat Kyle G. Cameron, who ran unopposed, received 10,047 to advance to November, when he’ll face Hageman. Locally, Cameron received 236 votes.

Brent Hatch was essentially reelected to the Uinta County Commission as he was the top vote-getter in that race with 1,052 votes. With no Democrats in the race, he’ll remain in office barring a successful Independent candidate, but he or she would have to file a petition to be on the ballot by Aug. 26.

Jace Nix garnered 961 votes for second place, followed by former sheriff Doug Matthews, who earned 675 votes. Jon Pentz and Jared Crane brought up the rear with 534 and 356 votes, respectively.

Mikal Welling leads the way to replace Tim Lynch as Ward 1 representative on the Evanston City Council. Lynch didn’t run for reelection, and Welling — who tallied 286 votes — beat out Henry Schmidt and David M. Slaughter, who received 194 and 156 votes, respectively.

However, since the council is nonpartisan, the top two vote-getters will move on to the General Election on Nov. 5.

In Ward 2, Mike Sellers paved the way for reelection, earning 449 votes. Frank Sheets received 242, and Kyle Thompson received 59. Sheets will face off with Sellers in November.

Councilmember Evan Perkes earned four more years after defeating challenger Shawn Saban. Perkes received 255 votes to Saban’s 162. They, like the others vying for a city council seat, will meet again in November.

Ballot Proposition 1, which organizers hoped would impose a half-cent sales tax, failed after 2,765 county residents voted it down. It received just 1,228 votes in favor.

Clyde Kofoed got more primary votes than his opponent, Lance Norris, in the race for Bear River mayor. Koefed received 68 votes, while Norris tallied 43.

For Bear River Town Council, only two candidates ran to fill two seats. Both Troy Nolan, who received 91 votes, and Nicolas White, who received 51, will move on to November.

There was a similar result in Lyman as Jimmy Bramlett and Eric Quinney will both advance. Bramlett received 297 votes to Quinney’s 228. There were also 51 write-ins for this race, more than most.

Bryan Ayres ran unopposed in his reelection bid for mayor of Mountain View, receiving 240 votes. For Mountain View Town Council, Tori Carter and Michael Tims both ran unopposed, as well, receiving 203 and 168 votes, respectively. That primary included 47 write-ins.