Wyoming Primary Results Open THread

11:14pm: Follow us over here.

11:06pm: Out of nowhere, Ron Micheli has pulled into the lead in the R primary. He’s at 30, with Mead at 28 and Meyer at 27. That seems to be all thanks to a huge clot of Micheli votes in Lincoln County (Kemmerer, in the southwest), which reported all at once and where he won with 66% of the vote. The bad news for Micheli is that there aren’t any more Lincoln votes, so this is probably as good as it gets for him, unless he has any other random counties where he has an advantage.

10:57pm: Things are tighter than Dan Rather’s pants after a big meal in a hot sweaty room. With 52% reporting, now it’s Mead with a 250 vote lead over Meyer (both are at 30), with Micheli at 24 and Simpson at 15. (Mead is viewed as less wingnutty than Meyer, for what that’s worth, in case you’re looking for somebody to root for.) For the Dems, it’s 47-41 for Petersen.

10:47pm: Now 40% reporting, but the needle’s oscillating much less wildly. It’s Meyer 30, Mead 30 (trailing by 200), Micheli 24, Simpson 15. For the Dems, still 46-42 for Petersen over Gosar.

10:35pm: We’re up to 31% reporting now, with much of Natrona Co. (Casper) in. On the GOP side, it’s Mead 31, Meyer 30, Micheli 23, and Simpson 15. For the Dems, it’s Petersen 46, Gosar 42.

10:20pm: Now we’re picking up some speed, with 22% reporting. On the GOP side, it’s Matt Mead surging into the lead, at 33, with Meyer at 28, Micheli at 23, and Simpson at 14. On the Dem side, Petersen’s now in the lead 48-40. That’s with much of her home base (Teton Co., where Jackson Hole is, and where she’s winning 86-10) having reported.

10:10pm: We got a big dump of ballots from Laramie Co. (Cheyenne), so now we’re up to 12% reporting. On the GOP side, it’s now 30 Meyer, 29 Mead, 28 Micheli, and 12 Simpson. On the Dem side, it’s now Gosar 49, Petersen 38… getting closer, but Gosar still may be able to pull this out. (4 precincts from Albany Co., where Laramie and the University of Wyoming are, have also reported, and they apparently still remember Gosar, as they’re going strongly for him.)

10:05pm: While we kill time here, did you know that Wyoming was the first state to have a female Governor? Nellie Tayloe Ross, a staunch prohibitionist, was elected in 1924. (She lived to be 101, proving you should stay away from demon rum.) They haven’t had a female governor since.

9:50pm: Sweetwater Co. also got caught up on the GOP side, so now that’s up to 5% reporting too. Interestingly, Ron Micheli, who’d polled in 4th, is in the lead, at 34. Matt Mead’s at 27, Rita Meyer’s at 26, and Colin Simpson’s at 12. That may also be skewed by geography, though, as Micheli’s also from the southwestern part of the state (although from Uinta County).

9:45pm: Actually, I am temporarily overruling my prediction of upset in the making. 24 of those 25 precincts reporting are from Sweetwater County. Pete Gosar was born in Rock Springs, the largest town in Sweetwater. So those early votes are probably his extended family.

9:41pm: After a terribly long period where only one precinct had reported, we’re finally getting some movement. Oddly, though, it’s only on the Dem side. On the GOP side, it’s still only 1 precinct reporting. Anyway, with 5% reporting, we might be looking at an upset on the Dem side, with Pete Gosar (his main claim to fame is former Univ. of Wyoming football star) beating state party chair and presumptive frontrunner Leslie Petersen, 54-34.

Polls have now closed in Wyoming, and Washington will follow at 11pm Eastern.

RESULTS:

Associated Press | Politico

37 thoughts on “Wyoming Primary Results Open THread”

  2. for another season, today seems like day for the stunningly improbable. So, I’m going to go out there and predict Clint Didier wins. If I’m right, make sure I get Babka James hah!

  5. Watching WY primary results could be exciting? Could we see an upset on the Dem side? Gosar now leads with 54%, to 34% for Peterson, with 25 precincts in.  

  6. Petersen is leading in Fremont and Natrona Counties (I think Natrona is her base). Gosar’s lead is based entirely off the 2/3 of precincts reporting in Sweetwater County, where he was born, but not raised. We’ll see how things go once other parts of the state come in.

  7. From Wikipedia: “On December 10, 1869, territorial Gov. John Allen Campbell signed a suffrage act into law, which extended the right to vote to women. And in addition to being the first U.S. state to grant suffrage to women, Wyoming was also the home of other firsts for U.S. women in politics. For the first time, women served on a jury in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870). Wyoming had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870) and the first female justice of the peace in the country (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870)”

    This is the source of Wyoming’s nickname, the Equality State. Bitter irony that along with NH, MD, and WI, it was one of only four states to pass its own Defense of Marriage Act before the federal one. The Mountain West has really changed politically–would anyone nowadays guess that Montana was home to the only nay vote on declaring war in Japan in 1941?

  9. “She lived to be 101, proving you should stay away from demon rum.”

    It hardly seems worth it.  After 80, you are pretty much a celibate old prune.  I’d rather booze it up, have a good time and kick the bucket before  hitting 80.

  10. Mead is from Cheyenne, in the biggest county in the state. It still has a lot to report, which should favor him. The problem: MEyer leads by 2 points there. However, if MEyer leads in Mead’s home county and still trails, is that a bad sign for her? The good news for her: HEr home county, Carbon, has not started reporting yet, but it appears small.  

  13. Sweetwater’s 83% in, Albany’s 77% in, he’s still behind. Anyone with more knowledge of WY politics than me know if he’s got any remaining strongholds? (his lead in Sheridan County is tiny and it seems pretty inconsequential.)

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