CHEYENNE, Wyo., Aug. 19 (Cheyenne Times) — Wyoming state Sen. Eric Barlow won the Republican nomination for governor in the Aug. 18 primary, according to an Associated Press race call and reports citing unofficial election results.
Barlow will face Democratic nominee Kenneth Casner in the Nov. 3 general election. Several reports also identify Constitution Party nominee Rebecca Bextel as a candidate. The race will decide who succeeds Republican Gov. Mark Gordon, who is barred from seeking another term because of term limits.
The primary was an important step in a state where Republicans hold every statewide elected office, according to the Associated Press. But the November election remains unresolved: A primary victory does not predict the result of the general election, and no official statewide certification was included in the records available for this report.
Who won the Republican primary?
Barlow is a Wyoming state senator, former speaker of the Wyoming House, rancher and veterinarian from Gillette. He defeated three other Republican candidates: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, retired Marine Corps Col. Brent Bien and professional bull rider and rodeo producer Curt Blake.
Degenfelder had been endorsed by President Donald Trump, while Bien had the endorsement of the Wyoming Republican Party, according to reports describing the contest.
Unofficial results cited by Cowboy State Daily and other reports showed Barlow with 58,820 votes, followed by Degenfelder with 38,739 and Bien with 30,843. One report placed Barlow at 45% of the vote, Degenfelder at 29.7% and Bien at 23.6%, with 99% of votes counted. Those figures were reported as unofficial and did not include a final certified result in the supplied records.
The Associated Press called the Republican primary for Barlow. Reports differed on the exact time of the call and on how much of the vote had been counted when it was made, so those details are not used here as a precise measure of the race’s final status.
What happens next?
Barlow and Casner are scheduled to meet in the general election on Nov. 3. The governor’s contest is an open-seat race because Gordon is term-limited.
Casner is the Democratic nominee. Reports also list Bextel, a Constitution Party candidate, among the people expected to appear in the general election, meaning the November contest may not be limited to the Republican and Democratic nominees.
The primary results show how Barlow emerged from the Republican field, but they do not establish whether he will win statewide in November. Wyoming’s Republican control gives the GOP nominee a strong partisan backdrop, while the general-election ballot will include candidates from outside the Republican Party.
No official Wyoming Secretary of State results page, county canvass or certification document was included in the supplied records. Final totals, including Blake’s vote total and any changes made during canvassing, therefore remain unreported here.
