General election set

As the dust has settled from the 2020 Primary Election on August 18, the roster has been set for the general election on November 3. On the national stage, Wyomingites will have four women from the two major parties to choose from in both the House and the Senate to represent them come January. Meanwhile, incumbent Representative Jerry Paxton still faces a challenger.

President of the

United States

President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael R. Pence will be running for another four years in the White House. Challengers to the Trump/Pence ticket include former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Senator Kamala Harris running on the Democratic ticket. On the Independent ticket are Brock Pierce and Karla Ballard.

Trump ally and recent Wyoming resident Kanye West had announced intentions to run for President of the United States last month but had failed to submit the 4,025 verifiable signatures to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office according to the Casper Star-Tribune.

United States Senator

During the primary election, the seat currently held by Senator Mike Enzi, who announced his retirement last year, saw a total of 16 candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties. 

With the results of the election now official, former Representative Cynthia Lummis received 63,511 votes to become the Republican candidate. She will face Merav Ben David, a University of Wyoming professor and climate scientist who received 9,584 votes to become the Democratic candidate.

United States Representative

Incumbent Representative Liz Cheney ran virtually unopposed in the primary election, her only challenger being Blake Stanley. Cheney received 78,870 votes to defeat Stanley and currently holds the position of House Republican Conference Chair making her the third most powerful person in House Republican Leadership.

Facing off against Cheney from the Democratic Party will be Lynnette Grey Bull, who received 14,153 votes in the primary election. The Fort Washakie-based candidate is the first Native American candidate in Wyoming to represent a major party.

Two other candidates running in the general election include Libertarian Richard Brubaker and Jeff Haggit, representing the Constitution Party.

House District 15

Incumbent Representative Donald Burkhart, who has served in the Wyoming State House of Representatives since 2011, will be facing Jacquelin Wells in the general election. The last time Burkhart faced a Democratic candidate was in 2016 when DeBari Martinez ran against him. Martinez, who currently serves on Rawlins City Council with Wells, received nearly half the votes of Burkhart four years ago.

House District 47

Incumbent Representative Jerry Paxton may have fended off three challengers in the primary election with relative ease, but he’s not out of the clear yet. Paxton will be facing his first general election challenger since 2016. Four years ago, Paxton faced Elk Mountain’s Ken Casner, who ran for United States Senator this year.

Running against Paxton will be Saratoga resident Lela Konecny, who is running as a Libertarian candidate. The last time Paxton faced a candidate from the Libertarian Party was in 2012, during his initial run for House District 47. The candidate at that time was Hanna resident Michael Hendricks.

Carbon County Commissioners

Incumbents John Espy, Sue Jones and Byron Barkhurst have little to worry about as they all survived challenges from Jerry Steele and Dustin Buffington in the primaries. With no Democratic candidates, and none meeting the threshold for a write-in candidacy, the three will run unopposed in the general election.

CCSD No. 2

For Carbon County School District No. 2, four candidates have filed for the four, separate, open seats. Paul Clark will be running to represent Area 1 again, Georgia Miller to represent Area 2 and Joe Gaspari to represent Area 3. Nick Wamsley is a new candidate and will be running to represent Area 4.

Saratoga-Ryan Park Museum District

The question of whether to form the Saratoga-Ryan Park Museum District will be on the ballot for November 3, so too will be the candidates to fill that board. The four year term on that board sees Connie Patterson, Wilber Roger Snell and Terri Winter running while the two year term has Sherry Mackay and Mark Shipp as candidates.

Municipal Elections

On the municipal level, several write-in candidates accepted their nominations. In Elk Mountain, Jessica Mustard will be on the general election ballot while, in Hanna, William Dys, John Kelmola and William Lake will join primary candidate Jayson Nordquist.

In Medicine Bow, Kay Embree did not accept the nomination for the unexpired mayor seat and none of the write-in candidates for the four year Medicine Bow Town Council accepted their nominations, leaving the seats wide open. Additionally, Donald Mayfield did not accept the write-in nomination for the unexpired Medicine Bow Town Council term.

Finally, in Riverside, Dean Webb did not accept a write-in nomination, leaving Mark Helwick to run alone.

The 2020 General Election will be on November 3. Look for the Sun’s 2020 General Election Section on October 28.