As Election Day nears, political candidates are gearing up their campaigns.
The Wyoming primary elections took place Aug. 21. Republican candidates included John Barrasso, Thomas Bleming and Emmett Mavy, and the Democrats were Tim Chesnut, William Bryk and Al Hamburg.
Based on the Republican and Democratic primary votes, incumbent U.S. Senator John Barrasso and Albany County Board of Commissioners member Tim Chesnut are going to face one another in next month’s election.
John Barrasso has been elected Wyoming Senator unopposed in both 2002 and 2006. In 2007, Barrasso was chosen to replace the deceased Craig L. Thomas in U.S. Senate. Barrasso has held a seat in the U.S. Senate since 2008, when he ran and was elected to fill the remainder of Thomas’ term.
While Tim Chesnut has not previously held office in the U.S. Senate, he has been on the Albany County Board of Commissioners since 1998. Chesnut is taking a humorous approach to the election with the slogan “Chesnut is the best nut for Senate.”
On a more serious note, Chesnut wants to bridge the gap between Democrat and Republican. He states he wants to do what is best for the country, not what is best for the party.
Alongside the U.S. Senate elections are the elections for the House of Representatives. Those who ran in the primary elections included Republican Cynthia Lummis, Democrat Chris Henrichsen, Libertarian Richard Brubaker, and Independent Charlie Hardy.
The primary election ended with the incumbent Cynthia Lummis winning the Republican primary and Chris Henrichsen winning the Democratic primary.
Aside from holding a position in the House of Representatives since 2009, Lummis has held a number of governmental positions including membership in the Wyoming House of Representatives, two terms as Wyoming State Treasurer and a year as Wyoming State Senator. Lummis also graduated from the University of Wyoming with degrees in both animal science and biology in the late 1970s.
Chris Henrichsen, a political science professor at Casper College, will oppose Lummis as the democratic primary. Henrichsen’s main focus in the election is on big impacts such as education and national debt. During an exclusive interview with Politic It, Henrichsen talked about taking action.
“In Wyoming, we have a lot of people who work on oil rigs or ranches who when they see a problem they get it fixed. We have a congress right now and a political system that’s not addressing these big problems,” he said.
