Big Horn County matches statewide results in General

Big Horn County voters followed suit with the rest of Wyoming in Tuesday’s General Election.

Republican U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman won the race to assume the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Cynthia Lummis in a landslide over Democratic candidate James Byrd, receiving 122,157 votes, unofficially, to 65,097 for Byrd.

Hageman dominated Big Horn County, as well, outpolling Byrd 3,297 to 805.

Likewise, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, the Republican nominee to replace Hageman in Wyoming’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, easily defeated three challengers, receiving 99,891 votes unofficially, topping Democratic candidate Lisa Kinney, who received 61,684 votes, Libertarian Shawn Johnson, 13,665 votes, and Constitution Party candidate Jeffrey Haggit, 7,960 votes.

Gray carried Big Horn County with 2,798 votes, unofficially, to 712 for Kinney, 246 for Haggit and 222 for Johnson.

Top five officials

All five Republicans running for Wyoming’s top five state offices prevailed on Tuesday. Sen. Eric Barlow easily swamped Constitution Party candidate Rebecca Bextel and Democrat Ken Casner, receiving 128,480 votes, unofficially, to 31,438 for Bextel and 27,469 for Casner.

Barlow carried Big Horn County by a wide margin, receiving 3,053 votes compared to 720 for Bextel and 333 for Casner.

Big Horn County supported Republican Robert Short for Secretary of State over Democrat Bryan McCarty and Constitution Party candidate Tamara Trujillo. Short garnered 3,272 votes in the county, McCarty 496 and Trujillo 304. Statewide, Short tallied 124,924 votes, McCarty 43,872 and Trujillo 15,504.

Republican Steve Harshman crushed Democrat Ana Cordova statewide and in the county, receiving 3,528 votes in the county to 499 for Cordova. Harshman garnered 136,744 across the state, Cordova 45,318.

State Auditor Kristi Racines and State Treasurer Curt Meier, both Republicans, were unopposed on Tuesday, as was R. J. Kost, the Republican nominee for Senate District 19, who received 2,562 votes in Big Horn County and 2,749 in Park County.

All of Big Horn County’s officials were unopposed after winning their respective Republican Primaries in August: New commissioners Jared Boardman and Mike Laird, coroner Mike Jameson, attorney Marcia Bean, new sheriff Craig Shidler, Clerk Lori Smallwood, treasurer Nicole Vigil, assessor Cozette Winters and clerk of district court Serena Lipp.

Proposition 1

Big Horn County also voted with the state in rejecting Proposition 1, which would have cut property taxes by 50 percent but also severely reduce revenues for local services. In Big Horn County, Prop 1 received 1,548 votes in favor of the initiative but 2,490 votes against it.

Statewide, voters rejected Proposition 1 105,200 to 80,031.