Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) emerged victorious in Wyoming’s primary elections on August 20th, easily defeating their Republican opponents. In Alaska, four House candidates, including incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), secured spots in the general election after a nonpartisan contest with 12 candidates.
Barrasso, who is seeking his fourth Senate term, was declared the winner by The Associated Press (AP) with only 5 percent of the vote counted at 8:01 p.m. He had garnered 68.9 percent of the tally or 3,342 votes. His rivals Reid Rasner and John Holtz received 23.3 percent and less than 8 percent respectively.
In November’s general election, Barrasso will face Democrat educator Scott Morrow who ran uncontested in his party’s primary.
Hageman, a first-term incumbent who defeated Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in the previous midterms, had no trouble defeating attorney Steve Helling in the GOP primary. With just 5 percent of ballots tallied at 8:01 p.m., she secured an impressive 79.7 percent of the vote according to AP projections.
Hageman is expected to have an easy path to victory in the general election as well since her Democratic opponent Kyle Cameron also ran unopposed in their party’s primary.
Wyoming saw intense competition between Freedom Caucus conservatives and Wyoming Caucus moderates during its state legislature GOP primaries. The state has a predominantly Republican voter base with over 89 percent of registered voters identifying as Republicans.
Out of a total of 62 House seats and15 Senate seats on the ballot for this year’s primaries, there were contested races only within Republican primaries since Republicans hold more than90%ofthelegislature’sseatsinCheyenne.WyomingvotedforformerPresidentDonaldTrumpbyahigherpercentage than any other state both in2016and2020presidential elections.
According to data from Wyoming Secretary of State’s office , only16Democratsare running for legislature seats this year which is significantly lower compared to62 Democrats who ran backin2016.Thisyearalso marksWyoming’sfirstelectionsinceadoptingaclosedprimarysystemwhichrequiresvoterstoregisterwithapartyatleast90daysbeforeaprimaryelection.Alaska,ontheotherhand,haditsopenjungleprimaryorrankedvoteelectionswhereallcandidatesrunonthesameballotandanyregisteredvotercanparticipate
Peltola,theonlyDemocratfromAlaskatoholdaHouseseatinthepastfive decades,wonherparty’sprimarywith50percentofthetotalvotescounted.She received43,o79votesoutof65percentoftallycountedat10p.m.AlaskaDaylightTime(ADT).She will be joined by Republicans Nick Begich and Lt.Gov.Nancy Dahlstrom ontheNovember5general election ballot.Republicans Matthew SalisburyandJohnWayneHowe are vying forthe fourth spot.Peltolawonasp ecialelectionin2022followingRep.DonYoung’ sdeath,andthenwontheregularmidtermelectiondefeatingRepublicansincludingformer governorSarahPalinandBegich.Peltolaisamong37Democraticincumbentstargetedas vulnerablebytheNationalRepublicanCongressionalCommittee(NRCC).
The states that held their primaries on August20th—Wyoming ,Alaska,andFlorida—are among thesevenstatesthathaveonlyonestatewideCongressionaldistrict.Floridaalsohelditsprimarieswith28HouseseatsandsenatorRickScott’ sseatonth eballot.All27incumbentsseekingreelectionadvancedtothegeneralelectionincluding19Republicans.The remainingfourstates—Massachusetts(New Hampshire,Dela ware,andRhodeIsland)—willholdtheirprimariesbetweenSeptember3rdand10th