Wyoming voters on Tuesday elected Republican Chuck Gray to replace Harriet Hageman as the state’s lone congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Gray’s victory is the culmination of a 10-year rise from state lawmaker to secretary of state and now congressman-elect. He is an outspoken Trump supporter who advocated for a slew of changes to Wyoming’s election system that he said were needed for the system’s integrity, but his critics called them unnecessary and burdensome.
Hageman was elected to an open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, creating the House vacancy. Wyoming’s entire congressional delegation backed Gray, whose name was checked on 57% of ballots by the time the Associated Press called the race at 9:40 p.m. with 54% of the vote counted.
Gray faced former state senator Democrat Lisa Kinney, Constitution Party candidate Jeffrey Haggit and Libertarian Shawn Johnson in Tuesday’s election.
In Wyoming, where Republicans have been elected to Congress since 1976, when Teno Roncalio was reelected over Republican Larry Hart, many viewed the primary election as more pivotal than the general election in determining the state’s next congressman.
Gray won that nine-person race in August, but there was never a crystal-clear frontrunner. He likely had the greatest name recognition, having held a statewide seat, secretary of state, for four years. The race was marked by big spending by candidates. There were several, the victor included, who spent seven figures on their candidacies.
Gray ultimately won with 25% of the vote — five points more than runner-up Steve Friess.
Gray has been seen as a firebrand in Wyoming politics. As secretary of state, he butted heads frequently with Gov. Mark Gordon. He was aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus — a Republican faction that collapsed during the primary election — during his time as a state representative.
Gray has fashioned himself as an acolyte of President Donald Trump. Although Trump didn’t endorse him during the primary election, he did so in advance of Tuesday’s general election, calling Wyoming’s incoming congressman a “true friend of MAGA.”
“Chuck Gray has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next U.S. Representative from Wyoming — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!,” the president’s Truth Social account posted.
At least we have sent him 1,500 miles out of state and he will be nothing but a diminutive back bencher shouting at clouds in a minority party. Hopefully he will find DC so appealing that he chooses to darken our door only rarely.
Wyoming owes the rest of the nation yet another preemptive apology for the representatives we keep sending to Congress. Why do we relentlessy vote against our own self-interests ?
P.S. – Chuck Gray only represents Chuck Gray
How many ways will this smarmy chump sycophant find to sell out good people in Wyoming? Well, at least he is in a minority in his new club!
Being in the minority is perfect for chuckie, hageman and barrasso. They will have the opportunity to blame everyone else for what they have allowed trump to do because they are afraid of him. Even lame duck lummis is still afraid of trump. So sad.
Being a diehard optimist, I tend to look for the silver lining in every dark cloud. With the election of Chuckles to the US House, we won’t have him in Wyoming running around underfoot. And yes, he will be on the public dole, but that fact can have a two year expiration date. And since the dems will control Congress, Chuckles will have very little effect on anything except competing against Mike Johnson to be Trump’s mini-me.
At this point I should have given up long ago thinking that my friends and neighbors would make the right decision to elect decent people when casting their votes. Call me naive or overly optimistic but I really thought Mr. Byrd and Ms. Kinney would have had a stronger showing considering the competition.
Rather than having two people who strongly care about Wyoming represent us, Wyoming chose to send two MAGA sycopants (who are both now neutered after last nights election) to Washington. I guess Hageman and Gray can stand in the corner and eat boogers while the Democrats try and clean up the mess the MAGA movement has left. Nice job Wyoming…really proud of ya
In an otherwise great election, there were two turds in the punch bowl: Wyoming voters electing Lil’ Chuckie and the Hag. As embarrassing as they are to the state, the rest of the country was smart enough to reduce their influence to zero.
Given that state wide races are decided in the Primary – this isn’t really a “victory”. Only 24.5% of REPUBLICANS voted for him in the Primary. Unfortunately, too many voters will only for the “R” even if it means voting against their and the states best interests and send a complete embarrassing carpet bagger to represent our state in DC. He will only represent himself and billionaires, not the people of Wyoming.
Wyoming…still drinking the koolaid.
Just as Wyomingites are coming to realize the folly of having supported Trump, they will soon regret having elected Chuckie to Congress. Even his fellow legislators despised him when he served in the state legislature, and he embarrassed himself by lobbying for questionable Trump agendas from “inside the house” as Secretary of State. Wyoming will now have NO member of its Congressional delegation in the majority in either chamber, giving us zero power in a body that often disregards us to begin with due to our small population and the mendacious partisan puppets we send there. Hopefully he’ll last only two years in DC.
So this mangy vermin gets to take his sellout act to Washington. Great, just great. If you think Chuck screwed you over regarding the handing of sensitive data to the feds as sec of state, wait til’ he’s Trumpsteins lapdog in DC. A sad day for Wyoming yet we shot ourselves in the foot.
Let’s see, a sniveling weasel-carpetbagger from California of all places, with daddie’s money, entrenches himself into the State of Wyoming and gets elected to DC. This is now the Wyoming Way? This is on US but maybe a good thing as we all know that Child’s Play Chucky will get to the bottom of the Epstein files and make sure all of the Pedo’s (including Chump) are outted and prosecuted. Won’t ya, Chucky?!
Wyoming had a chance to clean up the political goofballs and failed. They just can’t get past the R. The rest of the country showed how it’s done.