U.S. Senate candidate Billy Benavidez on Monday shrugged off a breach-of-peace conviction for which he is serving a year’s probation.
Benavidez, a Sheridan resident, pleaded guilty last year in connection with an incident during which he harassed a Sheridan police officer.
Benavidez said the 2025 charge against him “was my first-ever offense” and that voters can look into the case themselves before the Aug. 18 primary. He defended his candidacy on the cusp of a Wednesday forum in Casper where he wants to make “freedom — especially from the surveillance state” as his main plank.
Hosted by the League of Women Voters and media partners, the forum for U.S. Senate candidates will be held from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday at Casper College’s Durham Hall. Wyoming Public Radio will broadcast and livestream the event, beginning with Democratic candidates.
Benavidez faces James Byrd, a state representative from 2009-2019, in the Democratic primary. Benavidez, a greenskeeper from Sheridan and father of two, was put on a year’s unsupervised probation on Aug. 20, court records show.
Benavidez accosted Sheridan Police Capt. Tom Ringley at the Albertsons meat counter in Sheridan on June 11, 2025, according to an affidavit filed in the case. He began harassing Ringley, backing him up about 30 yards before an off-duty DCI investigator stepped in and put Benavidez in a hold, the affidavit states.
Benavidez pleaded guilty, paid $350 and was sentenced Aug. 20 to probation with a stipulation that he have no contact with Ringley.
Voters can ‘figure it out’
The affidavit by a Sheridan Police officer gives the following account, citing interviews with the two men and two witnesses.
Benavidez, who used to clean the Sheridan police department offices, approached Ringley stating that Ringley was responsible for Benavidez’s life going downhill. Benavidez got in Ringley’s face and backed him up to the store’s produce section.
Benavidez told the Sheridan Police Officer Armand Enslin that Ringley was using military “hide in plain sight” tactics and multiple vehicles to try and cause traffic accidents involving Benavidez, according to the affidavit.
“They’re looking for anything, whether it be a lawsuit or anything.”
Billy Benavidez
“I was waiting for him to punch me so I could punch him back and knock him on his ass,” Benavidez told Enslin. One witness said Benavidez took a couple of swings at Ringley.
Benavidez was found competent to stand trial, the prosecutor dropped a related simple assault charge and the groundskeeper pleaded guilty to a count of breach of peace, court records show.
“They’re looking for anything, whether it be a lawsuit or anything,” Benavidez said. “Police administrations … for anything, for any kind of lawsuit, any kind of something, or what have you.”
Voters can look at the case and make up their minds before the election, he said.
“The public, they can figure it out,” Benavidez said. “They can look [at] the details, they’ll go ‘Holy mackerel,’” Benavidez said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”
Beyond freedom from the surveillance state, he told WyoFile he believes in term limits.
“What people like is one term only,” he said. He wouldn’t distinguish himself from his primary opponent Byrd.
“I have nothing bad to say about him,” Benavidez said.
Byrd has focused on U.S. Rep. Hageman, criticizing her opposition to the U.S. Forest Service roadless rule that prevents road building on parts of national forests. Earlier this month he said the U.S. Forest Service’s own information debunks her claim that building roads is an antidote to wildfires.
Hageman did not respond to a question about Byrd’s roadless statement.
Byrd, who will be 72 on Election Day, also weighed in on a dust-up between a Black constituent and Hageman at a Worland town hall. He called that a “troubling exchange” after Courtney Seghetti disagreed with Hageman over whether racism is increasing in the country.
Hageman said racism is declining, according to Northern Wyoming News.
Byrd’s mother, Liz, was the first Black lawmaker elected to the state Legislature.
Divine intervention
Voters elected Hageman to Congress in 2022 and again in 2024. She sits on the House Natural Resources and Judiciary committees and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, along with several other subcommittees. Now she is seeking to move from the House to the U.S. Senate.
In recent weeks she has touted the work of President Trump’s administration and celebrated the July 4 birthday of “the greatest country that has ever existed.”
The United States is, she said on the floor of the U.S. House, a nation created not only by our forefathers’ vision but by “divine intervention.”
Hageman has touted “the most secure border in history,” economic advances for citizens and Wyoming’s energy resources and industries.
“The previous administration’s open border policy directly resulted in the deaths of Americans and wreaked havoc on almost every aspect of our lives,” she wrote for WyoFile’s election guide. “I have spoken with parents who lost children to fentanyl, whose daughters were murdered and raped by criminal illegal aliens, and whose schools are becoming less governable because of the influx of non-english-speaking [sic] students.”
She criticized criticism of the country. “There has been an organized move afoot since at least the 1960s to undermine our reverence for this great country,” she said in her House floor statement about the country’s 250th birthday celebration.
Among others, Hageman faces Sam Mead, a rancher, former Blue Origin engineer, former mayor of Kirby and whiskey distiller. He will be 37 on Election Day in November.
He has supported public lands, distinguishing himself from Hageman who signed on to a lawsuit challenging federal ownership of millions of acres in the West. “I do not support the wholesale sale of public lands,” he wrote for the WyoFile election guide. “The relationship between Wyoming and the federal government should be collaborative, not adversarial.”
Jill Edwards, a Laramie resident who is “a Wyoming mom who works multiple jobs,” is also running for the Republican nomination. A small business owner, certified massage therapist and travel professional, she will be 54 on election day and is keen on improving healthcare.
“Congress should focus on increasing competition, improving price transparency, expanding telehealth access, strengthening rural healthcare facilities, and supporting workforce development programs that encourage healthcare professionals to practice in rural communities,” she wrote for the election guide.
John Allan Holtz, a Laramie resident and former Douglas circuit court judge with a military, law and technical engineering background, is also on the Republican primary ballot. He is 76 and unmarried.
“I would make Social Security non-taxable once again,” he said in the election guide. He favors special legislation for rural hospitals.
Jimmy Skovgard, married, 60, and the father of four, also appears among the GOP choices. He began his career as a data analyst and retired from his oil field business cleaning drilling sites and spills.
“My strongest qualification is simple: I come from the people, with no strings tied to big money or institutions,” he said in the election guide. “As your senator, I would push for honest budgeting, plain-language vote explanations, term limits, rural infrastructure, responsible energy, public access, and agency oversight.”
WyoFile intern Calla Shosh contributed to this story.
