Wyoming Republicans chose Eric Barlow on Tuesday as their nominee for governor, handing the former state House Speaker and current state Sen. the party’s spot on the ballot in the race to succeed outgoing Gov. Mark Gordon. Barlow will now face Democrat Kenneth Casner in the Nov. 3 general election.
The win matters because the primary effectively decides who is most likely to lead Wyoming next year. The state leans overwhelmingly Republican, every statewide elected office is now held by a Republican and the party controls huge majorities in the Legislature, so the nominee who emerged on Tuesday enters the fall with a clear advantage.
Barlow beat a field that included Megan Degenfelder, who entered the Wyoming Republican gubernatorial primary with Donald Trump’s endorsement, and Brent Bien. Degenfelder finished second, Bien finished third and Curt Blake had less than 1,000 votes with 26% of the total counted. The early count showed Degenfelder and Barlow had raised about $1.3 million and $1.2 million, far more than Bien’s roughly $192,000, while Blake reported no money raised.
Gordon’s departure opened the race after two terms in office. Before Tuesday, he had considered seeking a third term and challenging Wyoming’s two-term-limit law, then decided against another bid. That left Republicans to settle the contest themselves in a year when the governor’s race is only one of several open seats at the top of the ballot.
What makes Barlow’s victory notable is not just that he won, but that he won without the endorsement that many in the party would have treated as the natural favorite’s edge. The result showed that in Wyoming, money, national backing and name recognition can still be overtaken by local party judgment when the race is decided inside the Republican primary.
Barlow now heads into November as the clear favorite in a state where Republicans dominate statewide politics, but the general election still gives voters a formal choice. By January, the next governor is expected to move into the governor's mansion, and the race between Barlow and Casner will be the final step before that transition.
