Election results

Alexis Barkers
NLJ News Editor
 
Tuesday’s Primary Election held some incredibly close races. Locally, in the Weston County commissioner’s race, Ed Wagoner was able to secure the most votes with a tally of 1,098 votes. Newcomer Don Taylor was not far behind with 1,077 votes and Vera Huber came in with 1,074 votes. Early numbers showed different results following an incomplete report from Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock to start of the evening. All results, however, are unofficial until they can be verified.
Unofficial results shows support for newcomers in several state and local races while well-known politicians were able to snag the win for both federal house and senate nominations. A total of 2,230 votes were cast in Weston County. 
Incumbent Councilman Roger Hespe will not see the 2020 General Election ballot after receiving 436 total votes. Councilman Thomas Voss, who has twice been appointed to the Newcastle City Council, was able to seal his bid for a council seat with 475 votes. The top vote-getters for the council seats are incumbent Michael Alexander with 512 votes, and newcomer Daren Downs with 542 votes. 
As for Newcastle’s mayor, councilwoman Pam Gualtieri was able to secure the most votes against longtime councilman Don Steveson. Gualtieri received 508 votes while Steveson only managed to secure 352. 
With two open seats on the Upton Town Council, Justin Norman ran unopposed and received 285 votes. Announcing a last-minute write-in campaign was Nicholas Trandahl, who garnered a total of 103 write-in votes for the Upton Town Council race. 
Running unopposed, recently appointed Weston County Clerk of District Court Tina Cote received 1,317 votes. Rep. Hans Hunt, also running unopposed, received 997 votes during the Aug. 18 primary Tuesday. 
In what was considered shocking to some in the gathered crowd at the Weston County Courthouse, newcomer Chip Neiman, who secured 485 votes or 64.01%, edged out incumbent Rep. Tyler Lindholm, who received 398 votes. 
Taking the most votes in Weston County for both the U.S. Senate and U.S. Representative seats are two Wyomingites that are familiar with politics. Cynthia Lummis secured her spot in the general election with 1,162 votes. Bryan Miller was the closest to Lummis with 276 votes, followed by Donna Rice with 151 votes and Robert Short who received 149 votes. 
Current Representative Liz Cheney received 67.77% of the votes in the 2020 Weston County Republican Primary, with 1,409 votes. Blake Stanley managed to pull in 590 votes against the longtime politician. 
A total of 107 Democrats cast ballots in Weston County on Tuesday. United States Senate candidate Merav Ben David received the most votes, with 37 total. Rounding out the top three were Yana Ludwig with 25 votes and Rex Wilde with 14. 
Running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative in the 2020 General Election, Lynnette Grey Bull pulled the most Weston County votes with 46. Securing a close second was Carol Hafner with 33 votes and Carl Beach managed 24 votes.