Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, November 6th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily's Jake Nichols takes you deeper into the stories that matter - and keeps up with the news, weather and sports in your part of Wyoming. Just tune into Cowboy State Daily Dot Com and join the conversation.

It was a late night Tuesday for election workers around the state of Wyoming. Final reporting in many Wyoming counties didn't occur until close to midnight, with polling places around the state reporting long lines for those waiting to cast their votes.

There were a number of districts with hotly contested races. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland stayed close to the Clerk's office in Fremont County in the evening, waiting to find out the winner of the race between Republican Sarah Penn and Democrat Ivan Posey.

But during the day, she spent time at the polling location in Arapahoe, where she found a very engaged group of voters coming out to support Posey, a longtime leader of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, in the race for House District 33.

"I actually tried to vote in Arapaho today on the reservation. I thought it would be faster, um, and it was, it was not faster, because there were so many people either registering for the first time or registering after a hiatus… even though this district has twice as many registered Republicans. Maybe that democratic voting block in some of these reservation towns really came out in full force to support Posey. And then in exit interviews, of course, at Arapaho, it was 100% Posey."

With his victory, Posey will be the only enrolled tribal member serving on the Wyoming Legislature.

In Albany County, Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz was closely watching two races. The county, which has been leaning more blue in recent elections, voted to retain Democrat Karlee Provenza of Laramie, who won a third term in Wyoming House District 45. She beat Republican challenger Paul Crouch by a more than 2-1 margin.

"Provenza's district is… one of those few places in Wyoming where the script is flipped in so far as the Republicans going to be the underdog and the Democrats going to be on top, I think it, it centers on the University of Wyoming… Provenza has been well liked in her district for a long time. And you know, her Challenger was kind of a newcomer."

Democrats also prevailed in the race between incumbent Trey Sherwood, who was challenged by Republican Joe Giustozzi.

"The showing of the Republican was a little bit stronger than it was in Provenza's race, but it was still pretty handily won by Trey Sherwood, who's returning for a third term, and, you know, she told me she's going to continue to emphasize education and housing, I mean, and those are two huge topics in Laramie."

Provenza and Sherwood's victories mean continued stability for Democrats in Albany County. It and Teton County are Wyoming's only blue-leaning areas.

Read the full story HERE.

Politics reporter Leo Wolfson has been following the race between Sara Burlingame and Jacob Wasserburger, as well as Jen Solis vs. Gary Brown, in Laramie County. He reports that the Burlingame-Wasserburger race was fairly contentious. Both candidates ran aggressive, high dollar campaigns, slinging significant mud and negative mailers against each other.

"Political newcomer Jacob Wasserberger, a Cheyenne resident, beat Democrat Sara Burlingame to earn his spot in the Wyoming Legislature… I talked to Wasser burger after his win, he beat Burlingame by exactly 2