The 2026 Election. 28th Edition. The Count (before the coup).
Counting Mayfield, Hill County Texas, ballots, 2/20/24.
November 3, 2026. 0000.
And so the fateful day has arrived.
Election Day, November 3, 2026.
And a fateful day it will be. The election of 2026 is the most important election since that one held on November 3, 1860. By the end of the day, if predictions hold, it will have taken a step back from fascism. The question will be how big of step back it will be, how much of a step in a new direction, and whether the step is so decisive that a major GOP/Fascist coup attempt can be averted.
I have my doubts.
What seems certain, if early predictions are correct, are that the Democrats, as disliked as they seem to be, will regain the House of Representatives. Polling seems to suggest that there may be a "blue wave" that swamps the GOP in the House. If that's correct, the House may have taken a major Democratic Party turn and a turn back towards real democracy. It seems likely that the Senate may be taken by the Democrats, but it's not likely that it'll be a "wave". But it's not impossible either. It'll take both to really arrest a Trump coup attempt, and it will take both to really being to turn the arch of history back towards democracy.
Another question is to what degree Wyoming participates in this. Wyoming is so ignored in the overall polls that, going into this day, we really don't know.
People who are of the betting persuasion would have placed their bets on Chuck Gray and Harriet Hageman right after the primary. But bets on Gray are much less certain now. Gray is widely despised and rightly so. The best thing that could happen to him, and for him, and for the state, would be to send him packing. He needs to become a real boy and get a real job. Lisa Kinney might be the person who symbolically does that for him, and to him, although if that's the case, she'll be a one term Congressman, elected solely to put an end in a carpetbagger's career, which would be a service to the state in and of itself.
A much better candidate, all the way around, is James Byrd. Byrd's chances of defeating Harriet Hageman are not as good as Kinney's are of defeating Gray, but they are real.
Otherwise, the big question is whether gadfly Rebecca Bextel of the "Constitution" Party, and Shawn Johnson of the Libertarian Party, draw enough votes to qualify both of those parties as "major" parties.
Bextel, who is engaged in a hopelessly naive campaign against Eric Barlow for the Governor's seat, comes across as a potty mouth, ignorant, Southerner, but there are right now enough potty mouth, ignorant carpetbaggers to perhaps give her 10% of the vote. It's ironic in that the Constitution Party candidate for the House isn't a Southerner or ignorant, but the Constitution Party is smart enough to mount up a Southern Mule when they see one, if it profits them. Their beliefs are genuinely wacky, and Bextel pegs out on the wacky meter, and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is the Woodstock of wacky, so she is likely to draw at least 10%.
My guess is that Shawn Johnson will as well. Wyoming Libertarians aren't real Libertarians, so some disaffected Republicans can in fact feel comfortable voting for them. Some Anybody But Chuck Republicans' who can't stomach voting for a Democrat will vote for Johnson instead.
Overall, if this election broke the back of the two party system, which is unlikely, in Wyoming, it would be a good thing. The batshit crazy wing of the GOP should be in the Constitution Party. The flirting with anarchy wing of the GOP should be Libertarians. Would that we had an American Solidarity Party that was viable here. The Two Party System is moronic.
And, due to its failure, we have Donald Trump as President.
The next two years will not be easy. The best thing that could happen for the republic today is that there was such a blue wave that Trump could, and would, be impeached. That would allow the GOP to save itself, as spineless bastards like John Barrasso realized that they had to save themselves, his primary instinct, and moved towards the middle. Other GOP figures held captive by cowardice would as well. That would leave National Conservative chameleon J. D. Vance as President. Vance is actually conservative, extremely so, but with some sort of a philosophy. Trump is just about Trump. Vance also has a survivors instinct.
But will that sort of majority happen by the end of the day? Probably not.
Recovery takes years for many things. We are likely to start on that path today. A lot of us won't be around anymore by the time we probably get there. But a lot of us probably will.
04:10
The Tribune reports that 5,000 people have voted early in Natrona County. Only 1,500 did in the last election.
Absentee ballots with a postmark no later than 7:00 p.m. today will be counted. If races are close, this may make a difference.
04:37
The United States Supreme Court rejected a request to review a coup attempt on California's mail in ballots. The coup working through the U.S. Attorney's office sought to require verification of citizenship for 20,000 California mail in ballots.
07:00
The polls in Wyoming are now open.
Last edition:
The 2026 Election. 27th Edition. The Impending Clerico-Fascist Coup.
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Men removing ballot boxes from the William S. Vare - William B. Wilson Pennsylvania senate election from truck at the Capitol, Washington, D.C.
