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| Elections in Wyoming | ||||||||||||
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The2022 Wyoming Secretary of State election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect theSecretary of State of Wyoming. On April 18, 2022, incumbentRepublicanEdward Buchanan announced that he would run for re-election, but on May 17 he reversed this decision, choosing not to seek a second term.[1][2]State RepresentativeChuck Gray won the Republican nomination on August 16 with the backing of former presidentDonald Trump. He is a supporter ofTrump's claim that he won the 2020 election. Gray was unopposed in the general election.[3][4]
U.S. presidents
Statewide officials
Both Tara Nethercott and Chuck Gray made "election integrity" a campaign focus, though with competing approaches to the subject.[7][8][9]
Chuck Gray was described by theAssociated Press as "one of Wyoming's most Trump-like legislators". He briefly entered the2022 House of Representatives election againstLiz Cheney after her vote toimpeach Trump over theJanuary 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, but failed to secure Trump's endorsement and withdrew to run for secretary of state. Gray attended the2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit, and has advocated banningballot drop boxes and instituting mandatory hand-countedelection audits. He advocates thefalse position that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump and has hosted screenings ofDinesh D'Souza's election conspiracy film2000 Mules across the state. He has accusedthe media of refusing to cover evidence ofelectoral fraud. Gray was endorsed by Trump in August.[7][8][9][3][6]
Tara Nethercott affirmed the 2020 election as secure, saying "there has been no objective evidence to indicate that the 2020 presidential election was stolen," and "continuing allegations to the contrary are undermining our country". Nethercott served on the 2017 Plan for Aging Voting Equipment Task Force, and her approach to election integrity involved shifting to machines without internet connectivity and streamlining the processing of absentee ballots. In 2022, she voted for a law that gave clerks the option to process absentee ballots received before election day. Gray voted against the bill, calling it an "awful piece of legislation".[8][9]
Days before the August 16 primary election, Chuck Gray's campaign sent text messages to primary voters claiming Tara Nethercott was being sued forslander, was being investigated for violations ofcampaign finance law, and voted for a $30,000 pay raise for herself. In afact check, WyoFile determined all three allegations to be untrue. Nethercott had previously sent mailers to voters criticizing Gray for personally loaning $300,000 to one of his previous campaigns. Given Gray's reported annual income of $11,000, the source of the funds was unclear. Former secretary of stateMax Maxfield, who endorsed Nethercott, filed a federal complaint against Gray alleging the money had come from apolitical action committee rather than his finances. Gray countered that the money was an inheritance from his grandfather. When reached for comment by WyoFile about the anti-Nethercott texts, Gray declined to comment on the texts and instead accused Nethercott of lying in her mailer.[10][11][12]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Gray | 75,972 | 48.3 | |
| Republican | Tara Nethercott | 63,069 | 40.1 | |
| Republican | Mark Armstrong | 14,304 | 9.1 | |
| Republican | Dan Dockstader (withdrawn) | 3,698 | 2.3 | |
| Write-in | 410 | 0.3 | ||
| Total votes | 157,453 | 100% | ||
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[14] | Safe R | December 1, 2021 |
| Elections Daily[15] | Safe R | November 7, 2022 |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Gray | 147,402 | 91.57 | ||
| Write-in | 13,573 | 8.43 | |||
| Total votes | 160,975 | 100.0 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
