On November 15, the Wyoming Secretary of State released the official election returns. See them here. Libertarian State House nominee Bethany Baldes, in the 55th district, polled 49.2% of the vote in a two-person race. The Republican incumbent, David Miller, won with 50.8%.
Wyoming has not elected any third party nominee to the legislature since 1900, when a Populist won a State Senate seat.
Wyoming did elect an independent to the State House, in the 22nd district. This is the first time an independent had been elected to the Wyoming state house since 1976. Here is a story about Jim Roscoe, who is a former Democrat.
Almost? Really? ALMOST? Well geez Louise! Hillary Clinton ALMOST became president. Mitt Romney ALMOST became president etc. etc. etc…..
Another almost —
PR in late 1860s in the USA gerrymander Congress
— after some folks noted the 750,000 plus DEAD in 1861-1865 as a direct result of the 1860 minority rule gerrymanders.
This was an incredibly impressive performance by Bethany Baldes. In a two-way race, she came within 57 votes of defeating the Republican incumbent who has held the seat since 2000. Moreover, he is the House Majority Leader! The national Libertarian Party got behind her campaign with money and personnel and came very close to one of the biggest upsets in party history. A smart strategy for the national LP, in my opinion: focus on a few winnable races with electable candidates and get some wins.
According to Reason magazine:
The near-win was the fruit of a strategy pushed by Apollo Pazell, a campaign adviser with the national Libertarian Party. “We need to create a narrative of wins,” he said in a phone interview last month. To begin that narrative, he thought the L.P. should find races where the total number of votes needed to win was small and there was only one major party opponent, then find a good candidate with strong local roots, and dig in with retail campaigning.
Baldes, a fifth-generation Wyoming woman, was someone who was “part of the day-to-day life of this small town, and they didn’t ever see David Miller,” Pazell said. Miller didn’t even spend all year in the state, Pazell said, and returned only late in the game to do any campaigning.
Baldes injured her leg during the course of the campaign and had to be wheelchaired or hobble on crutches to personally campaign, which she did. Pazell led a team of six volunteers working full-time for four weeks to hit each and every door in her district, centered on the city of Riverton, three times.
Baldes sought and received endorsements from the majority of the Riverton City Council, the county attorney, and more than one former mayor. A couple of weeks before tonight’s squeaker, Pazell said they already had over 250 signs up in a town of about 2,500 houses, and had run three local radio ads.