Wyoming voters spent Tuesday picking nominees for the open U.S. Senate seat that one-term Sen. Cynthia Lummis is leaving. Unofficial returns from the Wyoming Secretary of State, current through 13 of 23 counties that have finished processing every precinct, show U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman far ahead in the Republican primary and former state lawmaker James Byrd ahead on the Democratic side. National election desks have already projected both nominations. The board at the top of this page tracks the unofficial statewide summary as counties finish their work.

What the unofficial board shows

The live table above is not a copy of a television network feed. It is compiled from the Secretary of State's unofficial statewide candidates summary, the document Cheyenne posts after counties have processed 100 percent of their precincts. That is a slower, cleaner standard than the partial-county estimates national desks use when they talk about expected vote. It is also why this board can still show 13 of 23 counties even after networks have already projected a winner.

In the counties that have finished, Hageman holds a wide lead over Mead, the former mayor of Kirby. Jimmy Skovgard, Jill M. Edwards, and John Holtz are clustered in the low single digits. Write-ins account for a sliver of the Republican total. On the Democratic ballot, Byrd's lead over Benavidez is larger in percentage terms, though the raw Democratic vote in a Wyoming primary is a fraction of the Republican vote.

Geography still matters in the remaining pile. Teton County, one of the 13 that have reported in full, is the clearest exception to the statewide Republican pattern: Mead leads there, 2,779 to 1,002. Natrona, the largest county on the current sheet, breaks the other way, 9,794 to 4,669 for Hageman. Park, Fremont, Uinta, and Converse follow the same Hageman-majority shape. The counties still processing include some of the state's larger population centers. They will move the raw totals. They are unlikely, on the numbers already posted, to reopen the nomination.

Why this primary was the race

Lummis's decision not to seek a second term opened a Senate seat in a state that has not been competitive at the federal level in a generation. In practical terms, the Republican primary is the contest that decides who will hold the seat in January. Hageman entered as the sitting at-large House member, with President Donald Trump's endorsement and the backing of Wyoming's other senator, John Barrasso, as well as Lummis herself. Mead ran as a local executive with a famous state name — nephew of former Gov. Matt Mead and great-grandson of former Sen. Clifford Hansen — and tried to make the race a choice about independence from national machinery.

That contrast is the same one Wyoming Republicans tested in the governor's race on the same ballot. State Sen. Eric Barlow, a rancher and veterinarian, defeated Trump-endorsed Megan Degenfelder in unofficial returns that also remain incomplete by the Secretary of State's full-county standard. The Senate result and the gubernatorial result do not tell the same story. Hageman's nomination is the case where the national endorsement and the institutional favorite held. Barlow's nomination is the case where they did not. Treating them as a single referendum on Trump's grip on the state oversimplifies both.

The Democratic side, and November

Wyoming Democrats nominated from a two-person field. Byrd, a former state lawmaker, leads Benavidez by roughly three to one in the counties that have finished. Wyoming outlets have already framed the general election as Hageman against Byrd. In a state this Republican, that November ballot is not where the seat is usually decided. It is where the party that lost the real fight still has to show up, raise money, and force the nominee to defend a record.

For Hageman, the House-to-Senate move is a promotion inside a delegation that will remain entirely Republican if the fall follows form. For Byrd, the nomination is a chance to put a Democrat on a statewide debate stage at a moment when energy policy, public lands, and the federal footprint in the West are again live arguments in Washington. Neither campaign should confuse a projected primary with a certified canvass. Counties still have to finish. The state still has to certify. The board on this page will move when Cheyenne's unofficial summary moves.

How to read the remaining counties

The counties still missing from the unofficial summary are Albany, Big Horn, Campbell, Carbon, Crook, Goshen, Laramie, Lincoln, Sheridan, and Sweetwater. Some of those are small. Laramie County is not. Campbell and Sweetwater are energy counties with Republican electorates that have historically resembled the rest of the state more than Teton. Albany, home to the University of Wyoming, is the county most likely to look different from Natrona. Even a strong Mead showing there would have to be enormous to close a gap of more than 20,000 votes on the current sheet.

National desks that fold in partial precincts will keep quoting a higher share of expected vote than this page does. That is a difference in method, not a contradiction. Their estimate answers a different question: how much of the eventual statewide pile is already in. The Secretary of State answers a narrower one: which counties are done. This page stays with the narrower official document so the numbers can be checked against a public PDF.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is ahead in the Wyoming Republican Senate primary?
Hageman leads Mead 63.6 percent to 29.6 percent in the 13 counties that have filed complete unofficial reports with the Secretary of State. The Associated Press has projected her as the nominee.

Who is ahead in the Democratic primary?
Byrd leads Benavidez 75.9 percent to 21.4 percent in those same counties. Wyoming outlets have projected him as the Democratic nominee.

Why does this page show fewer votes than television boards?
This board only counts counties that have processed every precinct. Network boards include partial county returns and an estimate of expected vote.

Are these results official?
No. They are unofficial until the Wyoming Secretary of State certifies the canvass. Late ballots and county corrections can still move totals.

What happens in November?
The projected nominees are Hageman and Byrd. Wyoming has been reliably Republican in Senate elections for decades, which is why Tuesday's Republican primary was the decisive contest.

What happens next

Counties that have not finished will keep posting. The Secretary of State's unofficial PDF will update when they do. This page polls that feed and will refresh the bars without a reload. Certification comes later, after the canvass. Until then, treat every total on this board as unofficial, every projection as a news-desk judgment, and the remaining ten counties as the last unfinished business of Wyoming's Senate primary night.