In elections for the Wyoming Legislature, every vote counts. 

This is especially true in the primary elections, which tend to have very low turnout but also essentially decide who will win the seat in most races.

In a new series, EVERY VOTE COUNTS, Better Wyoming looks at primary elections from recent years for the Wyoming House and Senate that featured two very different candidates and were decided by just a handful of ballots.

This should serve as a reminder that your vote matters, and encouragement to commit to vote in both the primary and general elections in 2026.

 

RACE: House District 9 - Cheyenne

YEAR: 2024

Rep. Landon Brown (incumbent) vs. Exie Brown

OUTCOME: 

Landon Brown - 725 votes

Exie Brown - 708 votes

MARGIN OF VICTORY: 17 votes

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The primary election in 2024 for one Cheyenne district pitted Republican candidates against each other who had very different views on  property taxes, public school funding, and banning books.

Their race came down to fewer than two dozen votes.

MAJOR DIFFERENCES ON MAJOR ISSUES

Incumbent Rep. Landon Brown—who had vocally supported U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney during her 2022 defeat by Harriet Hageman and was a leader in the short-lived “Wyoming Caucus”—took a fiscally cautious approach to tax reform.

Landon Brown stated on the campaign trail that the Legislature had just passed four bills cutting property taxes, and in his perspective the state needed to wait and see what these real-world effects would be on local government and education funding prior to cutting any further.

Exie Brown (no relation), on the other hand, ran on a platform aligned with the Freedom Caucus that included further large-scale property tax cuts, despite not knowing what their real impact would be. Exie Brown received an endorsement from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ PAC.

Exie Brown explained in his campaign that he supported cuts to public education funding in order to pay for further property tax reductions.

Exie Brown also supported a statewide ban on books that politicians find offensive from public and school libraries.

In contrast, Landon Brown argued that decisions about library books should be made at the local level. A longtime member of the House Education Committee, Landon Brown also supported properly funding Wyoming’s K-12 education system.

A NAIL-BITER OUTCOME ... AND A REMATCH

The race for HD-9 was a real nail-biter. After receiving a deluge of mailers from the WY Freedom Caucus PAC and Make Liberty Win PAC supporting Exie Brown, voters in that district initially seemed as though they were going to select the newcomer over the incumbent.

As voting closed on Primary Election Day, Exie Brown had a narrow lead. But Landon Brown pulled ahead once all the mail-in votes were counted.

It was among the closest House races in 2024, with very real differences between the two candidates, demonstrating—once again—that every vote counts in primary elections for the Wyoming Legislature.

This year, Landon Brown and Exie Brown have both announced they will run for the seat in 2026.