Albany County commissioner candidates face voters at Laramie forum
Albany County voters got a hybrid county commission forum at the public library, where budget, roads and services loomed over a race in Wyoming’s 8th-largest county.
The League of Women Voters of Laramie and the Albany County Public Library put county commission candidates in front of voters at a hybrid forum Thursday, June 18, at 310 S. 8th St. The setup gave residents an in-person seat, a livestream and later recordings, making the race easier to judge through direct questions and side-by-side comparison.
The field matters because Albany County spans 4,274.2 square miles, making it Wyoming’s 8th largest county by area, with Laramie as the county seat and communities such as Rock River and Centennial also drawing on county services. In a county that large, commissioners decide how money turns into road work, public safety, land use and the everyday operations people rely on, so voters are weighing more than campaign style.
That budget picture is already tight and concrete. Albany County currently levies all 12 mills allowed under state law for county operations, and part of that revenue is dedicated to the county fair and county library. County commissioners adopted the FY 2025-2026 budget after a public hearing on June 30, 2025, and county budget records show the federal Payment in Lieu of Taxes payment came in at about $2 million during that process, above the projected $1.2 million. Those figures shape the choices any commissioner will face when roads, facilities and services all compete for the same dollars.
The forum was part of a broader primary-election series the League and library are hosting every Thursday at 7 p.m. The League said it will continue its more than 50-year partnership with the Laramie Boomerang on a printed Albany County Primary Election Voter Guide dated July 22, 2026, and its Vote411 candidate-information site was already online for the season. For voters sorting through candidates including Kayla White, Tracy Fletcher, Thad Hoff, Pete Gosar and Terri Jones, the forum offered one more way to test how each would handle the county’s mix of urban, rural and budget pressures.
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