Albany County filing deadline nears, commission race draws multiple candidates
The county commission field already includes incumbents Pete Gosar and Terri Jones, with seven names filed for Laramie City Council before Friday's deadline.
Albany County voters are beginning to see who may shape county spending, city services and the next round of local tax decisions, as the primary filing window closes Friday and several familiar names reappear on the ballot.
The county commission race already includes sitting commissioners Pete Gosar and Terri Jones, along with Klaus Halbsgut, Chris Cleven and Merav Ben David. That mix matters because the three-member commission will help steer the county’s budget, public services and the follow-through on the one-percent sixth-penny sales tax package voters approved May 5 by 3,051 to 852. Wyoming Public Media reported that about 78% of roughly 3,900 ballots cast supported the renewal.
On the city side, Laramie City Council filings include Brandon Newman, Rayne Goins, Karryn MacDonald, Erin O’Doherty, Nicholas Jesse, Samuel Buckwalter and Eric Henderson. City council races in Wyoming are nonpartisan, while county offices such as commissioner are partisan, so voters will be choosing candidates under two different local election systems even as both races are decided on the same county calendar.
Albany County’s election rules also shape how the field narrows. For municipal primaries, twice as many candidates advance to the general election as there are seats to be filled, so the August primary is designed to winnow the list before November. County offices on the 2026 ballot include commissioner, coroner, attorney, sheriff, clerk, treasurer, assessor and clerk of district court, and municipal candidates file with the Laramie City Clerk’s Office even though the county runs the election process.
The filing period for the 2026 primary election runs from May 14 through 5:00 p.m. MDT Friday, May 29. The primary is set for August 18, 2026, and the general election for November 3, 2026. Albany County’s own schedule also sets a general-election filing window from August 5 through August 25.
The races are unfolding in a county the U.S. Census Bureau estimates at 38,558 residents, with Laramie at 32,284. Albany County also said it will use vote centers instead of precinct polling places for 2026 and future elections, another change residents will notice long before they mark a ballot.
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