Baker County steer-wrestlers McGinn, Brown near top of world standings

Baker County had two steer wrestlers positioned inside the top six of the 2026 world standings, an uncommon local one-two punch that carried real money and a direct path to Las Vegas.

Mike McGinn of Haines stood fifth in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association race with $51,095, while Jesse Brown of Baker City was right behind in sixth with $44,210. In steer wrestling, the top 15 by season earnings qualify for the 10-day National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in early December, so both men were inside the cutline with room to spare this early in the season.

That mattered because the standings are built on prize money, not reputation. Every rodeo paycheck moves a cowboy closer to the National Finals Rodeo, where the sport’s biggest money is made and where a strong week can change a season. For Baker County, having two local athletes this high at once was the kind of rare showing that turns a rural county into a national contender.

Brown, 33, had already qualified for the National Finals for six straight years. He finished second in season earnings at the end of 2025 with $162,156 and had been even stronger inside the Finals, where he more than doubled that with $162,290 over the 10-day event. Brown also had finished third in the world standings in 2023 and sixth in 2024, when he banked $258,553, including $123,287 at the NFR. That track record made him the more established of the two Baker County contenders.

McGinn, 31, had been closing fast. He missed the 2025 NFR by just $1,693.55, finishing 16th, but his run last year still counted as a career-best surge. By Sept. 25, 2025, he was 18th and only $1,202.42 behind 15th, with season earnings of $99,093.68, already a personal best. Earlier in the year, he had climbed on the strength of a win at Clovis, California, and had been 18th with $29,623 in May.

Brown and McGinn had both spent much of 2025 in the hunt together. On July 21, Brown was second with $119,402 and McGinn was 13th with $71,452. Brown had also won rodeos in San Angelo and Fort Worth, adding to the cushion that eventually secured his sixth straight NFR berth before the regular season ended Sept. 30.

For Baker County, the numbers told a simple story: one cowboy with a proven Finals résumé, another making a hard charge toward his first breakthrough, and both carrying the county’s rodeo identity into the national standings.