Former Wyoming state legislator Marshall Burt, who made history in 2020 as the state’s first elected Libertarian legislator, failed to win the Republican nomination for the 39th legislative district last week, losing to incumbent Cody Wylie and one other challenger.
According to uncertified election results released by the Wyoming Secretary of State following Tuesday’s primary races, Wylie won the Republican nomination with 47.75% of the vote, defeating challengers Laura McKee and Burt. McKee finished second with 43.56%, while Burt garnered just 8.38%, placing third in the primary race. A total of 1,049 Republican voters participated in the primary.
| Candidate Name | Vote Total | Vote Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Cody Wylie | 501 | 47.75% |
| Laura Mckee | 457 | 43.56% |
| Marshall Burt | 88 | 8.38% |
| Write-in | 3 | 0.28% |
Burt initially won his seat in 2020 as part of the Libertarian Party’s Frontier Project, which aimed to focus party resources on competitive districts in the American West. In that election, he unseated incumbent Democratic legislator Stan Blake with 53.6% of the vote in a two-way race, becoming Wyoming’s first Libertarian state representative. However, Burt was defeated by Wylie in the 2022 election cycle, also in a two-way general election race.
After leaving the Libertarian Party, Burt changed his party affiliation and entered the Republican primary for his old seat earlier this year, citing dissatisfaction with national Libertarian leadership changes and shifts in party membership following the 2020 presidential election. In an interview with local media, he described the resulting factionalism as “unmatched by any other political party split.”
Sad to see our recent Libertarian legislator falling so low.
The lack of effort by the national LP in the recent past, to gather and direct donations from LP members all over the nation, towards the reelection campaigns of the few L’s that were able to get in State legislatures (e.g. Ebke in Nebraska, Phinney in NH, Burt in Wyoming) has been pathetic. It’s also obvious that the GOP primary voters of these days has little to no interest in supporting candidates that are for liberty either.