Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon.
The Canary in Wyoming
What the reddest state just told us about November
The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #1,011: Friday, August 28th, 2026
The smallest election story of the week happened in Wyoming.
Not Georgia. Not Arizona. Not Philadelphia or Maricopa County; none of the places where the networks park satellite trucks and wait for something to go wrong.
Wyoming. Fewer than 600,000 people. The reddest state in the union where the Republican primary is the election and everybody’s cousin works at the courthouse.
On August 18, the Justice Department sent two attorneys from its Civil Rights Division to Laramie County to watch the primary.
Nine days later, the Republican governor asked his own Republican attorney general to investigate them.
Read that again.
What Actually Happened
Governor Mark Gordon called the observers’ conduct “aggressive” and “irregular.”
Nobody in Wyoming got a heads-up; not state homeland security…not the state attorney general…not the county clerk. To Gordon’s knowledge…not even the U.S. Attorney for Wyoming.
Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee…Republican…called it a poorly managed exercise that disregarded state law.
Here’s the part everyone skips.
Gordon said he was not objecting to the observers. He said the election was run beautifully. He said nothing went wrong. His complaint was narrower than that: their behavior seemed to exceed the authority Congress gave them.
That’s not a partisan grievance. That’s a plumbing complaint.
Which is exactly why it matters.
Before I Go Further–The Other Side
I’m not burying this at the bottom where nobody reads it.
Federal election monitoring is not new…not illegal…and not invented by this administration. Both parties have done it for sixty years.
The Biden DOJ sent personnel to 86 jurisdictions across 27 states in 2024. DOJ says these monitors train…on the same materials as their predecessors…enforcing the Voting Rights Act and the ADA; including protections for disabled voters. Wyoming’s U.S. Attorney framed the mission as protecting every lawful vote.
Serious people believe exactly that. Some of them think a thousand monitors…is a thousand reasons to trust the result.
Voting rights groups make the mirror-image argument: a federal presence that size could chill turnout in immigrant and non-English-speaking neighborhoods…whatever anyone intended.
And…it’s entirely possible Wyoming was a scheduling failure. Two lawyers…who forgot to send an email.
Fine.
Now do the math anyway.
The Math
Two lawyers. One county. A sleepy August primary in the least populous state in America.
That produced a governor’s investigation…a furious clerk…and a week of national headlines.
In November, DOJ plans roughly 1,000 monitors. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced the figure; a record for a Republican administration.
So…multiply the personnel by five hundred. Multiply the turnout by ten. Add Senate and House races that decide control of Congress. Add a phone camera…in every third pocket.
If the smallest possible version of this produced a formal investigation…then the system’s tolerance for sloppiness is zero. November will not be the smallest possible version.
Five Things I’d Bet On
1. The friction won’t break along party lines.
Wyoming settled that. Elections in this country…are run by county clerks…and clerks guard their polling places the way a chef guards his kitchen. Red…blue…purple…doesn’t matter.
2. Advance notice becomes the whole ballgame.
Nobody in Cheyenne objected to being watched. They objected…to being surprised. Watch for states demanding notification protocols…in writing…between now and November. The ones that get them…will have quiet elections.
3. State attorneys general become main characters.
Gordon didn’t call a press conference. He called a lawyer. Multiply that instinct across fifty states…and understand that much of it…will be Republicans filing against a Republican administration.
4. Every small incident gets drafted into a big argument.
One clerk’s bad afternoon becomes national evidence…of federal overreach…or of fraud finally being caught…depending entirely on who’s holding the microphone. The frame travels faster than the facts. Both directions.
5. The fight outlasts the count.
Arguments about how the watching was conducted don’t get resolved on election night. They resolve in court…in hearings…and in next year’s legislative sessions.
One Ask
If you know someone who works in a county clerk’s office–anywhere, either party–send them this piece.
They’re the ones who will see it first in November…and…they’re the ones nobody thinks to ask. Then restack it… so the next clerk finds it, too.
#HoldFast
Back soon.
-Jack
Jack Hopkins
P.S. Watch the county clerks. Not the pundits…not the candidates…not the cable panels. The clerks hold the keys…answer to their neighbors…and have no national press operation protecting them.
When something goes sideways in November…they will say so…before Washington does…because they already did. Nine days ago. In a room in Cheyenne. While nobody was watching.
Sources
Primary documents
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs — Justice Department to Conduct Election Monitoring in Florida and Wyoming Primary Elections (Aug. 18, 2026)
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-conduct-election-monitoring-florida-and-wyoming-primary-electionsU.S. Department of Justice — Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 27 States for Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws (2024, archived)
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-monitor-polls-27-states-compliance-federal-voting-rights-laws
Gov. Gordon’s remarks and the Wyoming reaction
WyoFile — Gov. Gordon concerned by ‘aggressive’ DOJ election observers during Wyoming’s primary election
https://wyofile.com/gov-gordon-concerned-by-aggressive-doj-election-observers-during-wyomings-primary-election/Wyoming Tribune Eagle — Gov. Gordon concerned by ‘aggressive’ DOJ election observers during Wyoming’s primary
http://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/gov-gordon-concerned-by-aggressive-doj-election-observers-during-wyoming-s-primary/article_84eecdb6-b16d-45f4-9bec-7f9286412a3e.htmlNBC News — Wyoming’s Republican governor raises concerns over ‘aggressive’ DOJ election monitors
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/wyoming-republican-governor-concerns-aggressive-doj-election-monitors-rcna594730The Hill — Wyoming GOP governor claims DOJ election monitors acted ‘aggressive’
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/6055691-wyoming-governor-criticizes-doj-election-monitors/
The 1,000-monitor deployment
CBS News — Justice Department to send a record 1,000 monitors to polling places in midterm elections
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-election-monitors-midterms/Bloomberg — DOJ Plans to Deploy 1,000 Monitors to Watch Midterm Elections
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-17/doj-plans-to-deploy-1-000-monitors-to-watch-midterm-electionsUPI — Justice Department to send 1,000 poll monitors to watch elections this fall
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/08/18/doj-1000-poll-monitors/6201787074910/NOTUS — DOJ Plans to Deploy a ‘Historic Number’ of Midterm Election Monitors
https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/doj-election-midterm-monitorsWashington Examiner — DOJ plans to send 1,000 poll monitors to watch midterm elections
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/4690825/doj-send-1000-poll-monitor-midterm/Democracy Docket — Trump DOJ readies 1,000 election monitors for midterms
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-doj-readies-1000-election-monitors-for-midterm-elections/
The 2024 precedent
NPR — The Justice Department is sending monitors to 27 states for the general election
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/05/g-s1-32596/the-justice-department-plans-to-send-monitors-to-27-states-for-the-general-electionFortune / Associated Press — Florida and Texas say they won’t let DOJ monitors into polling places
https://fortune.com/2024/11/05/florida-texas-doj-monitors-polling-places-watching-violations
Thanks, Jack. I had to read the article from wyomingnews.com for the specifics of the overreach and aggressive behavior. Everyone needs to know about what they will do.
We can be pretty, pretty sure that they will try these techniques all over the country. They thought Wyoming was a safe place to try out their scheme. Ha! As Governor Gordon puts it, “I feel very strongly about federal government coming in and taking our guns,” he said. “I don’t like that. And I don’t like federal government coming in and taking our votes either.”
Here are the examples of the aggression tactics, including the lame excuse of the notice going to a wrong email address. Lee is the name of the clerk. Read and prepare!
“Two individuals, identifying themselves as DOJ election monitors, informed our poll worker that they were here to monitor Wyoming’s Primary Elections,” Lee said in a statement released Wednesday evening. “They did not offer their credentials until I requested they do so.”
Their presence also caught the longtime clerk off-guard. “Shortly after learning of their presence, I spoke with a DOJ official in Washington who informed me that the decision to deploy monitors to Wyoming was made on short notice, and an email had been sent to me, but it may have gone to the wrong address,” Lee wrote.
The monitors arrived at a busy time and asked questions, according to Lee, that appeared “outside the scope of federal voting rights laws. They included questions about the nature, length, and timing of poll worker training. Monitors requested training guides, asked how our new election equipment was acquired, and wanted to examine our tabulators.”
When she learned that the monitors also planned to interview voters “to assess compliance with federal civil rights and voting rights law,” she denied that request. “We do not allow interviews to be conducted in polling places,” Lee said.
“This was a poorly managed exercise and one that showed complete disregard for our state laws and administration of our elections,” her statement concluded.
https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/gov-gordon-concerned-by-aggressive-doj-election-observers-during-wyoming-s-primary/article_84eecdb6-b16d-45f4-9bec-7f9286412a3e.html
Thanks Jack ! Very interesting , the only thing I know about Wyoming is there are a lot of hideous crimes and prisons , glad they take care with voting