Weekend Poll: Wyoming Congressional Race

Darin Smith of Cheyenne on Friday became the latest candidate to announce plans to run for Wyoming's congressional seat in 2022.

While the election is over a year away, this race seems to be generating an unusual amount of early interest. Much of that is being driven by the fact that incumbent Liz Cheney has angered supporters of former President Donald Trump by voting to impeach him in January and for continuing a war of words with Trump.

The former president, meanwhile, has repeatedly criticized Cheney saying, among other things, that she has almost no political support in Wyoming. Trump has pledged to endorse a candidate to oppose Cheney and says her opponents need to get behind one candidate to avoid splitting the anti-Cheney vote. When the former president said he thought Cheney might not even run for re-election to avoid an embarrassing loss, Cheney called that ''wishful thinking."

Cheney reportedly may be removed from her position as the third-ranking Republican in the House next week.

At last report, however, Trump had not yet endorsed anyone.

Announced challengers to Cheney include state legislators Anthony Bouchard and Chuck Gray, as well as Marissa Joy Selvig and Darin Smith. Potential candidates who are rumored to be interested in running include William Perry Pendley, the former acting head of the Bureau of Land Management,  and Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Buchanan.

All of those candidates are Republicans, and things have been pretty quiet on the Democratic side. Wyoming has not elected a Democrat to Congress since Teno Roncalio of Rock Springs in the late 1970s.

So do you have a favorite candidate? We'll publish the results of our poll next week.