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Endorses Love
The race
Senate District 6 elects 1 seat in 2026 — a special election for the remainder of a term that ordinarily runs to 2028, voted alongside the general election on November 3, 2026. The district covers Platte County and a portion of Laramie County (House Districts 4 and 10 are nested inside it). This contest sits outside the 78-row Wyoming enumeration the rest of this series was built on — that enumeration followed the 16 regularly scheduled Senate seats — and this article was written on October 25, 2026, to close that gap.
How the seat opened: Darin Smith (Republican) was elected in 2024 unopposed, with 95.48% of the vote. Smith resigned on August 11, 2025, on his appointment as United States Attorney for the District of Wyoming. The Laramie and Platte county Republican precinct committees put forward three nominees — Roy Birt of Wheatland and Jeff Barnes and Taft Love of Cheyenne — and the two counties' commissioners selected Love unanimously; he was sworn in on September 9, 2025. Because Love holds the seat by appointment, Wyoming law puts it before the voters in 2026 even though the term itself runs to 2028. In the special Republican primary on August 18, 2026, Love defeated Birt, 2,684 votes (52.52%) to 2,394 (46.85%). No Democratic candidate filed, and no other candidate of any party is on the general-election ballot. The confirmed general-election roster is therefore: Taft Love (Republican), unopposed. No published district-level competitiveness rating was located for this district; Sabato's Crystal Ball and State Navigate both rate the Wyoming Senate as a whole Safe Republican, which is a chamber rating, not a district one.
Taft Love (Republican), incumbent by appointment and nominee. Love, born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1974 or 1975, studied at Laramie County Community College and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and science from the University of Wyoming. He previously worked for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department as a biologist and is a rancher and business owner. His public service predates the Senate: appointed to the Laramie County School District 2 board of trustees in May 2014 and re-elected in 2014 and 2018, and chairing the Laramie County Republican Party's executive committee by May 2024. He lost the 2020 Republican primary for county commissioner and finished third in the 2024 Republican primary for this same Senate seat before his appointment. In office, Americans for Prosperity–Wyoming endorsed him ahead of the 2026 primary, crediting his first year in the Senate with championing legislation to fast-track residential development permits and an innovative portable healthcare benefits bill. In his candidate-submitted 2026 Wyoming Family Alliance Action survey, Love identifies himself as a co-sponsor of the Human Heartbeat Act and takes strongly pro-life and conscience-rights positions in his own words. No proven flaw was located in his compiled record at this sourcing depth.
Pros: The Republican nominee and the sitting senator; Republicans and conservatives are in-tent under this publication's values (Constitution, capitalism and the free market, Christianity, freedom). His short Senate record is on our side of the program — faster development permitting and portable health benefits — and his stated positions on life and conscience are his own, printed in his own survey answers. Cons: His Senate service is brief and began by appointment rather than election, and he has never won this seat at a general election — the service record is real but thin, which is a watch posture, not a demerit. The flaw, plainly: None proven — a brief record is unproven, and unproven is not a flaw.
OUR CALL
We endorse Taft Love (Republican) — as unproven, and on watch. Love is the only candidate on the general-election ballot, no proven flaw was located in his compiled record, and what record he has — a year in the seat, the development-permit and portable-benefits bills AFP-Wyoming credited to him, and his own stated positions — aligns with this publication's values. The endorsement carries the unproven form because his Senate service is brief and appointed rather than elected: support, with the record to be watched. No Democrat is on this ballot, so no Manchin-test question arises, and no extremist classification is made for any candidate here: no documented DSA membership, self-described democratic-socialist identification, or authored socialist program was located for the candidate on this ballot, and enabler is not extremist.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "2026 Wyoming Senate election" — District 6 section (seat, vacancy, appointment, special election) and the special Republican primary results table, whose results are sourced there to the Wyoming Secretary of State (accessed October 25, 2026): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Wyoming_Senate_election
- Wikipedia, "Taft Love" — biography, appointment by the Laramie and Platte county commissioners, the August 2026 Republican primary win, and the statement that no other candidates filed for the general election (accessed October 25, 2026): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft_Love
- Wyoming Tribune Eagle (wyomingnews.com), August 29, 2025 — "Taft Love selected to fill vacant seat in Wyoming Senate" (three-nominee selection process after Darin Smith's resignation), and Love's candidacy announcement for District 6 (accessed October 25, 2026): https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/taft-love-announces-run-for-wyoming-state-senate-district-6/article_41911207-0cbe-45a4-b190-424b8171cb22.html
- Americans for Prosperity–Wyoming 2026 endorsement of Sen. Love, reported by wyomingnews.com — one year in office; fast-track residential development permits; portable healthcare benefits bill (accessed October 25, 2026): https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/taft-love-receives-endorsement-of-americans-for-prosperity-wyoming/article_26bd9956-6ae8-495f-878d-b5c5fb979c4c.html
- Wyoming Family Alliance Action, 2026 candidate survey (candidate-submitted) — Love's positions in his own words, including co-sponsorship of the Human Heartbeat Act (accessed October 25, 2026): https://wyovoterguide.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/07/Love_Taft_2026_Candidate_Survey.pdf
- Sabato's Crystal Ball (January 22, 2026) and State Navigate (October 2026) — Wyoming Senate rated Safe Republican (chamber-level only)
- Record gaps: no district partisan baseline, detailed Senate voting record beyond the bills credited above, or campaign-finance figures were verified at this sourcing depth; roster strength is compilation (Wikipedia carrying the Secretary of State's primary results, with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's appointment reporting) — the seat's existence and its November 3, 2026 special-election date are confirmed across all of them
- Standing check: no pedophile-association material meeting the proven standard (knowing association with or defense of a convicted pedophile) was located for any candidate on this ballot.
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.
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