Vote Barlow, Meier, Short, and Harshman in the August primary! These candidates have demonstrated the strongest commitment to advancing policies that will help Wyoming build more homes and keep housing affordable. ✅ Eric Barlow for Governor ✅ Robert Short for Secretary of State ✅ Curt Meier for Treasurer ✅ Steve Harshman for Superintendent
Wyoming Governor 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them
Eric Barlow (Republican), Ken Casner (Democrat) and Rebecca Bextel (Constitution) are the candidates for governor of Wyoming in the November 3, 2026 general election. Semblen has analyzed 26 ads in this race; 13 used at least one manipulation technique, most often glittering generalities and appeal to prejudice.
Eric Barlow (REP), Ken Casner (DEM), Rebecca Bextel (CON). On the ballot as listed by Wyoming Secretary of State, 2026 General Election Candidates. 26 ads analyzed, 13 with at least one technique in the copy. Newest first. The paid-for-by line is the advertiser's own filing. Updated 2026-10-08.
Findings
As of 2026-10-08. Counts are of distinct ads; the same text run many times is one ad.
- Ads analyzed
- 26 · started running between 2026-07-14 and 2026-10-06
- With at least one technique
- 13 of 26 (50%)
- Most common techniques
- Glittering Generalities · 10 adsAppeal to Prejudice · 7 adsSlogans · 4 ads
- Reported Meta spend
- $27,700–36,465 on all ads, $26,400–33,680 on flagged ads · Meta reports ranges; these are the sums of their ends
- Example
- “defend our freedoms” — Glittering Generalities, paid for by REBECCA FOR WYOMING · the flagged ad with the highest reported spend that shows the most common technique
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Who is running these ads
By sponsor (7)
| Paid for by | Ads | With at least one technique | Most common |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barlow For Wyoming | 15 | 7 of 15 (47%) | Glittering Generalities (6), Appeal to Prejudice (4), Slogans (2) |
| REBECCA FOR WYOMING | 5 | 3 of 5 | Appeal to Prejudice (3), Glittering Generalities (2), Name Calling (2) |
| Wyoming Housing Advocates | 2 | 0 of 2 | |
| Honor Wyoming Foundation | 1 | 0 of 1 | |
| NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION ACTION FUND | 1 | 1 of 1 | False Urgency (1), Glittering Generalities (1) |
| Open Range Record LLC | 1 | 1 of 1 | Loaded Language (1) |
| Protect Wyoming | 1 | 1 of 1 | Black-and-White Fallacy (1), Flag-Waving (1), Glittering Generalities (1) |
Decide what counts
Not everyone would call every technique manipulation. Untick the ones you'd call ordinary persuasion and the count updates.
50% of the 26 ads here use at least one of the techniques ticked below (13 ads).
- Feel-good words with no concrete meaning. More on glittering generalities, with examples →
- Playing on dislike of a group. More on appeal to prejudice, with examples →
- A catchy phrase in place of an argument.
- Only two choices when there are more. More on black-and-white fallacy, with examples →
- Wrapping a position in patriotism.
- Words picked for the feeling, not the facts. More on loaded language, with examples →
- Pressure to act before you think. More on false urgency, with examples →
- A label in place of an argument. More on name calling, with examples →
- Casting a dispute as a threat to national independence. More on sovereignty rhetoric, with examples →
- "everyone's doing it" in place of a reason. More on bandwagon appeal, with examples →
- Hinting at a hidden plot without evidence. More on conspiracy appeal, with examples →
Leaving out the softer ones (loaded language, glittering generalities, slogans, exaggeration, repetition): 38% of ads.
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Money in this race
Candidates for governor report their fundraising to Wyoming's state campaign-finance office, not the FEC. This page doesn't cover those reports yet, so it shows no money figures.
The ads
26 ads, newest first.
Showing the 2 ads paid for by Wyoming Housing Advocates. Show all 26 ads
Vote for Eric Barlow for Governor! Eric has demonstrated the strongest commitment to advancing policies that will help Wyoming build more homes and keep housing affordable. That's why he gets our endorsement.
Follow the Wyoming Governor race
An email when new ads come in from either side or the outside groups: the techniques, the words doing the work, and who paid. And each debate's analysis the morning after. One-click unsubscribe.
Semblen LLC · 5900 Balcones Drive STE 100, Austin, TX 78731
What this page is
- An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it ran mostly in WY and names a nominee for governor — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office (a U.S. Senate or House campaign included), or it also names WY's Senate nominees, in which case it is on the Senate race's page. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
- The candidates are the ones certified for the November ballot, from the source linked at the top. Governors are state offices, so there are no FEC filings behind this page: no money figures, and outside groups are placed on a side only when they are a campaign or a party committee.
- Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
- A technique is a specific manipulative move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
- Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. The check runs once and its result is shown to everyone afterwards. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
- Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
- Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.