In his first campaign for governor and first for elected office, Dave Freudenthal defeated Republican Eli Bebout with 50 percent of the vote to Bebout's 48 percent in 2002.

Freudenthal defeated Republican Ray Hunkins, garnering an overwhelming 70 percent of the vote in his 2006 re-election bid.

Freudenthal has remained noncommittal about whether he will challenge the state's term-limit law and seek a third term. Wyoming voters adopted term limits for statewide elected officials and Wyoming legislators in 1992. Two state legislators in 2004 successfully challenged the state's legislative term limits. The state Supreme Court said imposing term limits for legislators by ballot initiative was improper. It ruled that imposing such limits would require amending the state Constitution. Some observers believe Freudenthal could be successful in challenging the state's gubernatorial term limits on the same grounds.

(Last updated by Matt Joyce on March 17, 2009.)

Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal named John Barrasso to the U.S. Senate in 2007 following the death of Sen. Craig Thomas. Barrasso was one of three finalists for the job chosen by the Wyoming Republican Party. In 2008, Barrasso defeated Democrat Nick Carter with 73 percent of the vote to fill out the remaining four years of Thomas' term.

In the 1996 election to fill the seat vacated by U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., Barrasso finished second in a nine-way primary, trailing Mike Enzi by 2 percentage points.

Barrasso was elected twice to the Wyoming Senate, though he was unopposed in both the 2002 and 2006 elections.

(Last updated by Matt Joyce on March 17, 2009.)

Mike Enzi first won a U.S. Senate seat in 1996, winning with 54 percent of the vote over Kathy Karpan.

In the 2002 general election, Enzi defeated Democrat Joyce Corcoran with 73 percent of the vote.

It was widely speculated early in 2008 that Enzi would not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate after he was passed over for a second time for a seat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Enzi confirmed after announcing his re-election campaign that he'd seriously thought about not running. In the 2008 election, Enzi defeated Democrat Chris Rothfuss with 76 percent of the vote.

Enzi first was elected to the Wyoming House in 1986 and won re-election in 1988 and 1990. In 1991, he was appointed to fill the uncompleted state Senate term of John Perry, who moved out of the county. He was elected to a full four-year term in 1992.

(Last updated by Matt Joyce on March 17, 2009.)