About 30 people drank beers at a rainy block party last week.
They gathered at Snake River Brewing to get to know this year’s candidates, a mix of new and returning faces, as the potential leaders iron out their platforms. The first candidate forums are coming up in July.
Candidates who had already announced stepped forward to introduce themselves. Then, 33-year-old Chris Glenn took the mic to announce his run as a write-in “independent, progressive” sheriff.
“I am here running on a policy of anti-ICE, pro-trans, women, and all of our vulnerable communities,” he said.
Glenn, a retail distribution manager at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, needs 270 signatures to face two-term incumbent Democrat Matt Carr and Republican sheriff’s deputy Eric Snow in the general election.
The sheriff’s race is the most defined so far. The central issue: immigration.
Carr and Snow want to keep honoring detainers allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remove people from the jail. Glenn, who lacks prior law enforcement experience, said he would end that policy.
In other races, challengers say they are frustrated with how unaffordable Jackson Hole has become. They don’t have immediate solutions. But every incumbent is also seeking re-election.
So part of the challengers’ pitch is straightforward: if voters don’t like what they currently have, maybe it’s time for something new.
Even coroner candidates are trying to shake up the norm.
“The only reason I’m running is because of the status quo,” said Kat Clauson, one of three deputy coroners and four candidates running for coroner.
Of the nine challengers for town council and county commission, three have no campaign experience.
Candidates for local and statewide office introduce themselves to Jackson voters on June 10, 2026. From left, Karyn Chin is a Democratic challenger for county commission, Wes Gardner is a current Democratic county commissioner running for re-election, Rep. Andrew Byron is running unopposed as a Republican representing District 22, Sen. Mike Gierau is running unopposed as a Democrat representing District 17, town councilor Jonathan Schechter is running for re-election, Vicky O’Donoghue is running as a Republican challenger for county commission, Luther Propst is a current Democratic county commissioner running for re-election, and Alex Muromcew is running an independent campaign for county commission. (Evan Robinson-Johnson/KHOL)
Fresh faces
Town council has one first-time candidate. Gabriel Koerber says he decided to run on deadline day when he saw no new names on the list.
“I was like, how has nobody else stepped up to just put a different voice out,” he said.
The hospitality worker moved here as a teenager, worked several jobs he described as fun, and now says it’s getting harder to live here.
“Everybody comes in here and says Jackson’s struggling. Yes, that has been true. Nobody wants to come in and say, ‘Jackson’s doing great, I’m going to run,’” he said.
On the county commission side, three Democratic challengers are in contention.
Ali Dunford founded the Teton County nonprofit Hole Food Rescue and says her values align with others in the community.
Like Koerber, she’s seen how hard it is to live in town.
“I have been completely priced out of Jackson,” Dunford said. “I just got exhausted with having to contort myself and extort myself and spend all of my money trying to just survive there.”
Karyn Chin lives in a tiny home on ranch land in Wilson. She says that’s the kind of out-of-the-box thinking the county needs more of.
“I plan to live here for a long time. I plan to raise my daughter here for a long time and send her to school here. I hope to be able to retire in this community, grow old with my friends and family here,” she said.
Chin is more familiar in political circles. She’s a consultant behind some of the current electeds’ campaigns, including commissioner Natalia Macker and Jackson Mayor Arne Jorgensen. She also co-founded Jackson Hole Pride.
“I want to be a part of making [living here] possible for people like me and others in the community who have a similar dream of putting down roots,” she said.
Brent Blue, the current coroner, also has some experience with campaigns.
“I actually ran for county commissioner in like 1988 or sometime around then shortly after I moved here,” he said.
The doctor has run successfully for hospital board. He is also known for his dog-rescuing operation and for suing the hospital while he served on its board to keep his medical practice. (He later settled, agreeing to honor a noncompete contract).
“I’m pretty centrist. I would call myself a fairly conservative financially, fairly liberal socially. And I think that that’s what people want in this county,” Blue said.
If any of those challengers beat the three Democratic incumbents — Mark Newcomb, Wes Gardner and Luther Propst — to secure a spot in the general election, they’ll face two Republicans in November.
They may also face Alexander Muromcew who, like sheriff candidate Glenn, was at the block party gathering signatures as an independent. He lost in the Republican primary by 300 votes in 2022.
“I think both parties are going further, further to an extreme. So I think there’s a real need for somebody who can think independently,” Muromcew said.
The other Republicans who still claim the GOP banner have both lost before in liberal-leaning Teton County.
Fans of music and beer also got a dose of local politics at an election block party June 10 at Snake River Brewing. “We have to really think clearly about who’s going to be the best candidates to support the local workforce,” Shelter JH board member Ian Osler said. (Evan Robinson-Johnson/KHOL)
Those who’ve tried before an lost
Vicky O’Donoghue is a longtime driving instructor who ran as an independent for county commission in 2024. She’d like the kids she teaches to see a better future here.
“We just need change,” she said, adding: “Have you been out in the traffic lately?”
Melchor Moore is a sixth generation Jacksonite. He also ran in 2024 while on probation for driving under the influence and battery. Moore pled guilty to a DUI in December 2023 and pled no contest to battery in April 2024, according to the Jackson Hole News&Guide, which reports he has completed his probation. The art dealer likes his chances better this time around.
“I come from a time when people were really community-oriented,” he said. “Jackson Hole was about families and long-standing residents, generations, and so what’s different is that we’re seeing now after the pandemic is people just flooding Jackson and there’s no homogeny.”
Those who’ve served before
Town residents will see two familiar challengers on the nonpartisan ballot. One runs every year, the other didn’t have to run to secure her seat.
Alyson Spery is a filmmaker, bartender and wedding DJ. She was appointed in January 2025 from a competitive field and wants to build on her year and a half in office.
“I think there’s a great love and appreciation for Jackson that the people who live here have, and beneath that is almost a heartache that they won’t be able to stay,” Spery said. “That might be due to housing, that might be due to immigration or a variety of issues.”
She’s up against fellow incumbent Jonathan Schechter and previous councilor Jessica Sell Chambers. This is Sell Chambers’ fifth run for town council since 2016. She won a four-year term in 2020 and lost a bid for mayor last cycle. She says she’s unsatisfied with current leadership, especially how they handle affordable housing.
“We have to re-examine some of the ways that we’ve tried to protect the place almost to death that have resulted in it becoming a billionaire’s playground,” she said.
Back at the block party, voters were two months out from the August primary. Some organizers were grateful for the turnout despite the chilly, rainy conditions.
“We have to really think clearly about who’s going to be the best candidates to support the local workforce,” Shelter JH board member Ian Osler said.
An image caption has been updated to correct that Alex Muromcew is running a campaign as an independent, not a write-in campaign. — Ed.
