Mark Gordon is the current governor of the US state of Wyoming who is set to contest the Republican Party primaries to secure candidature for re-election to his current post. The 65-year-old Gordon has to defeat former US Marine Corps. Colonel Brent Bien, businessman James Scott, and a perennial candidate, Rex Rammell.

Although a New York City native himself, Gordon’s parents, who were ranchers, hailed from Kaycee, Wyoming. There have been some very distinguished American personalities connected with the Gordon family, including General George S. Patton and Major GeneralGeorge Patton IV. The veteran politician attended the Middlebury College, from where he obtained an undergraduate degree in history.

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Gordon’s political career began with a defeat in the GOP primaries for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district’s US House of Representatives election in 2008. Later, in 2012, he was selected to be the state’s treasurer by then-governor, Matt Mead, after the post was left vacant following the death of Joseph Meyer. 

Gordon was successful in his 2018 run for Wyoming’s governor, where he won the Republican primaries and went on to defeat the Democratic Party’s Mary Thorne in the general elections. Gordon, as governor of Wyoming during the COVID-19 pandemic, had repealed the mask mandate for public places from March 16, 2021. 

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In November 2020, Gordon made a proposal of deducting $500 million from Wyoming’s budget owing to lesser revenues from the fossil fuel industry. However, the state’s legislature opted for a $430 million budget reduction instead. 

An investigation carried out by the New York Times revealed that Gordon had been spied on by personnel appointed by hard-right members of his own party like Susan Gore. 

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Gordon lost his first wife, Sarah Hildreth Gilmore, in a car accident in 1993. Later, he married Jennie Muir Young in 2000. The couple own a ranch called the Merlin Ranch in Johnson County, Wyoming, for which they were awarded the Excellence in Rangeland Stewardship award in 2009.

While the Wyoming primaries are scheduled for Tuesday, August 16, the general elections are set to be held on November 8.