ShelterJH 2026 General Election Endorsements

ShelterJH is endorsing local candidates for contested races in the general election—early voting is open now!

Endorsements Background

ShelterJH is endorsing local candidates for contested races in the general election, and early voting is open now! ShelterJH leaders released endorsements for the primary race and conducted another robust endorsement process including all candidates for the general election, resulting in our decisions below.

A candidate endorsed by ShelterJH is someone who has demonstrated a commitment to addressing Teton County’s current and future housing challenges. The criteria for our endorsements include, but are not limited to, our collective judgment of the following:

  • Candidates’ commitment to increasing opportunities for preservation and construction of affordable housing
  • Potential for effectiveness and ability to build consensus
  • Willingness to communicate directly with our organization
  • Alignment with our policy priorities

We did not consider candidates’ political party affiliations during our deliberations.

We educate ourselves and the public thoroughly before making endorsements. In addition to our candidate questionnaire, the educational component of our work included a Candidate Speed Dating event held on September 14. We also held three internal member meetings to get our members’ direct input on candidates, examined years of vote tracking for incumbent candidates, researched candidates’ stances, and interviewed each candidate personally. We compiled this information in a rubric to guide our collective member-led decision-making process.

We celebrate everyone who decides to dedicate themselves to public service and run for office. We are committed to educating and collaborating with all local governmental officials, regardless of the outcome of this election. We encourage our members and supporters to engage with the candidates personally, learn about their platforms, and make an informed decision at the polls.

Jackson Town Council: Two out of four Town Council candidates will become Town Councilors.

Together, members and board members decided to support two candidates for this race. In the future, we hope that more pro-homes locals run for Town Council and that the public has a greater pool of meaningful choices.

ENDORSED: Alyson Spery was appointed to the Town Council in 2024. She has demonstrated support for housing at the Virginian and Nelson Drive and we have observed the effort she puts in to create homes that community members can afford. Her lived experience working multiple jobs, running a small business, and living in a deed-restricted home gives her valuable insight into the challenges many in our community encounter when facing housing insecurity. We appreciate her thoughtful approach and her openness to listening and learning from us. We recognize that she has put significant effort into deeply investigating solutions to the Town’s zoning tools, including the 2-for-1 bonus and the Jackson/Teton County Housing Department regulations. If elected, we hope to see even stronger conviction from her regarding housing affordability.

RECOMMENDED: Jonathan Schechter is a data-driven analyst who leaves no stone unturned. We are heartened to hear that he wants to focus his potential third term on affordable housing solutions. While we are concerned about Jonathan’s call to do a deep post-mortem on this initial phase of Virginian planning, he does support building homes there and we understand there are lessons to be learned from the first planning effort. If elected, we hope he will engage constructively in the next stages. We are offering Jonathan a recommendation only as his voting record includes numerous votes inconsistent with ShelterJH’s values; however, we appreciate his opposition to Proposition 1 and his deep understanding of how to tweak housing tools like the 2-for-1 bonus to ensure the community is receiving proportional benefit alongside developers.

Jessica Sell Chambers has demonstrated a concern about housing affordability throughout her multiple runs for office and tenure as a Town Councilor from 2020-2024. She has been involved with ShelterJH intermittently since our inception, and we understand her position on taking a regional approach to addressing housing insecurity. Jessica submitted a ShelterJH questionnaire but did not complete a ShelterJH candidate interview. To learn more about her stances, we attended the League of Women Voters forum. We disagree with her calls to pause moving forward with building homes to update the Comprehensive Plan. We feel that creating homes locally—especially at the Virginian—cannot wait.

Gabe Koerber participated earnestly in our endorsement process. We sympathize with his calls to tighten restrictions on short-term rentals. As a resident of multi-family deed-restricted housing himself, we were surprised to learn that Gabe thinks that the latest iteration of the Virginian plans were not ideal for the community. He also shared that he would accept keeping the Virginian as an RV park for visitors which directly conflicts with our goal of building homes for locals at the site as soon as possible. Gabe also supports Proposition 1, which would make it harder for communities across Wyoming to fund essential services and build and maintain the infrastructure needed to create homes for locals.

Teton County Commission: Three of the six County Commission candidates will become County Commissioners.

We are heartened that there are multiple exciting candidates for the Teton County Commission. While our primary endorsement process included the only contested race amongst Democrats, we reconsidered all candidates for our general election endorsements. After careful consideration, thorough evaluation, and most importantly, robust engagement from our member committee, the ShelterJH board voted to support three candidates for the Commission:

ENDORSED: Karyn Chin is a successful leader with a strong commitment to our community and sharp political instincts. County Commissioners can play a role in advocating for change throughout Wyoming, and Karyn believes in using Amendment A passed in 2024 to help address the funding shortage for homes in our community; moreover, she understands how to navigate the state legislature and work across the aisle. We also believe Karyn will see Northern South Park through based on the commitments made by landowners and nonprofit developers. We are encouraged by her background in grassroots organizing and long-term support of ShelterJH’s work. Finally, we believe that Karyn’s personal experience with housing insecurity and living in a tiny home on rented land will bring much-needed perspective to the future of deed-restricted homes in Teton County, especially considering the use of accessory residential units.  

ENDORSED: Ali Dunford is an imaginative and determined problem solver. As the founder of Hole Food Rescue, she has a history of building collective buy-in to realize positive community-led change in Teton County. She actively seeks ShelterJH’s perspective and feedback, and we appreciate her willingness to engage deeply with housing issues. She supports density at the Virginian neighborhood and other potential development sites proximate to transit hubs like Nelson Drive and Northern South Park. Ali strongly supports protecting housing mitigation and investing in the Preservation Program. Ali brings critical lived experience needed to holistically solve Teton County’s housing challenges: after being forced to leave the valley, she now commutes over the pass from her Alta rental to work here. We are excited to support a fresh and underrepresented perspective on the Commission.

RECOMMENDED: Luther Propst is a celebrated local leader with almost a decade of County Commission experience. He brings a unique combination of experience as a former planning land-use lawyer and long-time advocate for responsible public policy. Luther engages meaningfully with ShelterJH’s membership and we appreciate his longstanding commitment to housing mitigation, advocacy on behalf of the public during Northern South Park deliberations, and effort to bring new ideas like naturally-occurring affordable housing to our community. We understand Luther’s commitment to decoupling the growth of jobs from the construction of homes that locals can afford. While we support using incentive tools to bring more homes affordable to locals online, we are also cognizant that unfettered commercial development makes our housing shortage worse. Luther’s perspective recognizes the importance of thoughtfully balancing economic development, preservation, and the need to ensure that local workers can afford to live in the communities where they work.

Alex Muromcew has demonstrated his commitment to this community during his multiple runs for office and his tenure on the County Planning Commission. Alex has a financial background which could serve him well as a Commissioner. He also supported projects like Legacy Lodge as a Planning Commissioner and agrees that the Virginian is an appropriate place for homes. When reviewing Alex’s voting record, however, we found that he voted in support of the Northern South Park land development regulations and did not push for any phasing conditions. ShelterJH’s campaign to phase market and deed-restricted development has been central to our organization’s history and values. Furthermore, Alex indicated that he would support public funding for Northern South Park, which would undermine the agreement developed through collaboration between the development team and the public. We know that Alex supports homes locals can afford and we hope that if elected, he will be open to working with ShelterJH members.

Vicky O’Donoghue is a passionate, community-minded individual. We appreciate her willingness to engage with ShelterJH through our robust endorsement process and she is clearly passionate about our community. We disagree with Vicky’s expressed skepticism about the integrity of the Jackson/Teton County Affordable Housing Department’s compliance program. We also disagree with her assertion that we need to slow down the building of homes for locals. We are absolutely open to working with Vicky as she continues to learn about the housing landscape in Jackson Hole.

Melchor Moore did not participate in our endorsement process. Based on his forum participation, Melchor’s suggestion to slow down the production of deed-restricted homes does not align with ShelterJH’s priorities.

House District 23

ENDORSED: Liz Storer has the ability and experience to advocate for housing solutions in Cheyenne and we are excited to support her candidacy for a second time. With many new legislators taking their seats in 2027, she recognizes a meaningful opportunity to advance pro-homes legislation. We support Liz’s approach to shaping state policy on property tax reform, establishing a housing investment fund, and supporting a real estate transfer tax. We believe that her deep understanding of the state budget and her willingness to support enacting possibilities around Amendment A qualify her as a pro-homes candidate. 

Note: The George B. Storer Foundation is a financial supporter of ShelterJH’s 501(c)3 educational work. The foundation has no role in ShelterJH’s 501(c)4 endorsement deliberations.

Shannon Brennan did not participate in our endorsement process. Shannon’s website indicates that she does not support housing mitigation fees, which does not align with ShelterJH’s policy platform. She has also run ads supporting Proposition 1, which would devastate funding for local community services.

Get to the polls by November 3!

If you haven’t registered to vote yet, there’s still time! You can vote through November 2 during business hours at the Teton County building on 200 S. Willow Street. The election is on November 3 and you can find a polling place near you. 

ShelterJH is a membership organization founded in 2016. We build grassroots support and political power to address housing insecurity in the Tetons. While ShelterJH conducts both educational and electoral work, our 501(c)4 tax status allows us to endorse, oppose, and support candidates—and hold them accountable once they take office. Please join our movement and be ready to vote by November 3!