Wyoming has been among the most conservative states in the county, and on Tuesday, voters will select the Republican candidates who will advance to November’s general election for federal and state legislative offices.

It has been 25 years since the body of Matthew Shepard was discovered in Laramie, Wyoming.

Albany County Sheriff Aaron Appelhans stands in the county courthouse in Laramie, Wyo. Appelhans took office in January as Wyoming's as the state's first Black sheriff. – As a student at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy, Aaron Appelhans used to look at the photos of past graduating classes hanging on the wall. A decade later, Appelhans was appointed Wyoming's first Black sheriff, a post he took months after fury over racist policing roiled U.S. cities. But considering people of color for top law enforcement jobs remains the exception rather than standard practice, said Latham with the Wyoming NAACP.

1998: Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, dies at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, five days after he was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie, Wyoming. Police arrested Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson shortly after the attack, finding a bloody gun and Shepard's shoes and wallet in their truck. The two would eventually each be sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to the contention of hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels. Pictured here is Shepard's mother, Judy Shepard, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, standing next to a photograph of the fence where her son was murdered, during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on April 12, 2007, to announce the renaming of hate crime legislation in Matthew Shepard's honor.

1998: Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming. He was in a coma after being robbed, pistol-whipped and tortured the night before and would die five days later at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. Police arrested Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson shortly after the attack, finding a bloody gun and Shepard's shoes and wallet in their truck. The two would eventually each be sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to the contention of hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.