CHEYENNE - Former State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis won Tuesday's Republican primary for Wyoming's lone seat in the U.S. House.

Unofficial results show Lummis defeating Johnson County businessman and rancher Mark Gordon 46 to 38 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

Retired Navy officer Bill Winney had 12 percent while Michael Holland, a physician from Green River, had 4 percent.

Lummis credited the efforts of volunteers with helping her win.

"The effort around the state has been magnificent. There have been people who've set up lemonade stands at Little League games supporting Lummis for Congress," Lummis said from a bar in Casper, where she and her supporters were following the election results.

"The people of Wyoming have taken ownership of this campaign and made it their own," she said.

The win means Lummis will challenge Wilson businessman Gary Trauner in the November election. Trauner was unopposed in claiming the Democratic nomination.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Barbara Cubin is not seeking an eighth term.

Afternoon turnout at polling places in the Cheyenne area was sparse but picked up after people got out of work.

Lonna Holt said she voted for Lummis, whom she got to know while their daughters were in a Cheyenne city choir together in the 1990s.

"She's very warm, she's really sincere," Holt said of Lummis. "Meeting someone's children tells you a lot. How they behave, it says a lot about the parents."

Peter Brenna, a state employee who lives in Cheyenne, said he voted for Gordon because he received campaign mailings from the candidate.

"In today's society, it's the people that contact you and make an effort to get something in your mailbox," Brenna said. "I didn't get anything from anybody else."

Cubin earlier announced she would not run for an eighth term. The decision set off a competitive and, at times, negative race among the Republicans.

A recent ad by the Gordon campaign depicted Lummis as a little girl digging herself into a hole in a sandbox, implying Lummis would support policies that would worsen the nation's problems. An ad by the Lummis campaign depicted Gordon's head pasted on a cartoonish body and mentioned Gordon's past contributions to Democratic candidates, including John Kerry.

Both candidates criticized the opposition for distorting the facts.

Campaign finance figures through July 30 showed Gordon had raised $1.25 million, including just over $1 million of his own money. Lummis raised $432,000, of which 85 percent came from individuals and political action committees.

Winney raised just $127,000 but enjoyed name recognition from the 2006 Republican primary, when he received 40 percent against Cubin.