Ahead of the 2026 general election, Wyoming Public Radio and KHOL Jackson offered all candidates in competitive races for statewide and federal offices 20-minute interviews to introduce themselves to voters and discuss their positions. The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Lisa Kinney is the Democratic Party’s nominee running for U.S. House. Her campaign website is lisakinneyforcongress.com. She spoke with KHOL’s Evan Robinson-Johnson.
Click here to listen to a special episode of Open Spaces previewing the races for statewide and federal offices.
Evan Robinson-Johnson: You're the Democratic nominee for the Wyoming U.S. House seat. Could you just give listeners a quick introduction?
Lisa Kinney: I'm a Wyoming native. I was born in Laramie. I'm still there. I spent 10 years in the Wyoming State Senate, and I had two years of those as the minority leader. I was on the Judiciary and Education committees. I am an attorney. I'm a librarian. I was in financial advising for many years. As chamber director in Laramie, I worked with all three governors, [Dave] Freudenthal, Michael Sullivan and also [Jim] Geringer. Do you want my top priorities?
ERJ: Sure, why not?
LK: I woke up kind of mad this morning, and I'll tell you why – not mad in a bad way, but mad because there's so much going on in Congress, in our lives, and we're not really addressing them.
I want to go after public lands, as much as I can. I have two bills I want to introduce. They started in January 2025 with a declaration that mining is number one over tourism and everything else. Our Congress has gone over and over and over again to put bills into taking our lands away. Our lands are being taken away. It's very important. This is how we play, this is tourism, this is agriculture, this is ranching. So it's very important that we keep our public lands and they don't quickly take them away.
We don't have enough money to eat. The majority of people out there are having a hard time paying for everything. That makes me mad, and I have a lot of ideas about that, especially when it comes to healthcare, and especially when it comes to rural healthcare. These are important issues.
And then, the final one is we need to look at a global treaty with China and Russia and every country that's dealing with AI, and we've got to slow it down, because right now we're headed in a terrible direction. I have a bill ready to go that would put a moratorium on them, but we need experts in the area to tell us how we will not get to the point where, right now, the AI is not in our best interest. We have to work with all the other countries to make sure that we do what's right for us.
ERJ: It's been a half century since Wyoming elected a Democrat to Congress. Why do you think that is?
LK: I think it's because the majority of the voters are Republican, and I was thinking about that this morning, too. What do the people of Wyoming want? Because I've heard several people say to me, ‘I won't vote for a D,’ which is a Democrat. ‘I'm only going to vote for an R.’ They've done it all of that time. And my question to them is: ‘Do you want life to go on in Congress as it has been going on, where the Republicans aren't talking to the Democrats, the Democrats aren't talking to Republicans, our issues aren't being dealt with because you don't have anyone working together?’
I'm a moderating voice. I looked myself up because I was looking for bills I had passed, numbers, and it says, ‘Lisa Kinney is known for her strong bipartisanship attitude,’ and that was just when I looked me up. That's what I do: I work with people.
One of my biggest supporters is Rex Arney. He's an attorney, and he's a Republican. He is from Sheridan. He was on my committees, and I have a lot of other Republicans that I'm working with, too. Going back to my original thought: If you want a war to continue, if you want tariffs to continue, if you want people to be divisive with others, if you don't want anything done for the people of Wyoming, then vote your R.
But if you do, if you want someone to go in there, I will be a moderating voice for people in Wyoming. If there's something that I disagree with my party about, that's fine. I will not vote that way. I will vote for what's in the best interest of the people of Wyoming. And maybe they haven't had people who have done this for a while.
I know I'm running for Teno Roncalio's seat, and I love it, and I hope to get it. There's no reason that we want life to go on as it has been going on, because we are not surviving. We're not making enough money. Our public lands are being taken away. AI is going to go after us. I have thoughts about creating industry for Wyoming so we can hire people and keep our kids here in the state. I'm looking at everything, and I'm hoping that they'll say, ‘Yeah, give her a chance.’ Why not? Put me in for two years. What's the worst thing that can happen? Nothing. In fact, what's the best thing that can happen? A whole lot.
One final thing: I'm working with [candidates from] 40 states right now to get several bills passed, including term limits, getting rid of Citizens United, getting an ethical standard for the U.S. Supreme Court and other things that are Republican and Democrat. These are things that are going to help us, and that's what I want to do. I want to help the state of Wyoming. Look after the state of Wyoming, stand up for them. I think we don't have that now. We have silence. We have total silence.
ERJ: How has it felt to campaign, recognizing what an uphill battle it would be for you to actually win the seat?
LK: [laughter] I'm sorry, I laugh again. Yesterday we were working with people that we were thinking about hiring to do some digital distribution for us. The first thing they said was, ‘You know you're not going to win, don't you?’ People have been telling me that all along.
I'll tell you what: If I was running because I thought I wasn't going to win, I wouldn't be running. Why would I do that? I'm running because I think I offer something to the state of Wyoming that will be very beneficial to them, and I plan to win.
I don't like to go into situations where they say, ‘Give us your money, and you're going to lose.’ Other people have said that to me, too, and I just don't like that attitude. So, yeah, I'm an optimist. I'm a true optimist, and I think I have a lot to offer. I'm running for the people of the state, and I hope they know that.
ERJ: I was wondering, among other parts of your background, the very first description I saw was librarian. Is there anything with that job that has helped prepare you for such a high office?
LK: Absolutely, a lot. I'm an administrator. I built a new library in Laramie. Also, I volunteered for the City of Laramie to build a new rec center. It's because I know how to work with different parties and get things done.
Although I've had a lot of jobs I've loved, like dishwashing, that’s a good one. But what I’m saying is, being a librarian also taught me this: The freedom of thought, the freedom of speech, the freedom of being able to put all different libraries, all different people in libraries, and have them come in and be able to learn what they want.
Andrew Carnegie started 2,300 libraries in 1895, including one in Laramie and throughout the state of Wyoming. We had one person with money who helped all of us. He put meeting rooms in all of those, because he said everyone should get together and understand the value of other people and talk with them. So yes, the library taught me that I have to respect the Constitution, and it's not being respected. In addition to administration, I love being a librarian.
ERJ: What issues have you heard from voters as you've campaigned this summer that they care about the most?
LK: I say public lands is easily the highest one, and I'll tell you why. When I got out of the Legislature all these years, I'd never heard about public lands being a problem. Nobody ever brought it up until January 20, 2025, and they said, ‘Now mining is going to be the number one priority in the state of Wyoming over tourism, over wildlife, over everything to do with public lands.’ That's why it's up, and that's why people are going nuts.
One of the first bills that was introduced by [U.S. Rep. Harriet] Hageman, I'm not running against her, but by Hageman and [Utah Sen. Mike] Lee was to take all of the land in 11 states except for Yellowstone National Park and sell it. That's not appropriate. They went wild. They did a second bill for the Big Beautiful Bill, or a second amendment to it, and that failed, too, but it reduced it down to like 0.5 to 0.7% of public lands.
Editor’s Note: Sen. Mike Lee’s initial proposal would have mandated the sale of two to three million acres of federal public land. Later versions lowered that amount to as many as 1.2 million acres.
This isn't correct. The public lands are ours. We need to work with ranchers, we need to work with people in the tourism business, we need to work with ourselves. Because, really quickly, when I was young, I lived in Laramie and we'd all get enough money to get somebody up to Vedauwoo. That was our playground, and it was free, and it is ours. So I want to maintain that.
ERJ: I know some voters are looking for an alternative to Chuck Gray. What concerns you most about the prospect of him being Wyoming's sole rep in the House?
LK: There are several things. The first thing is he's not showing up at anything, because he thinks he's won. And why is that interesting? It's interesting because he's ignoring the people who are going to vote for him. So he says, ‘I've already won. Why do I have to show up and do anything?’ That's going to be what it's like in Congress. He's not going to show, but I will. I'll be there. I think that's really important to know who your constituents are and treat them fairly. He's not treating them fairly.
Then, Kevin Christensen got on and was very interesting. He ran against Chuck Gray, and he said there were several reasons why he wouldn't support Chuck Gray. The first one is Chuck and the governor almost went outside and fought. I would never fight with the governor. It doesn't even make sense to me.
Then, Bo Biteman, who also was running against Gray, said that when he was in the House, he didn't get along with Republicans or Democrats. That's not good. I saw him on a stage, and he went after the person who was giving the forum and said, ‘You're not following your rules,’ and started screaming at them. So all of those are not good.
But then I think one of the most horrible things is he will bow to the federal government, and that's not what a true Wyomingite does. You don't do it. The federal government asked him to send all Wyoming's personal data about voting to the feds. And he was the first state to do that. He sent it off and is really proud of that. He puts that on his things. We don't [do] that in Wyoming. If we have something we don't like, if we need to think about it, we talk as a community, we don't just ignore that. His divisiveness is very distressing.
ERJ: Do you think it'll be kind of a continuation of the leadership that we've seen from Rep. Hageman?
LK: She’s silent. I've known Hageman for years. I taught her Wyoming law because I'm a lawyer and she took my class. I like Harriet. But she's wrong. She's introduced at least five bills now to take away public lands.
What Gray does, he says, ‘I'm not going to take away public lands.’ But he also says, ‘I'm following everything that Trump wants me to do.’ The problem is you can't do both of those. I think he's going to say when he gets there, ‘I won't be able to save the public lands because that's not what I'm being asked to do.’ That's one thing.
A second thing has to do with AI. He's saying he's against AI. And again, the executive says he's for AI. He's gonna be silent, as is Harriet Hageman. As much as I like her, she's wrong. She's doing things that aren't helpful to us as a state. And I think that Gray will fall in and be silent and do only what he's told to do. He's not going to stand up.
ERJ: If your campaign is unsuccessful, are there still lessons that you would want people to take from a Democrat that is trying to propose alternatives in a state like this?
LK: That's a really good question. One of the reasons I ran is because a lot of people here in Wyoming – and again, I dearly love them, I'm one of them – only watch Fox News. So, what I hope I've been able to do is provide different information that they might not otherwise get from the campaign I'm doing.
Also, let me tell you, I like [Sen. John] Barrasso, and I like [Sen. Cynthia] Lummis. She played with my kids. I know them all. But what Barrasso has been doing, and I've seen him do this 10 times, he gets on, and he says, ‘Democrats hate America. Democrats are Communists. Democrats are taking away everything that you have,’ and that's not who we are. We are Republicans. We're not hateful, awful Communists. We're not any of those things. I want to make sure that the people who are voting know that we’re normal Wyomingites.
Having been brought up here, I'm conservative, I'm moderate, I get along with all sorts of people. I am about ready to put out a picture of ranchers in swimsuits that I took a few years ago to raise money for the rec center. I got all the ranchers together in their swimsuits. They didn't have any. We provided them. But that's the kind of thing I do. I work together with people. I get ranchers in swimsuits. Anyway, it's kind of an odd idea, but what I'm trying to say is that I work with people of all different kinds, whether they're ranchers or farmers or business people or just me and just you. I try and work together for the benefit of all of us, and that's what I want [voters] to know.
ERJ: What do you think are the greatest risks to Wyoming right now?
LK: A big one is all our kids are leaving. They're all leaving, and that's a very bad thing for us. I have three kids. Two out of three have gone, and I don't think that's unusual. What we have to do is: We have to build things that will bring our kids back, and I have a couple of ideas.
One of them is building a drone company so that we can get scientists. You know they have [weather] balloons here in Wyoming? NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] shoots off balloons because there's nothing up there. We have wide open spaces. Right now, the United States has used up all of its missiles against drones in Iran, so now we're down to about nothing. We need drones. And why not become a manufacturer of drones in the state of Wyoming? I think that if we do that, then we'll open up all sorts of jobs. That's one of the things I'd like to do. I've talked to the NOAA scientists, and they say, ‘Yeah, this would be a perfect company for Wyoming to start.’
I have kind of things going in that way. And that goes back to: What can I do? I can think about how we can improve Wyoming that hasn't been thought about before. I don't want to get into a position where all of us are thinking about the same things or avoiding the same thing. Instead, let's work together and start thinking about what progress we could make as a state. That's kind of where my mind is there. I'm creative.
ERJ: You mentioned public lands being some of the strongest feedback that you've heard from voters. Anything else that stands out from your conversations this summer?
LK: People can't eat, people can't buy things. I talked to a rancher about gas, and he said, ‘I just filled up my tractor: $125.’ He said, ‘My grass is four inches high.’ He said, ‘We are not surviving because we have a war that's going on that's holding up our fertilizer, and we're stuck here.’ And then also recently, the price of beef was knocked down 25%. They're pulling in Argentine beef, and he was real upset about that. So there are a lot of things that are going on that are troublesome. Ranchers can't eat, and they can't put gas in their car. I just bought two bags of groceries for $111. Good grief. Those two are the big ones.
I don't think people have caught on about AI yet, except in Cheyenne. I'm going to work real hard to make sure that our electricity isn't used up, our water isn't used up, our heat is not used up, emptying the water – so there’s a lot of things about that, plus the global treaty.
ERJ: On the high prices point, do you have suggestions on how to ease that?
LK: You stop the war. If we stop that war – and we could do that through the War Powers Act – that would bring prices down immediately.
We stop putting 50% tariffs on Canada, our friend who has now gone to Europe. We give them so much, so many imports. We have such a good program, and that was just broken. There are a lot of our other friends that are getting tariffs. We have to roll back on the tariffs. Yes, let's do some for China, and think it through and not just get mad at whatever.
I guess part of the reason that Canada had its tariffs increased is because it was too smoky there. They said, ‘Well, let's increase their tariffs.’ That doesn't make sense. Going back to me being an administrator, I like to think about things logically. That's not a logical thought.
ERJ: We have about 30 seconds left, Lisa. Is there anything else that you want to leave voters with?
LK: I have another idea – I have lots of ideas. It’s called the U.S. National Ranches and Farms Program, just like you set up all the other national programs. The Steiner Ranch came up for $30 million in the state of Wyoming. I would like to see the us, the United States Senate and House and Congress, buy it so that our great grandkids will know what ranches look like, because right now, they're coming up, they're being sold for a lot of money and they will disappear.
So I want to make sure that, again, we preserve our heritage through a national plan to buy and save ranches so the wildlife, the livestock, everything is going permanently.
You can find more conversations with Wyoming’s candidates on our How do I vote? page.
