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.
Shawn Johnson is the Libertarian Party’s nominee running for U.S. House. His campaign website is www.shawnforwyoming.com. He 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: I wondered if to start, we could just have you introduce yourself.
Shawn Johnson: I’m Shawn Johnson. I'm a Libertarian candidate for Congress. I'm from Wyoming originally. I was born in Casper. I grew up during my teenage years, in the Denver area. I graduated high school in Westminster, Colorado. I came back. Got a good job as a deputy sheriff in Casper for Natrona County. And I worked as a deputy sheriff here for about 13 years.
I was a member of the Army National Guard. I was a combat medic. I joined my junior year of high school. I spent seven years in the Colorado National Guard, and then the remainder of my time in the Wyoming National Guard. I have one combat deployment to Iraq during the invasion [in] 2003, 2004, where I was a combat medic in my role there.
I decided that I didn't want to do law enforcement anymore, so I went to college. The Army paid for my college. I got my associate and bachelor's degrees in business, and then I went to law school, Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and graduated there in 2024. I've been practicing law in Wyoming ever since. I practice mostly in family law and criminal defense, and then some civil litigation here and there. I'm married, have two stepdaughters and a son, and I currently reside in Thermopolis, and that's about it.
ERJ: Why are you running for the U.S. House seat?
SJ: Several reasons. One, we need to have an adult in that position. Someone who can get along with others and form coalitions and get things done for Wyoming. We don't need a political culture warrior in there worrying about things that don't matter. We need somebody in there who's gonna work for Wyoming and for the American people.
I think that the federal government has gotten to a point where it's become too large and overpowering, mostly in the executive branch, and I feel like Congress really hasn't done a whole lot to stop it. Usually, it's, ‘When my team's in power, I do what they want.’ That's not going to be me. [I’ll] represent the people of Wyoming, regardless of party politics.
As a third-party candidate, that puts me in a unique position to be able to be that independent voice in Congress, especially if Congress is evenly split, where Democrats and Republicans are going to come to the Wyoming seat and ask what they can do to earn Wyoming's vote on whatever it is that they're voting on. That puts Wyoming in a position where we can get things that Wyoming needs. Being in a position to where I could form a coalition or negotiate with people to get the needs of Wyoming met. I think we need somebody in office that’s going to [connection failed momentarily] … and not a political culture warrior.
ERJ: Why are you running with the Libertarian Party?
SJ: Because I’m a Libertarian. I have been for a long time. I was a Republican for a long time. I was an independent for a while, and then [I] joined the Libertarian Party. I just felt like the Republican Party abandoned their traditional values and went even further to the right. I feel like Democrats did something similar, where they're abandoning the middle ground, the middle people, the moderates, and swung further to the left. It left me in a position where I'm like, ‘I don't know where I belong politically.’ So I joined the Libertarian Party.
We had a very successful couple of years there for a little while. We got a Libertarian elected to the state Legislature.
ERJ: When did you actually swap?
SJ: Sometime between 2016 and 2018 or ‘19, I think.
ERJ: How does it feel working with a platform and a party that has just such limited success in the state and nationally?
SJ: We understand that it's difficult for third-party candidates to get any kind of success or traction [working in the two-party system]. But we have had success, especially in the local levels. We've had a Libertarian elected to the Legislature [Marshall Burt in 2020]. We almost had a second one elected twice in Riverton [Bethany Baldes in 2020 and 2022]. She lost by I think 30 votes one time and 40 [poor connection].
We are a very principled, small group, but we’re principled and we believe in limited government and civil rights and individual liberty. I guess, one of the things is we believe it in all the time. It seems that those things kind of get thrown to the wayside whenever a party overpowers, like, ‘Yeah, we believe all these things except for when we’re in power.’ They empower themselves even further.
ERJ: Your previous public service has included vice mayor of Casper. Are there any kind of lessons that you took from that time that you think prepare you for a higher office like this?
SJ: I was elected to the Casper City Council in 2014, re-elected in 2018. I spent a year as a vice mayor in 2019. And I did learn a lot. I learned that people are passionate about what they believe. I learned that your decisions affect the everyday lives of people. Being on a local level like that, you're held accountable by your constituents.
I've learned that as a representative of the people, you need to represent your people. One thing I liked about the city council is it was a non-partisan office, and it forces people to kind of look at the person rather than the party. Unfortunately, that's not the same on the national level. I had to live with the decisions that I made. Decisions I made directly affected me as well, and so I learned to respect the individual liberties of people and the consequences of what political actions can be.
ERJ: Besides party, what else sets you apart from the other candidates in this race?
SJ: I think I have a lot of life experience. Like I said, I joined the Army at the age of 17. I was in a combat zone by the age [of] 19. I served 21 years in the Army. I served 13 years in law enforcement. I've got three college degrees. I'm an attorney. So, a wide range of life experience.
The other thing that sets me apart, I think, is that I'm more of a principled person. I believe that regardless of your differences, regardless of the political party, people can work together to get things done. That's kind of why I'm running. I want to be the person that crosses party lines to get things done for Wyoming and for the American people.
ERJ: Chuck Gray is expected to be the winner, and he's certainly the frontrunner right now. Why would his leadership not benefit the state?
SJ: Given my observations of him as a secretary of state and a state legislator, he is out for headlines. He's a culture warrior. He's a mudslinger, and I don't think he would effectively be able to put together coalitions to get things done for Wyoming. He's already told us he'd be lockstep with what the White House wants him to do, what his party wants him to do and that’s it, Wyoming be damned.
That's not me. I'm not going to do what the Libertarian Party tells me to do. I'm not going to do what the White House tells me to do. I'm not going to do whatever the political party who's in power in Congress is going to tell me to. My goal is to represent the people of Wyoming, and I don't think he could effectively do that.
ERJ: What do you think are the greatest risks facing Wyoming right now?
SJ: Economy, the cost of living. Again, with Congress' ineptness here, the last two years especially, we find ourselves in another unnecessary Middle Eastern war, which has directly caused the cost of oil and fuel to increase, which is now causing the cost [of] food to increase, which is now causing inflation to increase. Now the world is in this kind of stranglehold, all because of a war started by the United States with Iran, which should have never happened. I think that's one of the major priorities that I would have, is to end the war so we can start to recover economically. I think the war and what we're seeing economically are directly linked, and the war needs to end first thing before we can address anything else.
The other issues I think that Wyoming faces are high healthcare costs and also a lack of access to healthcare. The Republicans went into Congress, and they said they wanted to gut the Affordable Care Act. They did that, but they had nothing to replace it with, and then it just spiked insurance premiums again. Now we're seeing lost funding for rural hospitals and rural medical care, which directly affect the people of Wyoming. I wanna make sure if I'm elected that our rural hospitals are properly funded, and then we need to come up with something to replace the Affordable Care Act and to bring insurance costs down, because what's happening now isn't working and it's just robbing more money out of the pockets of Americans.
ERJ: What else did you hear from voters as you campaigned across the state this summer?
SJ: Voters are upset with the cost of living. Voters are upset with the cost of fuel. Voters are sick and tired of angry mudslinging politicians. I think we saw that message loud and clear in the primary when the voters here sought to get rid of the Freedom Caucus. I think the only one that really survived that purge was Chuck Gray, and I would say by the skin of his teeth, because he won 25% of the Republican vote. I think that if one or two candidates had dropped out of that race, he wouldn't have been the nominee.
I am a viable alternative to Chuck Gray. I am not here to split votes or get enough support just to maintain ballot access. I'm here to win. I've had an overwhelming, outpouring of support from Republican groups in Wyoming, asking me how they can help beat Chuck Gray. I think if Wyoming were to elect me, that would send not only a loud message to the Freedom Caucus-type Republicans, but it would send a loud signal to Washington and the world that we're sick of what's been happening, and we wanna try something different.
ERJ: What do you make of your Democratic opponent, Lisa Kinney?
SJ: I haven't met Lisa. I don't know a whole lot about her except for what has been made public in the media. I know that she was in the Legislature for a while. I know she's an attorney. But other than that, I don't know much about her. I haven't really seen what her platform is or what she's looking to do specifically. I really couldn't tell you what I think of her. I don't even know what her platform is, and I don't know her as a person.
ERJ: If you do lose to Gray in the November election, are there still takeaways that you would want Wyoming voters to take away from your campaign?
SJ: Just because you win the Republican primary doesn't mean that you're the guaranteed winner of the general election or that that's the only option you have in the general election.
The Libertarian Party and the Republican Party have a lot of overlap on their values and the things that they believe in. At its heart, libertarianism is limited government, maximum individual liberty, civil rights. That's also a Republican ideal. I just want Wyoming voters to know that there is another option. It doesn't have to be the Democrat. There's an option that has overlap with the Republican Party.
ERJ: We just have a minute left here. Is there anything else that you would want to leave voters with?
SJ: Just to look beyond the partisanship, look beyond what the D and the R and the L are, and look at the person. Look at what they've accomplished, look at what they're trying to do.
I think in this race, the Republican nominee has flat out told people what he's going to do, and people need to just listen to what he’s saying, versus looking at the R behind his name. He has told you he is going to do what the White House tells him to do and whatever Republican Party leadership tells him to. That is not conducive to what Wyoming needs as a representative. I would just ask people to look beyond the party labels and look at the person. I would appreciate your vote in November.
You can find more conversations with Wyoming’s candidates on our How do I vote? page.
