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.
Ken Casner is the Democratic Party’s nominee running for governor. He is posting campaign material to his Facebook page. He spoke with WPR’s Jordan Uplinger.
Click here to listen to a special episode of Open Spaces previewing the races for statewide and federal offices.
Jordan Uplinger: Can you start off by giving us a little bit of background on yourself and telling us the one issue that you feel is most important [that’s] facing the office of the governor?
Ken Casner: First of all, I'm a third-generation working man in the state of Wyoming. I was born in Cheyenne in 1950. My father was born in Laramie. My mother was born in Cottier, Wyoming. Cottier doesn't exist anymore. It was between Huntley and Torrington. However, what's my number one issue?
My number one issue is free and open elections. I'm tired of living in 1892, where Wyoming has pretty much made it standard that you either join a party or you don't join a party, because you can't run in the primaries. I don't agree with that. I think any American should be able to walk in, pay his or her money, walk to the election office, get it all done, and he or she can proceed in the election process. That's been my number one issue ever since I started.
JU: I'm gonna jump us into the rapid fire section here. What do you believe is more important to voters: a candidate's personal values or the issues they highlight on the campaign trail?
KC: My thing is I don't use the word “I.” I won't use the word “I.” I'll use this: I propose to you, the people of Wyoming, the following thing. Do you agree or disagree? Under a resolution format. If the ads or the people come back and say, ‘We don't want it,’ I won't force it. I listen. Representation to me is one product. One product is true representation. You represent the people, nobody else. No associations or nothing. There's as fast as I can give it to you.
JU: Just to make sure, you're saying that it's the issues on the campaign – you think voters care more about the promises made on the campaign trail as opposed to the values someone talks about?
KC: No, I'm saying that the people have been lied to a lot. They've been lied [to], that, ‘We'll do this, and we'll do that, and we'll do this,’ and nothing comes out of it. In 24 years, I haven't seen anything come out of it. The other thing is, basically, representation is not governed. Governed, you're being governed. That is, they rule you. Uh-uh. Nah-uh. You go back the other way. Representation says, ‘I propose to you today the following thing. What do you want me to do? I work for you.’
JU: What three words best summarize your political beliefs?
KC: My beliefs, they are the Constitution of the United States, number one. I'm a Vietnam vet. I stand by that all the way. Number two is the Wyoming Constitution. That's the number two one that I stand by. Number three is the people in Wyoming come first. That's my number three issues, one, two and three. I will not deviate from all of those. I follow the law.
JU: Which of the following do you believe has the most significant impact on young people's decision to leave or remain in the state of Wyoming: job opportunities, healthcare access, public infrastructure or housing? Which of those has the biggest impact on a young person's decision to stay here or leave?
KC: Well, I'd say the number one issue for your category as a young adult and wanting to stay in Wyoming is health issues. Health, universal healthcare. You put universal healthcare into Wyoming, and true Wyoming universal healthcare, you're gonna see a shock that is unreal. I mean, you look at the people today, the people today want education. They want healthcare. They want property taxes. They want everything. But in 24 years, what are they given? There's your question.
JU: If elected, can you name one industry in the state that you'd like to see grow during your term as governor?
KC: One industry I'd like to see grow? Well, that's a good one. That's a good question, 'cause there's a lot of them. However, the one industry I would like to see grow is our small business. I want small business to come back. That's the industry that has to grow. Because a young couple, two people working, want to open a business, they have to be backed to open it. We have to give them the opportunity to come forward, and we aren't giving them the opportunity. You're seeing us as small businesses being shot down. I ran a small business up here for 28 years. Tell me I don't know what I see. I see us with nothing. I see us, even in this town of Elk Mountain, we have nobody that can change your tire. One restaurant, everything else. Where's their opportunities? I wanna see small business come back with the opportunity to be helped.
JU: The last rapid fire question: In one word, can you describe your feelings towards AI, artificial intelligence?
KC: It's a tool. It's in a box. That's what it is. It's a toolbox. That's my feeling with it, because basically it helps in certain areas, but it's a disadvantage in another. It's like a monkey wrench. You open a monkey wrench, doesn't fit, you tighten it up. Doesn't open, you gotta do something to repair it. Personally, that's up to Wyoming people. That whole adventure is Wyoming. What do Wyoming people want? They don't want it. Do you know something? Wyoming owns all the water in Wyoming. All us people do. All we have to say, ‘No water, no can do.’ These are things people see, I see.
JU: Thank you for answering those in the rapid-fire questions. Now, these are completely open-ended, and I've tailored them just to you here. We have three more questions. Buckrail, a news outlet based in Jackson who interviewed you, quoted two of your policy positions to include the implementation of universal healthcare, as well as restructuring the state's taxation system. Before we touch on healthcare, voters are already experiencing reductions to their property tax, and they'll vote on a property tax initiative this November. Some clerks have said taxpayers are confused and unaware of how these changes work. How would you restructure taxes without confusing or complicating the taxpayer's situation further?
KC: I'll give you my number one. Number one is you need to restructure your taxes, and the reason being is you don't get nothing back. The people that are here in Wyoming don't get any money back. They don't get nothing. What did Wyoming just do recently? It's called a lodging tax. I'm gonna give you the title to my tax: lodging tax, 8%, across the board. You live here, you pay an income tax. Wyoming is way, way, way down in income tax because we don't have one. We don't have something we can get back on. What's that gonna do? It's gonna eliminate a lot of things. Do you own a car? Yeah. Do you pay taxes on it? Yeah. Do you keep doing it and doing it and doing it? You're an elderly person, your house is paid off, you keep paying taxes, taxes, taxes. That has to be restructured. We have to figure out how to do it. We. Notice the word we? I'm gonna ask you, ‘What do you want?’ I have more to come. I call it the Wyoming Lodging Tax, and it's already on the books. We don't have to do nothing but restructure it.
JU: As a very quick follow-up to that question –
KC: Okay, I'm ready. [connection becomes unstable]
JU: Are you in favor of the current property tax proposals, the 25% cut, the 50% cut? Or do you believe that property tax cuts are not what we need right now?
KC: Property tax cuts will blow your mind. There's something that's coming, and I'm not gonna release it yet. There's equality, equal co-taxes. In the Wyoming Constitution, [it] says everybody pays their equal share in taxes, supposedly. Property tax is something that I consider can be eliminated, can be totally eliminated, and the reason being is we're not collecting, and I'm gonna say this; We're not collecting all the revenues that are due under property tax for the people. We pay our taxes, but in our school system or on our highways – I'll just give you the highways. Highway Patrol sits out there and gives you a ticket. Where does that money go? [The] money goes into the school system. There's revenue that isn't being collected. Where's our problems? Our problems is there. They need to be restructured and redone, and you can eliminate property tax, especially for the elderly.
Once they're at an age of 65, they don't pay it. They're done. They're finished. Or in young couples, they don't have to pay for everything they got. We can restructure it in such a way that they can say, ‘Oh, I just paid off my car. I got a silver star.’ What's a silver star? Or a what, yellow star? That star is that car is branded. It's paid for, it's his, he owns it. He don't pay no more on it. Or she. Just that simple to me.
I mean, [the way] I look at it, I'm a visionary. I can see out in front of me. I'm dyslexic. We seem to be stuck in a mold that is just one way. We've got to get out of that. We got to come up. Give you a perfect example: Look up [unintelligible] for education, and see where they sit, and see why I support Referendum One.
JU: We're gonna move on to healthcare now. On the universal healthcare system within the state, Wyoming faces a shortage of healthcare professionals. Many rural areas are lacking support or supporting healthcare infrastructure, including maternity healthcare deserts. How would a plan for universal healthcare address the challenges currently faced by Wyoming?
KC: I just went down to Laramie yesterday. Went all the way down to Laramie to get a blood pressure machine calibrated with them. Took 22 minutes. Why? Because we have healthcare problems, and we have universal healthcare. Have you ever thought about changing the system?
You have the system where you can do stuff through technology. You have the system to do stuff that is like we're doing, Zooming. You have systems that are universal, are clinics throughout Wyoming. We have two clinics up [in Elk Mountain], and we have a clinic in Hanna. We have a clinic in Medicine Bow. These people are smart people. It's just, we gotta tie it all together, and we don't tie it together. I was in Medevac. I did a helicopter. I flew to places. We have the National Guard. We have all kinds of things. How much is in the referendum budget for – and the private companies ain't gonna like this, but you could make a network.
You could make a network of how you fly to certain places to pick up people. You could play Pony Express if you wanted to. Drop 'em off, pick another one, go and go. We don't look at the whole picture. We fear universal healthcare. We fear it because who controls it? The biggest of the biggest, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and everything else. Why not start a program where you have a rural doctor in every city? You could do that. We used to.
You can find more conversations with Wyoming’s candidates on our How do I vote? page.
