Kamila Kudelska: The Road to Cheyenne is our special series previewing the primary elections. This week, we’re previewing state legislative races in the northeast corner of the state and we’ll take a deeper look at the Republicans challenging U.S. Senator John Barrasso in the primary.
To help me understand all of this, Wyoming Public Media northeast reporter Jordan Uplinger and state government reporter David Dudley are joining me. Thanks for being here.
Jordan Uplinger: Hi, thanks for having me.
David Dudley: Happy to be here.
KK: When we talk about the northeast corner of the state, we’re looking at Sheridan, Buffalo, Gillette and east to the border, and all the way down to Casper.
Jordan, we sent you out to hear from voters in Casper. What stood out to you?
JU: I talked with a couple of different people, young, old, some business owners, people visiting downtown from surrounding suburbs. The majority of people intended to do their research, or had an issue they cared about. But few were actively following the [state] Senate races. Here’s three individuals from Casper.
Jacob Pallo: I don't really pay attention to the local ones. I don't know why but I probably really should.
Lee Dermis: I have not been following the local races. I know that there's one on the school board that looks pretty contentious and I'm going to be reading up on it.
Liz Davis: I haven't followed it as closely as I have in the past just because I'm very busy. However, I don't think that we have enough young candidates and I don't think that the majority of the candidates that are on the ballot this year are educated on the actual issues facing the working class in Wyoming.
KK: Interesting. You’ve been following two Senate races locally in this area. Can you tell us a little about them?
JU: I’m watching Senate District 22 and 30, where primary challengers might decide the unofficial alignment of moderate Wyoming Caucus Republicans and far-right Freedom Caucus Republicans.
KK: It seems to be a common theme of this election cycle. Just to note: The Freedom Caucus is only a thing in the House, but senators align with their policy priorities and sometimes work in tandem on legislation. Let’s start with Senate District 22, which covers Sheridan, down through Buffalo and into Casey.
JU: This is a major energy producing area – a lot of mines and a slowly but steadily growing population.
Dave Kinskey is not running for reelection. He was mayor of Cheyenne. During the last session he was Senate Vice President and eventually stripped of his appropriations committee chair by Senate President Ogden Driskill.
Barry Crago and Mark Jennings both currently serve in the House, but are running for this seat. Jennings is a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.
KK: Since we know the seat will end up with a Republican, the question for the people living in District 22 is, what kind of Republican?
JU: Crago laid out the right-wing moderates’ priorities in a 2023 op-ed to the Cowboy State Daily. They included property tax reform and relief, educational savings accounts, suicide prevention, parental rights, and reducing electricity costs. These goals aren’t too far off, ideologically speaking, from Jennings.
Jennings also has his sights set on tax reform, and he’s an advocate for all-encompassing parental rights when it comes to education. What separates Jennings from Crago is that Jennings is focused far more heavily on hardline, culturally conservative positions.
For example, Jennings criticizes Crago for voting to legalize marijuana, although that bill ultimately did not pass. Jennings also attacks Crago for adding amendments that weakened and delayed the “Life Is a Human Right” Act, a bill that would ban most forms of abortion.
Crago talks about his work to open a new veterans home and he supports members in the House and Senate voting their consciousness. So really it will come down to voters researching the candidates or just going off of name recognition.
KK: Alright. Let’s move over to Senate District 30. District 30 covers the west half of Casper, part of the Casper Mountains and some of the Powder river.
JU: This area is governed by Sen. Charles Scott, who’s held the seat since 1983. The rancher is trying to keep his seat. He’s had his hand in a lot of bills over the length of time, but in recent memory his big focus has been on education. He’s supported a Senate File to allow charter schools to apply for state loans. He’s sponsored a bill to separate teacher pay from education block funding so that the pay can’t be used elsewhere.
His opponents offer two competing economic visions of Wyoming, however. Robert Hendry is an ex-Natrona county commissioner and one of his priorities is “emergency pregnancy services” and hospitals’ ability to generate a profit. He says that Wyoming is economically in a good position.
Charles Shoenwolf says otherwise and that it is the fault of temporary tax increases that become permanent.
Schoenwolf has been running a home care agency for about six years. He also has an endorsement from the Wyoming Education Association and is a strong proponent of guns.
As far as who’s center-right and far-right in comparison to Scott, well, it’s just harder to make that call. We’re unsure of their specifics on abortion, parental rights. Scott is 78 and unsure how many more [terms] he wants to run for. He’s still the incumbent, so the primary favors him, but his opponents don’t have decades of voting to find errors in. They are much more focused in their messaging.
KK: Great, thanks Jordan for that insight on the northeast section of the state. Turning to you David, we’re focusing on the Wyoming U.S. Senate seat. Up for reelection this year is Sen. John Barrasso. Wyoming’s second senator, Cynthia Lummis, is not up for election this time.
David, Barrasso has some competition. Who are they?
DD: First, there's Reid Rasner, a financial adviser who lives in Casper. Then there's John Holtz, who ran against Barrasso in 2018 and was trounced by more than 70,000 votes in the primary.
KK: Barrasso has been in the U.S. Senate since 2007. He’s currently the third ranking GOP in the Senate. Does he seem worried about this competition?
DD: I can't answer that, unfortunately. I've reached out to his team on three separate occasions, and they haven't given me a chance to interview him yet. But he visited Cody for the 4th of July, and he was in Cheyenne about a week ago for the groundbreaking of the new Meta data center being built south of town.
I'd say he doesn't seem to be worried, but he recently withdrew from a debate on PBS. I'm still trying to make sense of that move.
In his video announcing his run, he said the border is a problem, he wants to get the federal government out of Wyoming, as well as get inflation under control.
KK: Let’s learn a little more about the two Republicans running against him. Let’s start with Reid Rasner.
DD: Rasner told me that he's running to work on behalf of military veterans and energy workers whose livelihoods may be impacted by federal calls to cut back fossil fuel production. Those are two significant voter groups in Wyoming. When we spoke, he referred to former Pres. Trump as "President Trump," in the present tense. He identifies strongly with former Pres. Trump's approach, but Barrasso touts a Trump endorsement. It will be interesting to see which of them wins those votes.
KK: So Rasner might be gaining some steam. How about John Holtz, who’s also running as a Republican?
DD: Holtz says he's the only military veteran in this race. He was a space systems operations officer in the Air Force. He’s also a former judge. Holtz said he gave that up because he has "a big mouth and strong opinions." One of his opinions, which seems to be more popular with voters, is that he's tired of the in-fighting among Republicans, as well as their inability to work with people across the aisle to find common sense solutions. He's concerned about property taxes and energy. He wants to make sure taxes remain affordable, and that Wyoming can keep the lights on.
KK: To put this race into some perspective, last time Barrasso was up for reelection he had way more competition. He had five Republican opponents in the primary of 2018. He won no problem. So do we actually think these two Republican opponents have a chance in this primary?
DD: If the election in 2018 offers any clues, Barrasso appears to be on firm ground. He won about 65 percent of votes in the primary, then 67 percent in the general election.
I've heard people use terms like "untouchable" to describe Barrasso's position in the Republican Party. But I also saw a number of angry voters approach his table at this year's Republican Convention. They told his staffer that they would no longer vote for him.
It occurred to me then, as if this year's budget session wasn't enough, that there's a hyper in-party partisanship within Wyoming politics. I saw something similar in Utah, which is a deep red state. The term RINO, Republican in name only, has been used more lately by Republicans who feel that people within their own party aren't Republican enough, or that they're too willing to work with others who may have conflicting perspectives. But the term goes back to Teddy Roosevelt Jr.'s presidency from 1901 to 1908. A Republican, Roosevelt was William McKinley's vice president. Roosevelt became president after McKinley was assassinated. Roosevelt was called a "Republican in name only" by critics. He would go on to found the Progressive Party when he ran for president in 1912.
Barrasso seems to be popular on the national stage. Between 2019 and 2024, he raised just over $306,000 dollars in Wyoming – and over $3.8 million dollars raised out of state, according to Open Secrets.
To that point, I did talk to Dennis, who declined to give me his last name, of Gillette and he says he doesn’t like those national priorities coming into Wyoming.
Dennis: I believe that conservative spending and fiscal accountability is important and that leadership should be based on not what Washington gives us, because I don't believe in Washington D.C. values.
KK: Time will tell. Just quickly, this is the primary but Barrasso does have a Democratic challenger. Who is it?
DD: That would be Scott Morrow, a retiree who lives in Laramie. Morrow was a union officer in the American Postal Workers Union, and was their president from 1991 to ‘95. Today, he's the president of their chapter of retirees, based in Denver. He says he's laser focused on the issues faced by retirees and senior citizens. His platform was inspired by Matthew 25, from the Bible, which he paraphrased as: Treat the least among you as you would treat your God.
He doesn't have a challenger in the primary, so he's waiting for the general election. Morrow says that, if elected, he'll be a one-term senator because he doesn't agree with the idea of career politicians.
KK: And that’s a wrap for this edition of the Road to Cheyenne. Thanks for being here with me David and Jordan. If you have a question about voting, electoral process, specific races or candidates, feel free to give us a call and leave us a voicemail at (307) 766-4314. We may use your voicemail on the show! Or go to our website and scroll down to our America Amplified banner to fill out a form to ask questions.
The Road to Cheyenne will be back on the next Open Spaces, July 19. We will be looking at the southwest part of the state in focus. You can also find this series online at wyoming public media dot org.
