A local Casper political activist has set his sights on the Wyoming House seat currently held by longtime House District 37 Rep. Steve Harshman, a Republican and former House speaker.
Ross Schriftman, 73, announced his candidacy on Thursday and said he is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat.
“I’m running to be a watchdog for hard-working taxpayers,” he said.
Schriftman, a longtime Philadelphia-area resident, moved to Wyoming in 2021. He was a 2024 candidate for the Casper City Council Ward 2 seat and lost. He is a familiar presence in Casper city and school board meetings, offering his ideas and opinions during public comment opportunities.
The long-time Philadelphia-area insurance agent also has been a frequent speaker before various state legislature committees. Health insurance concerns at the state level are partly fueling his decision to become a candidate, he said.
“I thought I could help especially in health care and health insurance because that has been my focus for 50 years,” Schriftman said. “For about 30 years I have been working on health care reform both at the national level and with the states.”
He thinks the state should send a resolution to the Trump administration as well as the congressional delegation encouraging the repeal of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare.
Schriftman said he would advocate for people to be able to set up a health savings account no matter what type of insurance they have so they can cover “their regular expenses and buy policies that would cover their more expensive health care needs.”
Other ideas he hopes to be able to bring to the legislature are in the governmental tax and spending categories. He said he has been tracking those issues locally and at the state level as well and has ideas on ways to raise more revenue for the state while helping residents struggling with their property taxes.
A Challenge If Harshman Runs
Schriftman is under no illusion that if Harshman runs again, he has a big hurdle to overcome. Harshman, a retired teacher and longtime Natrona County High School football coach has been in office since 2003.
“He’s known as a winning football coach and when he speaks it's about the history of Wyoming which is very interesting,” Schriftman said. “I think we have some differences especially on the growth of government.”
Schriftman said he thinks the state needs to work at growing the private sector by reducing regulations and “government involvement” while ensuring there is infrastructure to help Wyoming-based businesses grow.
Harshman said he will not make a decision on whether he’s going to run for his 13th term until around mid-April. He wants to get through the upcoming Wyoming legislature budget session and is focusing on issues there. He said he’s had opponents in the primary for nine of his 12 previous races and thinks having a challenger is positive.
“I think it’s good. You get to get out there and talk about the issues,” he said. “You talk about Wyoming’s future and leaving it better than you found it.”
A big issue for Harshman continues to be demographics with the outflow of people under 25 leaving the state for careers. Affordable housing, recruitment of industries and businesses, and solving those issues surrounding the loss of the younger generation to other states remains a priority that needs to be addressed, he said.
“I think the biggest group of people now moving into Wyoming are like Mr. Schriftman,” he said. “They are 60 years or older, so we have to keep working on that.”
Seeking Head Start
Schriftman said the reason he is announcing early is so that he can start raising money for his candidacy. He said he has conversations with several people prior to announcing for the seat and received encouragement to do it.
He plans to limit any contributions to his campaign to $250 from either individuals or political action committees.
During his time on the East Coast, the insurance agent ran for the Pennsylvania State House two times and lost in the 1970s as a Democrat and also was an unsuccessful candidate for Montgomery County Controller in 1979.
His switch to the Republican Party involved disagreements with Hillary Clinton’s policies and Barak Obama’s administration going after conservative groups using the IRS.
Schriftman has said that his move to Casper followed the pandemic when he perceived people in Philadelphia had become isolated and scared. His search for a low-tax environment and conservative state drew him to central Wyoming.
Characterizing himself as a “limited government, constitutional Republican," he said his focus if elected will be on “common sense reform and private sector growth.”
Schriftman, the current president of the Natrona County Chapter of Wyoming Right to Life, said other goals and priorities would be to protect human life from “conception to natural death” defend and advocate for parental rights and raise expectations for academic results in public education.
He is a political science graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. and has authored a book “My Million Dollar Mom” chronicling the life of his mom, Shirley, and wrote and produced a short award-winning film of the same name.
In addition to his political races, Schriftman has competed in more than 200 marathons and is a member of the local Casper running club, the Windy City Striders.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
