Technically, Reid Rasner started it.
But when the Republican candidate vying against five others, so far, for the GOP nomination for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat took a few shots at his opponent Secretary of State Chuck Gray this week, Gray returned fire.
Rasner derided Gray over contrasts between Gray’s voting record of approving at least three wind energy projects, and his multiple broad criticisms of wind projects as “woke” boondoggles.
Gray in response said Rasner, a former Las Vegas City Council candidate, holds “Las Vegas values” and doesn’t represent the people of Wyoming like Gray does.
Gray has been arguably the most vocal opponent of wind energy development in Wyoming, calling the industry “woke wind” and criticizing Gov. Mark Gordon for voting to authorize large and controversial wind leases in April 2025.
Gray has, however, voted in favor of state wind leases at least three times, on June 1, 2023; Aug. 3, 2023; and Aug. 1, 2024, in his capacity as one of the five officials on the State Board of Land Commissioners, the board’s minutes show.
All less controversial than the Pronghorn and Sidewinder projects which Gray has opposed fiercely, those three leases included a renewal application for Rocky Mountain Power’s 50-year, 640-acre project in Carbon County, and two new-lease applications in Converse and Natrona counties — both by companies under the umbrella of NextEra Energy Resources LLC.
Though those votes contrast with Gray’s more general attacks on wind energy as a whole concept, Gray has also pointed to key differences between the three projects for which he voted and the two larger ones he’s opposed for about a year.
‘Slap In The Face’
“Chuck Gray has voted for wind leases three times,” began Rasner in his Monday phone interview. “When people ask him about these wind leases, he refuses to even acknowledge his votes, which is very concerning.”
Rasner added, “The inconsistencies in what Chuck Gray is doing and what he’s saying are a slap in the face to every Wyomingite across the state.”
Rasner’s phone interview and press release are part but not all of his attack campaign. Repeating Facebook posts on his political profile call the secretary “CHINA CHUCK GRAY: TOTAL DISASTER! TOTAL FRAUD! CANNOT BE TRUSTED!” and list the three dates on which Gray approved wind farm leases for Wyoming’s state lands.
Rasner’s press release put his points in much stronger language, claiming Gray is “trying to lie his way out of (the inconsistencies). Wyoming isn’t stupid, and voters aren’t going to fall for it. You don’t get to vote for something three times and then pretend you opposed it.”
Rasner called Gray’s voting record “a pattern,” and said, “Wyomingites cannot trust a Californian like China Chuck who screams ‘I stopped woke wind’ on the radio while voting yes on over 6,000 acres of wind leases.”
Gray grew up in California and moved to Casper full time after graduating from college on the East Coast around 2013, but had already spent significant chunks of his childhood visiting the Cowboy State while staying with his father.
Rasner noted another contrast Monday, that Gray has voiced public opposition toward a gravel mining operation on state-owned land at the base of Casper Mountain, though the secretary had voted in favor of it in 2023.
“As soon as Natrona County and Casper Mountain Alliance came out and got 20,000 signatures against (the project), Chuck Gray changed his mind,” said Rasner. “It never would have been an issue had he just stood up and done the right thing.”
Rasner said he stands with President Donald Trump on the importance of coal, oil and natural gas, and nuclear development.
“Wyoming is the tip of the spear for nuclear energy,” said Rasner. “The wind turbines are heavily subsidized and I just don’t see a future for them in Wyoming.”
Return Fire
As for his aye votes on the gravel project, Gray said that item was hidden in a governor-produced consent list “that nobody saw.”
The agenda for the June 1, 2023 meeting involving the gravel votes lists a plan to consider an application for “sand, gravel, borrow material, and rip-rap rock lease.” As the agenda sits Tuesday, that to-do item hyperlinks to a list of proposed projects by Prism Logistics in Natrona County with specific location data.
Gordon’s office declined Tuesday to comment on Gray’s assertion about hidden consent list items.
As for Gray, he claimed “Reid Rasner is running the same tired playbook as his last failed Senate bid – a desperate publicity stunt built on lies and distortion in order to try to hide his attempt to bring his Las Vegas values to Wyoming.”
Rasner is a Casper native and Wyoming businessman, but has ties to Las Vegas: he ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Las Vegas City Council in 2017, finishing seventh. He challenged U.S. Sen. Barrasso without success in the 2024 primary election.
“I work for the people of Wyoming, not the 7th Ward of Las Vegas, which is what Reid wants to represent,” wrote Gray in a Tuesday text message.
Gray said he’s been Wyoming’s strongest voice against “woke wind” as one of the five statewide executive branch elected officials serving on the State Board of Land Commissioners.
“I as the only board member to vote against the controversial Pronghorn and Sidewinder projects, led the successful motion to cancel those leases, and have repeatedly declared that these unreliable boondoggles are wrong for Wyoming and inconsistent with our fiduciary duty.”
Gray acknowledged a June 6 meeting of the state board where Gordon asked Gray, “do you want to step outside?”
In Gray’s view, it was an invitation to fight.
Gordon’s spokeswoman Amy Edmonds said at the time, conversely, that it was an invitation to have a conversation about the policy context of that meeting.
Gray answered the governor by twice asking “are you threatening me?” and voicing incredulity. When Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder tried to interject, Gray chided, “please stop interrupting.”
That was when Gray was able to turn two of the former pro-wind votes on that board to votes in favor of stopping the leases, he said in his text.
The 3-2 vote against the leases, which unfolded in February, was in favor of a process that could halt the leases, rather than one to halt them altogether. That followed warnings by the wind developer that if the state didn’t follow its own processes, the developer would sue.
“Reid would never take on the Governor like I did,” wrote Gray. “Reid wouldn’t even attend any of the meetings – Reid has said in the past that he doesn’t even want to comment on state issues.”
In response to that, Rasner’s campaign contact Michael Blevins said, “Reid has put Wyoming first and always will; this is just another classic example of Chuck trying to rewrite the story to hide his own failures.”
Gray Counterattack Continues
Gray’s counterattack continued:
“No amount of Rasner’s creative math or recycled attacks changes that record,” he wrote. “Wyomingites know who the real deal is. While Reid Rasner chases headlines and spends his Mom’s money on his laughing stock campaign, I have consistently delivered results for all of Wyoming.”
Gray asserted that Cowboy State Daily “should actually investigate Reid’s Las Vegas values rather than keep giving credence to this nonsense, but they have a conflict since Reid has been a sponsor.”
Rasner had advertised with Cowboy State Daily prior, but his advertising contract ended Jan. 31.
During Rasner’s ads contract and after, Cowboy State Daily reported on both claims made against Rasner, and contrasting maneuvers in Gray's record.
Gray and Rasner are in a growing field of Republican U.S. House hopefuls headed into the Aug. 18 primary election. The others are Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, and Casper-based veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
