Reid Rasner’s campaign for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House of Representatives seat is not a satire or a parody, state politicos say.
But if it were, his campaign commercial performances would land an A-grade, a retired drama coach told Cowboy State Daily.
Rasner was among the earliest to declare for what’s now a 10-person GOP primary contest for the House seat, which incumbent Rep. Harriet Hageman is vacating to run for U.S. Senate.
That follows an unsuccessful 2024 bid to unseat longtime U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, and a 2025 publicity splash in which he voiced an effort to buy the social media app TikTok.
Rasner’s campaign videos range from policy discussions, to outright comedic and dramatic acting. His social media presence and output quantity are unrivaled in this race.
He led a widely-panned March video post with “No more fat kids!” then urged the nation to revive the presidential fitness test.
More recently he posted a video that leads with him shouting, “I just watched a man walk into the women’s restroom, come on let’s get him out of here!” before kicking open stall doors in the bathroom, and pulling open the final door to reveal a male holding a sign deriding Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is one of Rasner’s nine opponents.
The male screams, and Rasner barks, “Get the hell outta here!”
In another video Rasner deploys the same vocal inflections as President Donald Trump while voicing outrage at a porta-potty with both male and female restroom insignia on it.
“I can’t believe it, why can’t we just have normal potties?” he asks. “Why do we need a tranny-pottie?
Parody, Satire Or Serious?
An ever-growing mountain of commenters asks whether Rasner’s campaign is a parody, or if his videos are satire.
They are not, multiple Wyoming politicos told Cowboy State Daily this week.
“Why would somebody spend this much money on a joke?” said Wyoming state House Appropriations Chair John Bear, R-Gillette. “It’s a real campaign. I don’t believe in his mind it’s a parody.”
Rasner as of April 1 had lent himself about $1.2 million for his federal campaign, and had received another $54,865 in other contributions, Federal Election Commission filings show.
Bear is also the former chair of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is a group of conservative and controversial state House Republicans.
He said he believes Rasner’s outlandish approach impacts the candidate negatively.
“It’s kind of silly, so I get why people would think it’s a parody,” Bear added.
Rasner’s campaign also insists that his campaign is legitimate.
Rodger McDaniel, a former legislator who ran a 1982 Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Sen. Malcolm Wallop and participated in multiple other statewide campaigns, said he was tempted to think of the campaign as a parody while watching some of Rasner’s videos.
But Rasner is suing five people for defamation, in four separate, ongoing civil cases.
“Does he really exist?” asked McDaniel. “I guess he must, he sues people that say bad things about him. He must be able to get into a courthouse.”
The campaign is also real, said McDaniel, adding that it’s probably outlandish because of how crowded the GOP field is in this race.
Rasner’s videos show him in a MAGA hat. He speaks and gestures like Trump. His commentary veers hard right on social issues.
“The problem for a Republican in that race is separating yourself from that crowd, and I think that’s how he’s chosen to do it: just to be as outrageous as possible,” McDaniel said. “It’s not enough to say, you know, ‘I’ll support President Trump.’”
Nearly all of Wyoming’s Republican U.S. House candidates who have campaigned publicly have voiced alignment with Trump. One strong outlier is Kevin Christensen, who outright opposed the president’s self-depiction as a Jesus-like figure in April.
McDaniel doesn’t have a background as a theater critic, but Rasner’s performances are “funny,” he said.
“It’s Saturday Night Live quality.”
State Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, cast doubt on the parody idea.
Like Bear, Yin was reflecting on how much money Rasner has poured into his campaign.
“I think it’s really hard to take him seriously,” said Yin. “But I think the only one that can tell you whether it’s parody or not is him.”
So We Asked Him
Rasner’s campaign spokesman Michael Blevins emphasized that Rasner has given concrete policy positions.
The candidate has dispatched a land management plan, urged a national ban on abortion, a mass deportation policy, a ban on Sharia law, and opposition to wind farms, to name a few.
“The stuff he talks about on social media are things occurring all over the United States (and are) real issues,” said Blevins.
The issues could expand into Wyoming, and “it’s important that we address them before they do, and prevent them,” he said, adding that some of the issues are already here, “and we’ve seen what they’ve done.”
Cowboy State Daily asked why Rasner posted a video of himself kicking in bathroom doors while hunting a man in the women’s bathroom.
“I think everybody will derive their own intent,” said Blevins, reiterating that Rasner is serious in purpose about the issues in his videos.
“It’s critical to be able to get the message across,” said Blevins. “And I think Reid is the only candidate we’ve seen in this case who’s been forward-thinking about policy.”
But He Would Have Gotten An ‘A’
Michael Stedillie, a Natrona County resident and now-retired drama teacher of 45 years, graded Rasner’s performance on Thursday.
Rasner gets an A for acting and production, but only if these videos are satire, said Stedillie.
Stedillie laughed out loud while reviewing a slate of six Rasner videos, which included the three mentioned prior in this story, plus:
• A video in which the camera zooms gradually on Rasner while he criticizes Gray in a Trump-like vocal cadence and tone;
• A video in which Rasner remarks there are a “lot of fat comments out there” but that Trump’s doctors told him he’s in “tip-top shape” and he’ll run up a set of stairs to prove it. An obvious body double scales the stairs while Rocky theme music plays. The double high-fives Rasner at the top of the stairs;
• A video in which Rasner, using his signature Trump vocal growl, leans over a garbage can just outside Gray’s office window, and accuses Gray of giving Wyoming land use to “Communist China.”
Gray has voted at least three times to lease state lands for wind farms, but the companies requesting those leases are headquartered in America.
Rasner’s visual shot alignment of the garbage can with Gray’s window is clever; his Trump growl could be subconsciously impactful, and his whole Trump impression is almost always spot-on, Stedillie told Cowboy State Daily.
“If his purpose is to make people think that Donald Trump doesn’t like Chuck Gray, he’s playing the part well,” the drama coach said.
But it’s a tightrope, he added.
“If a Trump supporter thinks that Reid is trying to lampoon the president’s physical presentation, then they might get upset about it,” Stedillie said. “The other possibility is, (they’ll say) ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool, I like the way he does that.’”
Rasner’s energy level is “top notch,” Stedillie added.
But, he said the video in which Rasner kicks open bathroom doors is jarring.
Stedillie said performers should coalesce empathy for the hero before depicting him in an act of violence, and that’s not doable in a 15-second video.
“The transgender porta potty was just downright entertaining. It’s going to make people laugh,” said Stedillie.
Ever The Target
Gray is the most frequent target of Rasner’s recent videos. Rasner has repeatedly referenced Gray’s aye-votes for wind leases on state lands, as well as the Wyoming-registered companies that bear names that appear Chinese.
Gray took Cowboy State Daily’s Friday interview request as a chance to call Rasner a “liberal.”
Rasner had voiced approval toward grants for and fewer restrictions on rooftop solar panel installations when he ran for Las Vegas City Council a decade ago. He’s also voiced support for data centers – a fraught topic in some conservative circles.
Rasner’s performative campaign approach is a distraction “from the truth,” Gray asserted.
“I think he’s just trying to bluff his way into running for the at-large (seat),” Gray began in a phone interview. “The truth is that he’s a very liberal individual. He’s a complete liberal.”
Gray claimed Rasner has called for defunding police in the past.
Blevins said Gray is "lying" and pointed to a Ballotpedia account of Rasner's Las Vegas City Council run showing Rasner as a staunch supporter of police.
In a 2017 Last Vegas City Council campaign video, Rasner said, rather, he wanted to form alliances with police and the community, and clean up the streets, go after drug dealers rather than users, and curb sex trafficking.
He said at that time that he wanted to ensure the police force has enough staff and equipment to keep the community safe.
A Whole Field Out There
Rasner and Gray rise to public attention frequently for their fiery clashes.
But they’re not the only candidates in this race.
The other eight registered Republican candidates are Teton County philanthropist Steve Friess, Wyoming Senate President Bo Biteman, military veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen, Teton County Rancher Frank Chapman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, former state legislator Keith Goodenough, and Sundance man Richard Dodson.
One Democrat, Lisa Kinney, is running for her party’s nomination.
The primary election is Aug. 18.
Libertarian candidate Shawn Johnson, who’s the former vice-mayor of Casper, is vying for his party’s nomination as well. The minor party’s convention is set for Sunday.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
