David Giralt is trying to send a message to Wyoming voters. He's touting the endorsement of six sitting U.S. House members — plus rock star Ted Nugent.
Giralt, a former active-duty Army Ranger from Casper, is running against nine other candidates for the Republican nomination to Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat.
The primary election is Aug. 18.
Giralt conceded in a Thursday phone interview with Cowboy State Daily that he’s short on name recognition in the crowded GOP field.
He faces state Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, philanthropist Steve Friess and Secretary of State Chuck Gray, to name a few.
Giralt said he’s also “not the richest person in this race by any means."
He faces well-heeled contenders such as Friess, Gray, and Casper businessman Reid Rasner.
But Giralt has garnered arguably more high-profile endorsements than any other House candidate. Those include one from Nugent.
Multiple U.S. House representatives have endorsed Giralt, he said.
Those are Reps. Ryan Zinke (Montana), House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (Alabama), Jack Bergman (Michigan), Jake Ellzey (Texas), and Pete Stauber (Minnesota). Giralt said Thursday that Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Georgia, has also lent his endorsement.
To Giralt, it’s a sign that, “Although my life goal hasn’t been building name-ID and trying to capture headlines, I can do the work. And there are very influential people who are senior in their careers who agree with me, and I think just driving that home is important.”
The endorsements reflect the time Giralt, a former congressional staffer, spent serving delegates in Washington, D.C., and what he calls the valuable relationships he forged there.
“Many of them, I’ve known them for years. They’re not fly-by-night,” he said. “It’s very rare for members of Congress to endorse in a crowded, 10-way primary.”
The Rock Star
Nugent, the rock star known for “Stranglehold” and “Cat Scratch Fever,” national spokesman for Hunter Nation and outspoken conservative activist, told Cowboy State Daily he researched Giralt and liked what he found.
Nugent also called Wyoming “one of the last states that represents real America.”
“My research showed me that David, as a veteran, Christian, Constitutional, conservative, conservationist, stands for and will fight for God, family, country, law and order, private property rights, game laws based on real science and against Fedzilla's overreach in the Cowboy State,” said Nugent in a Thursday email. “My conversations with the man fortified my trust.”
Giralt said he’s listened to Nugent’s music but didn’t know the rocker personally. He believes Nugent found him through his national news hits through conservative outlet Newsmax.
“We did have a conversation, off-air, before I was ever interviewed with him, and he had a lot of questions about public lands – stuff like that,” said Giralt, referencing the July 3 podcast in which Nugent endorsed him.
Giralt said he told Nugent the same thing about public lands he tells others: he seeks multi-use principles, responsible energy development, protecting lands “so we can recreate on them, hunt fish, enjoy the land – all those sorts of things.”
Nugent is no stranger to Wyoming.
He hunted with the late Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyoming, on a muzzleloading pronghorn hunt to legalize the Hunters for the Hungry venison donation system for homeless shelters. That hunt was in October 1993.
Cowboy State Daily executive editor Jimmy Orr founded the Hunters for the Hungry initiative in Wyoming while working for Wallop, and pitched the idea to Nugent while backstage at a concert in Baltimore.
Nugent also said he “arrowed a magnificent cow elk on another hunting adventure" with his son Toby. “Love Wyoming and everything she represents.”
Nugent said American families look to states like Wyoming “as an example of hope for all of America. Ranching, farming, freedom, conservation, rugged individualism, independent spirit, strong self-sufficiency and all the attributes of what the best of America still believes in.”
He said he believes Giralt will fight for those values “in this culture/spiritual war for the soul of the last best place.”
Strategic
Giralt said the congressional delegates who have endorsed him are also serving in roles significant to Wyoming.
Rogers endorsed Giralt in April, saying he “has the backbone and the principles to hit the ground running in Washington.”
Rogers highlighted Giralt’s 12-year active-duty Army career and command of troops in multiple combat deployments to Afghanistan.
Giralt told Cowboy State Daily this endorsement “means a lot and is very humbling.”
He worked for Rogers for a year in a congressional fellowship program while still on active duty, he added.
The Armed Services Committee is one of the only authorizing committees that passes a bill annually, and it has for more than six decades, said Giralt. He said he hopes to serve on that committee if elected, and this endorsement tells voters he could do so.
“And (it allows me to have a vehicle to pass legislation and not just talk about it or say, ‘Oh I’ll build relationships when I get there, or I’ll learn about the process when I arrive.’”
Energy
Giralt said he also hopes to serve on the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Committee on the Budget.
Stauber chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.
Giralt announced Stauber’s endorsement Wednesday, in a statement in which Stauber called said Giralt would be “a strong voice for Wyoming.”
In May, Giralt announced the endorsement of Zinke, who is also a former Navy SEAL and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
Zinke serves on the House Appropriations Committee, which Giralt called a good fit, saying he wants to work toward fixing the nation’s exorbitant debt problem.
“If we want to actually tackle $40 trillion in debt, I need to work on the budget. There’s no way around that,” said Giralt. “I’m passionate about it.”
Bergman, who’s a retired three-star Marine Corps lieutenant general, voiced a “proud” endorsement of Giralt in a June 8 press release.
Giralt called that one’s meaningful because they have a “shared commitment to serving veterans and rural communities.”
“Jack Bergman is most likely the incoming chair of the Veteran Affairs Committee in the House,” Giralt said. “That matters significantly. Because we have one of the highest per capita rates of veterans anywhere in the country.”
Giralt said he wants to focus on rural health care and leveraging telehealth options for veterans, as well as end-of-life provisions and burial rights.
Committee members have “already said they want to work with me on that,” he added.
Giralt called Ellzey a leader on small business issues, and McCormick a leader on sentinel missile upgrades — more issues the candidate cast as important to Wyoming.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
