Teton County-based attorney Frank Chapman left his truncated U.S. House run with a few distinct impressions.
Among those are: Chuck Gray leads the race with support from Freedom Caucus-aligned voters, money isn’t everything, Gray and two others have unimpressive or unknown career backgrounds, and Kevin Christensen is an impressive person.
That’s according to a Monday interview on Cowboy State Daily’s Morning Show with Jake, where Chapman delivered his views from the four months he spent studying the race closely as a candidate.
Chapman announced Thursday he’s bowing out of the race, leaving nine Republican candidates still vying for the GOP nomination to the U.S. House seat Rep. Harriet Hageman is leaving to run for U.S. Senate.
Those nine are: State Senate President Bo Biteman, philanthropist Steve Friess, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Casper businessman Reid Rasner, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, combat veteran Kevin Christensen, veteran and congressional aide David Giralt, former legislator Keith Goodenough and singer Richard Dodson.
"Haven't Achieved Anything"
Chapman declined again Monday to endorse anyone. He cast the career backgrounds of Gray, Friess and Rasner as either unimpressive or unknown, but said he doesn’t dislike anyone in the race.
“We’re being given choices of people that haven’t really achieved anything in life,” said Chapman. “There's other people that I respect in the race that have careers that have really interesting and hard lives – and they’re being drowned out too.”
He later elaborated, pointing to the three top spenders in the race currently.
“You’ve got Chuck, whose, you know, father has money, and Chuck’s never had a career outside of politics,” said Chapman, clarifying that Gray had worked for his dad’s radio station.
Gray was first elected to the Legislature in 2016 and became secretary of state in 2023.
Then, added Chapman, there’s “Steve Friess who to my knowledge has never had a career anywhere. And says he’s a businessman but is really just the secretary of the family philanthropic entity.”
Friess has said that he worked with attorneys in a thinktank ahead of President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration to prepare proposed executive orders for the president in advance. Friess and his wife co-founded the Jackson Hole Classical Academy in 2014.
As for Rasner, Chapman asserted, “Nobody knows what Reid does. I mean Reid’s a nice guy, don’t get me wrong. I’ve met Reid and he’s very polite and nice."
Rasner, an investment advisor, registered Omnivest LLC as a Wyoming business in 2022. Omnivest’s June 15 application for investment advisor registration says the company provides financial planning services and portfolio management, has less than $1 billion in assets and one employee.
Rasner signed the application.
Chapman cast himself as a pragmatist and self-made businessman, and said of those three candidates, “I don’t think the decision making matrix in those situations is the same as mine would be.”
Before he left the race Chapman ranked among the top four spenders. He, Rasner, Gray, and Friess each have loaned themselves at least $1 million in their races.
The other six candidates had war chests worth less than $200,000 each as of July 1.
But, said Chapman, “Money only goes so far.”
The Fighting For Wyoming super-PAC supporting Chapman spent $32,975.67 as of July 1, from a $2.5 million contribution by Ken Griffin.
Chapman called Griffin a nearly-lifelong friend.
“People that support me, I know would have put more money in,” said Chapman. Yet, “how responsible is that?”
He told Cowboy State Daily prior that the race is cluttered and it’s difficult to dispatch one’s message. He said Monday that his name recognition plumed from around 3% to the 60% range, “which I was pretty happy with.”
He was also happy to meet all the people he did, and counts that as an accomplishment. Chapman said he wanted to help people, and having the title of U.S. House representative would enable that.
Still, he added, “I looked at it and realistically said, I don’t think I’m going to win. I think I’m just cluttering this race so other people can’t win.”
“You end up upsetting people (in) that there’s so many people running that aren’t being responsible,” said Chapman.
He said he’s responsible about money, too.
Some Voters Are Angry
Chapman said Gray is leading the race, with the support of Freedom Caucus-aligned voters.
He said his early polling asked voters whether they’re angry. And he laughed at the question of who gets the angry voters.
“I mean, obviously Chuck’s getting the Freedom Caucus voters,” said Chapman. “I don’t know if you want to describe them as angry so much as …"
Chapman pivoted.
“I’m a person, again, who believes in a big tent,” he said. “And if you’re getting 70% of your agenda, you know, moving forward and you know you’re willing to work with other people and ... compromise and get good legislation passed, I think that’s a better place to be than in the ‘It’s my way or the highway’ (camp).”
Congress doesn’t have a supermajority of either party.
“And when you get there, you’re going to have to work with people,” Chapman said. “And let’s hope whoever gets there does work with people and they get a good reputation and move Wyoming forward in a positive way.”
Actually It’s Bo
Biteman peels votes away from Gray, Chapman said.
“There’s people that like both of them, and Bo does pull some votes away from Chuck,” said Chapman.
Biteman’s legislative record indicates both fiscal and social conservativism. He votes often in alignment with Freedom Caucus-style policies but has said publicly that he’s not part of the caucus and has been out of favor with it.
Though he scored conservative on four of the five ranking sites on which the state Republican Party’s vetting committee ranking system for endorsements relied, Biteman refused to submit to the party its endorsement vetting questionnaire.
That made him ineligible to receive the party’s endorsement.
Many question whether the party’s leadership committee can spend time or money endorsing candidates because of a state ban on the party giving either direct or indirect financial backing for one Republican over another in the primary election.
Gray won the state GOP endorsement last week.
Biteman’s take from Gray’s voter base is “not a huge number,” said Chapman, adding, “It’s meaningful in this race, because there’s so many people.”
Chapman said on the other hand, Rasner and Gray, both from Casper, compete for voter base there because they’re both been in public life for years in that region.
Oh, About That Governor’s Race
Chapman didn’t run in the governor’s race but he said his early polling focused on it as a metric of where voters stand.
It’s a four-way race to the GOP nomination with three big-name candidates: State Sen. Eric Barlow, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, and retired Marine Corps Col. Brent Bien.
As of about a month ago, Barlow was leading by 10 points, said Chapman.
Balow is doing well over in the House race, but “that may be because the name is so similar to Barlow,” said Chapman. He added that he’s not certain, but the surname conflation “certainly doesn’t hurt.”
Data Centers
Chapman thought the voters would be upset about high inflation rates.
The voters surprised him.
“It was interesting to see, on the campaign trail, how many were concerned about data centers,” he said.
Gray has come out against data centers.
He voted in 2021 to keep in place a tax break for large data center projects. But he has since told Cowboy State Daily that at the time, “no one had any idea where the AI (artificial intelligence) revolution was heading or the massive demands it would place on our power grid and water resources.”
Chapman said some people misunderstand data centers, but the new technology has also flourished in a lack of regulation, enabling “bad actors” to take advantage. But towns are starting to get wise and define their approach to data centers, he added.
Christensen’s Many Laurels
Christensen impresses Chapman as a person, the latter said.
“Does it make him a good congressman? I don’t know,” added Chapman.
Christensen’s website says he grew up in Wyoming, earned a degree in electrical engineering as well as two master’s degrees, served in the military for 27 years, flew an Apache attack helicopter, commanded at multiple levels and became a colonel.
His command of Task Force Gunslinger in Iraq received the Valorous Unit Award, and Christensen went on to give military advice from the Pentagon, the site adds.
“He’s a good person, intelligent,” said Chapman. “I respect what he’s done in life.”
Chapman didn’t rule out running for office again.
In Response...
Friess's campaign spokesman Tim Edson responded to Chapman's statement with, "Steve Friess played a part in the success of the family investment business, and since the business sold, he has dedicated himself to advancing conservative causes and working in the trenches to stop America's slide into socialism."
"Steve is the candidate who can help solve problems where career politicians have failed and effectively advocate for Wyoming's interests in Congress," said Edson in a Monday email.
Gray also responded in a Monday text message.
"I have a track record of getting the priorities of the people of Wyoming done and a track record in small business," said Gray, who also said he helped to build a small business in Casper.
Gray pointed to his 2017 sponsorship of House Bill 182. That bill, which became law, directed medical staffers performing abortions to inform patients “of the opportunity” to view an ultrasound of the child and hear his heartbeat. He also sponsored a 2021 bill, which became law, tightening voter ID requirements.
"As Wyoming Secretary of State, I followed through on my promises and passed proof of citizenship for registering to vote and passed the first voter list maintenance update since 1973," said Gray.
Gray also disparaged Cowboy State Daily and claimed Friess's late father "owned" the outlet.
Foster Friess had given the outlet seed money in 2019, but never owned it.
Gray said Chapman is right about Friess, however, and said "Wyoming needs a congressman who shows up for the fight, not someone who buys ads and calls it leadership."
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
