RIVERTON — Three of four candidates for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat fielded policy questions Thursday evening at the Wyoming Public Television debate, without Republican nominee Chuck Gray.
Gray, who is Wyoming’s secretary of State, responded to prior criticisms and questions over his absence by saying he’s focused on addressing the state’s priorities, sayng that, “My job is not to placate my opponents' desire to grandstand on TV.”
In Gray’s absence, Democratic nominee Lisa Kinney brought an enthusiastic presence, called herself a moderate Democrat and leveled a few critiques at both Gray and Libertarian nominee Shawn Johnson.
Johnson, who was generally decisive throughout the forum, said it would shock the nation and world if he were elected to the U.S. House.
He said that groundbreaking uniqueness of being the only Libertarian in Congress would set him apart and both major parties would have to come to him to break gridlocks.
Constitution Party Jeffrey Haggit cast himself as a principled, small-government conservative.
A Vote For Them Isn’t A Vote For Gray
Kinney and Johnson both offered strategies by which voters could oppose Gray.
Kinney said she's the energetic candidate and people should galvanize under her ticket to defeat Gray.
She pointed to her 10 years of work in the Republican-run Legislature, and endorsements by past Republican lawmakers, as well as former Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan.
"I'm a moderate person" capable of bipartisan work, said Kinney.
Johnson offered a different strategic allure.
“If I’m elected, it will send shockwaves throughout not only the United States, but the world,” he said. “It’ll put Washington on notice, because a Libertarian has never been elected to federal office.
“And that by itself will give Wyoming’s lone House seat unprecedented influence.”
He said it would make him a tiebreaker and decider, not beholden to any major-party influence.
At a small gathering in a Riverton flyfishing shop Tuesday evening, Johnson said that he would “likely” caucus with Republicans if elected.
He said he regrets that the House operates by caucuses, but believes joining a caucus is the only way he’d be given committee assignments.
He also said he’d choose the GOP caucus to acknowledge that most Wyomingites are Republicans.
Haggit said he’d do what he could to create relationships in the House.
He pointed to his background in “multi-level marketing.” He also said House members should develop relationships “but not be a part of the big-boy club. Because that’s where I draw the line.”
The Gray Question
Forum moderator Steve Peck, of Wyoming Public Television (PBS), asked candidates what Gray’s absence from the debate signified.
“Chuck Gray is not here because he knows it’ll do more harm than good for him,” said Johnson. “I am the only viable (alternative) to Chuck Gray.”
Johnson said that as a Libertarian candidate, he has more overlap with Republican values than the other candidates. He also noted that Gray won the Republican nomination with about 25% of the vote.
That was in a field of nine candidates, Aug. 18.
Kinney called it a “problem” that historically if the US House candidate wins the GOP nomination, “you believe you’ve already won.”
She said Gray believes that, but it’s “not the case.” She called the three candidates on the stage “good people” and pointed to contrasts between Gray’s stated policy positions and those of Trump, who’s endorsed him.
Gray said he opposes data centers, while Trump pushes for more of them. Gray has said the government should keep public lands in public hands, while Trump has supported sale measures.
Haggit answered that question with, “Chuck Gray is his own man,” and it’s not “he’s not the first that’s decided not to grace this stage with their presence.”
Rep. Harriet Hageman, who holds Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat currently, did not attend the 2022 or 2024 general election PBS forums.
Trump
Though Haggit passed over a chance to criticize Gray, no one missed the chance to criticize President Donald Trump.
“He’s not the same person that he used to be,” said Haggit. “I don’t know what happened to the Trump that got elected the first time. This guy’s tyrannical. He’s off the wall. I don’t know. He just really confuses me, where he goes.”
Trump endorsed Gray last week.
Johnson said Trump has too much power, and Congress should take back its purpose and represent the people.
Kinney said Trump has broken all his promises, enriched himself, “and we’re still poor.”
Which Agencies Would You Cut
Haggit said he’d cut or downsize “a lot of the three-letter agencies,” but he didn’t specify which. That “would have to be worked out in the heat of the battle,” he said.
Johnson said he’d downsize Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), which he said has grown into a standing federal army and committed “atrocious constitutional violations” and received unprecedented funding. He also said he’d downsize the Department of Defense.
Johnson spoke out against the war in Iran multiple times throughout the evening, calling it the source of current economic woes.
Kinney agreed about DOD. She said the US should make wars cheaper by letting Wyoming build drones.
Tech Questions
All three candidates derided license plate reader cameras as surveillance overreach. Johnson, who’s a criminal defense attorney, pointed to examples where “mass surveillance has gotten it wrong.”
So did Haggit.
Kinney called for concrete guardrails, like limits on people who can receive the footage; who can share it; how people can use it.
“You need audits. You need penalties for abuse. Nobody’s doing that,” she said. “What Congress should do is set a clear safeguard and law enforcement purpose. Limit the time (of retention).”
The Jab
Kinney took a couple shots at Johnson. At one point she claimed he’d represent the Libertarian Party and no one else, which Johnson denied.
Johnson had said that Kinney would be beholden to Democratic Party leadership and Gray to Republican Party leadership, but he’d be led by neither.
Kinney also claimed that Johnson sent her a letter a week after the primary election, “saying that both parties had failed, and I was part of the problem.”
Johnson told Cowboy State Daily in a follow-up interview that he sent no such letter.
In response to a Cowboy State Daily request for a photograph of the letter, Kinney sent a screenshot of an open post by the Libertarian Party of Wyoming Facebook page.
She said there was a “second page” where Johnson was asking her questions, but she could not retrieve that.
Besides calling Kinney “part of the problem!” the party’s post had asked why Kinney had allegedly been “silent on the masked, immune federal police force,” defense subsidies to Israel, the “surveillance state,” Social Security’s projected insolvency, and “the total destruction of the American experiment.”
Though she didn’t theorize on that last point, Kinney was outspoken on the other themes during the forum Thursday evening.
Social Security
In response to a question about projections that the Social Security program won’t be able to meet its obligations in five years, Kinney said the richest people are not paying their fair share into Social Security, because Federal Insurance Contributions Act investments into Social Security are capped at $184,500 of annual wages. She said Congress should remove that cap.
Haggit said he wants to fix Social Security by eliminating fraud and other improper payments, but he wouldn’t cut Social Security payments to seniors.
Johnson said the government should preserve payments to people already receiving Social Security benefits, but the program needs to be reformed. He said those accounts should shift into state-held accounts that give more power to the individual, as one example of a reform.
Insurance
Regarding insurance options for small states like Wyoming, Haggit said bigger hospitals have learned how to work the system and benefit from a smaller proportion of overhead costs than smaller hospitals, “and that needs to be addressed.
Johnson said, “Health care in the United States is a mess, and it has been for quite a while.”
The immediate fix is to lift regulation on insurance companies to sell across state lines and create more competition. He said the U.S. should ensure funding for rural hospitals is adequate, and he agreed with Haggit that they’re in trouble.
In the long term, said Johnson, “I don’t believe the solution is to throw more subsidies into the health care system.” It needs a reform as a whole, he said.
Kinney lamented that Congress stripped Affordable Care Act subsidies out of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. She said she’d reauthorize that act, but count on bipartisan efforts to make a new plan in three years “that will cover everyone.”
The Reservation
Wyoming’s congressional delegates have an outsized role in tribal relations because numerous federal laws and rules govern the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Cowboy State Daily asked a question about federal laws that stifle infrastructure and development on the reservation.
No candidate had a clear plan to overcome that, but all promised to communicate with tribal members.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
