Casper businessman running for U.S. Senate, challenging Barrasso

CASPER — Wyoming’s Sen. John Barrasso has some competition for 2024.

Casper businessman Reid Rasner kicked off his campaign to run against Barrasso with a meet and greet on Tuesday at his Casper business, Omnivest Financial. Rasner registered his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission last month. No other candidates have registered yet to vie for Barrasso’s Senate seat in the 2024 elections.

Rasner is a Freedom Caucus-aligned political novice and ardent Trump supporter who was born and raised in Casper. He studied theater at Casper College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from the University of Wyoming.

Other than a stint living in Las Vegas where he ran for city council in 2017, he’s lived in Wyoming all his life and has largely stayed out of politics. (He started the interview declaring that he’s “not a politician.”)

He formerly worked as a financial advisor at Edward Jones and is the founder and CEO of Omnivest Financial, a financial services firm.

Rasner said he had been asked for the past year or so to run for the Senate seat, though it wasn’t until around March and April that he finally started seriously entertaining the idea of making a bid. (He declined to share who had asked him to run on Tuesday but said he would announce that information later.)

Some of his main priorities include putting in place term limits in Congress, reining in federal spending, finishing construction of the border wall and reducing regulations.

He aims to “ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security and Medicare” without bumping taxes, his campaign announcement says.

He’s an anti-abortion candidate and staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights. He supports stronger voter I.D. laws.

When it comes to the nation’s energy industry, Rasner said he’s “for cutting regulation and unleashing the energy sector and making America energy independent again.”

“I’m all for getting us back drilling and going back to the basics.” (A campaign flier that he provided said “DRILL BABY DRILL” among a list of campaign platform items.)

He doesn’t believe an “all-of-the-above” approach that would include investments in renewable energy as well as traditional energy industries is the way to get there.

“An all-of-the-above approach is just going to be a costly expense, I think,” he said. “I really think we gotta get back to the basics here to save the state.”

A supporter of school choice, Rasner is enthusiastic about the new charter schools in Wyoming

and attended the Wyoming Classical Academy’s inaugural open house last week (the school’s first day is Aug. 28).

At the federal level, he said he believes the U.S. Department of Education “needs an overhaul.” He’s not exactly sure what that would look like at this point, but added that school choice and “making sure that lobbyists and bureaucrats are staying out of the classroom” is “very important.”

Rasner believes “every life begins at conception” — an idea that was hotly debated during this year’s legislative session, during which lawmakers pushed through the most sweeping abortion ban law Wyoming has seen. (That ban is on hold while it’s being challenged in court, and abortion until viability is still legal in Wyoming.)

He said he thinks Congress needs “to make actual legislation to address abortion” across the nation.

The Casper businessman said he’s been working on several bill drafts on the various issues he’s campaigning on. He declined to share details about those drafts but said he plans to share them publicly throughout the next year.

Rasner will make an appearance at Casper’s Washington Park on Sept. 9 for an event hosted by Liberty’s Place 4 U Wyoming, a Natrona County group established in part because members feel the Natrona County GOP is too moderate. The event starts at 2 p.m.

He also plans to travel to every county in the state for his “We The People” tour.

The tour schedule is still being finalized. Rasner can be reached at rasnerforwyoming@gmail.com and on his campaign Facebook page.

This story was published on August 17, 2023.