Casper Wyoming. 51 Years. Wheat Ridge CO

60

I was raised in Casper, educated at Kelly Walsh High School and the University of Wyoming, and built my life around service to country, state, and community. I served 27 years in the U.S. Army as an AH-64 Apache pilot and leader, retiring as a Colonel after two combat tours in Iraq. My service earned honors including the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and Air Medal. After the Army, I continued serving through leadership roles at Lockheed Martin and the Bureau of Land Management’s High Plains District in Casper, where I worked with local leaders to expand public land access, support responsible energy development, strengthen wildland fire operations, and protect Wyoming’s historic trails and outdoor heritage. My wife, Amber, a Cheyenne native, and I have been married 36 years and raised two children. I am ready to put Wyoming values, proven leadership, and common-sense service to work for our state.

Wyoming families are being squeezed by rising costs for groceries, fuel, housing, and health care, while paychecks struggle to keep up. Young families face barriers to homeownership, seniors worry about fixed incomes, and small businesses shoulder higher costs that limit growth and hiring. These challenges demand practical leadership focused on lowering costs and expanding opportunity. I will push for fiscal discipline in Congress to curb inflationary deficit spending; fight to unleash Wyoming energy through faster permitting, responsible leasing, and fewer unnecessary delays; support apprenticeships, trade education, and workforce development so more people can access good-paying jobs; and back stronger antitrust enforcement in food processing, meatpacking, and health care where consolidation raises prices and hurts consumers and producers. My goal is simple: help Wyoming families keep more of what they earn, build stable lives, and see a stronger future here at home.

Healthcare reform must work for Wyoming families, seniors, small businesses, ranchers, and rural communities—not just insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act gave too much power to insurers while failing to control hospital prices, drug costs, paperwork, and high deductibles that leave families insured but unable to afford care. In Congress, I will support patient-centered reforms that protect rural hospitals and clinics, strengthen emergency and maternity care, expand telehealth and mobile care without replacing local providers, and grow Wyoming’s healthcare workforce through loan repayment, training, residency slots, and incentives for those who serve here. I will lower drug prices, improve mental health and substance-use treatment close to home, and make coverage more portable and affordable for self-employed workers, energy workers, farmers, ranchers, and small businesses. Wyoming needs provider centric healthcare built around access, affordability, and local control.

Today, we see a lack of leadership in Congress where members are more concerned with staying in line with party ideology than they are getting meaningful legislative work accomplished. Building coalitions and trust relationships is the key to getting work done. I will demonstrate the leadership to work with people of different views and ideologies to find bipartisan solutions that will work for Wyoming. When members of Congress tell us that the other side is the reason that they can’t get a budget passed on time, we must reject that excuse for what it is: weak leadership. While we certainly can’t agree on everything, we can come together on individual issues, putting aside hardline positions, and do the hard work to negotiate reasonable compromises and put America, not the party, first.

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho are sovereign nations, not just another constituency. The federal government has treaty and trust responsibilities that must be honored before decisions are made. In my federal service, I held consultation on major projects and decisions, with attention to treaty rights, cultural resources, natural resources, and Indigenous knowledge. In Congress, I will continue that approach so tribal leaders have a direct voice on legislation affecting the Wind River Indian Reservation. That includes fighting for Indian Health Service and tribally operated healthcare, clean water, broadband, roads, housing, education, public safety, victim services, and economic development. I would also support policies that protect cultural heritage, strengthen tribal courts and law enforcement, respect water and land rights, and reduce federal red tape so tribes can exercise self-determination. I will represent all of Wyoming, including the first peoples of this land.

I am passionate about public lands in Wyoming. I managed 8 million acres of public lands and 13 million acres of mineral estate while leading the High Plains District in Wyoming. I learned the laws and regulations that impact the people of Wyoming. I know what works, and I know what needs to be fixed. I will amend the Federal Land Policy Management Act to give our Governor greater control over major federal actions. I will amend the National Environment Policy Act to narrow the focus of analysis and expand the use of Categorical Exclusions so that the people Wyoming can understand more clearly the impacts of major federal decisions while streamlining and reducing the costs of this analysis. In my time in the BLM, I expanded public land access by 80,000 acres and ensured that oil and gas, coal, grazing, and recreation powered our economy while preserving the beauty and productivity of the land for future generations.

Securing our border is a basic duty of the federal government and essential to protecting our sovereignty, public safety, and rule of law. We need strong enforcement, modern technology, physical barriers where they make sense, more Border Patrol resources, and a clear message that those who enter illegally or break our laws will be removed and not rewarded. At the same time, Wyoming depends on legal workers in agriculture, energy, construction, hospitality, and small businesses. Our current immigration system is too slow, costly, and complicated for employers who follow the rules. We should fix legal immigration by creating reliable, properly screened pathways for needed workers while requiring background checks, respect for our laws, and accountability. A secure border and a workable legal system are not opposites—they belong together. America is a nation built by legal immigration, but it must be legal, orderly, and controlled.