I was born and raised in House District 11, and moved back six years ago to be near my parents and siblings. I've spent stretches outside Wyoming over the years for school, my career, and military service, but Wyoming has been home my whole life, and it's where I've chosen to raise my own family.

42

I went to Deming, Miller, McCormick, Central High, and LCCC. I worked in the trades in my teens and 20s, then earned a bachelor's in business and a master's in engineering at the University of Colorado, with doctoral work in economics at the University of Hamburg. These days I direct the Wyoming Center for Business and Economic Analysis at LCCC, teach economics and public policy there, and serve as a space operations officer in the Air Force Reserve. Outside of that I'm a small business owner, I coach cross country at East High, and I help out with the Unaccompanied Student Initiative, the Children's Museum, and Rooted in Cheyenne. On both the civilian and military sides, the research I do and the decisions I make carry real consequences, and I'll bring the same discipline and expertise to my work in the legislature.

One of the best parts of running for office is going door to door and learning what matters to voters in HD 11, and many of those issues aren't the ones making headlines. Cost of living, data centers, and property taxes come up, but so do sales taxes, a shrinking workforce, and an instance where someone listed a constituent's address on a registry with no proof required. From talking with neighbors and employers and digging into the research, I see real opportunities to lower costs, expand our workforce, and keep our kids safe. We can address the fees and rules that drive up the cost of housing. We can broaden the economy with new industries without relying on taxpayers to foot the bill. We can support a variety of educational pathways that build our future workforce. The biggest challenge is looking past the noise to find what truly matters. It starts with listening, because the most important issues to me are the ones HD 11 cares about.

Healthcare is expensive here partly because demand keeps rising while supply stays thin. Wyoming is rural, providers are spread out, and there aren't many options. Much of what the Legislature can do is on the supply side, and we've made real progress: we repealed our Certificate of Need rules and joined the compacts that let out-of-state nurses and doctors practice here. The next steps are to extend that approach to more of the professions we're short on, expand telehealth so distance matters less, and grow our own providers through our community colleges. We can also require real price transparency, so families see what care costs before they're billed. None of this is a silver bullet, but more providers, more competition, and clearer prices move things in the right direction.

No. I don't support selling off our public lands or a wholesale transfer to the state. Around ninety percent of Wyomingites use public land to hunt, fish, work, and get outside, and once it's sold it's gone for good. Last year Washington came close to forcing the sale of millions of acres across the West, and Wyoming voters showed up to say no. The Legislature was right to pass a resolution opposing it, and I'll hold that line. Federal law already has a careful process for the rare case where a specific parcel should change hands for a clear public purpose, with public input. That's where any disposal belongs, not in a budget bill or a sales quota. Where I'd push is management. Wyoming should have a stronger, earlier voice in how these lands are run under multiple use, so grazing, energy, recreation, and conservation keep coexisting.

This is where my day job and homegrown knowledge of Laramie County both come in. The recent spike in tax bills wasn't a rate hike, it was inflation pushing up home values and assessments with them. Voters were right to want relief, and the state has now put real reductions in place, including help aimed at those who needed it most. We tend to picture one Wyoming economy, but no two counties are alike. Some lean on minerals, some on sales tax, some have very little to work with. So relief can't be one-size-fits-all, and it can't quietly shift the burden onto local businesses or the next town over. My approach is to protect homeowners without blowing a hole in the services people count on, and to hold the line on spending so we aren't forced to backfill with a shakier, more volatile tax. When revenue jumps just because prices went up, that windfall shouldn't automatically become more spending. Relief and discipline have to go together.

The Legislature's job is to set the table, not pick the winners. We do the most good by keeping the climate competitive for everyone: a simple tax structure, sensible regulation, reliable power and water, and a workforce trained for the jobs we actually have. I'd rather lower the barriers for the hundred businesses already here than write a special deal for one. Where I'm cautious is bespoke giveaways, the lifetime tax credit or discounted land for a single company that our existing employers never get. Those distort the market and hand taxpayers the risk. The better model is the one we've already seen work in Cheyenne, where major investments come in and pay their own way instead of leaning on local taxpayers. The piece I care most about is workforce. I work at our community college, and matching real training to real jobs is the most durable economic development there is. Build the people, and the businesses follow.

Voters deserve to know who's paying for and backing the campaigns asking for their vote. I'd rather run on what matters to HD 11 and what I actually believe and let voters see exactly where my support comes from. Sunlight does more good than complicated limits the well-connected always find a way around. On the system itself, the reports can be hard for an ordinary voter to find and make sense of. That's where I'd focus reform: keep existing rules but provide clearer, timelier, easier-to-search reporting, so the information is actually usable and not just technically filed. Transparency only works if people can see it. Give voters the facts and trust they're capable of weighing who stands behind a candidate.