Wyoming Vote Tracker

Believe it or not, I have not forgotten about Sen. Barrasso’s campaign announcement. I was there! In fact, it was my first time attending a campaign announcement, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I had never been to a campaign announcement before. I had seen snippets of them on the evening news, read about them in the morning paper, but never been there to capture the feeling. Needless to say, I was beyond excited that Sen. Barrasso had chosen to run three announcements, one of which was reasonably close (Thermopolis) to my town (Cody), on one of my days off (Monday). I wasn’t all that excited about getting up at 5 in the morning, but when your favorite Senator does that much–intentionally or not–to make it possible for you to attend the announcement, you attend the announcement.

The event was well attended. As the start time drew near, more chairs had to be brought into the room to accommodate those in attendance at the early-morning meeting. Admittedly, younger Republicans were hard to find in the crowd, actually, the handful of us that were there were pretty easy to find. Most people in attendance seemed to know each other, so I can only presume that I was the only regional (i.e., outside of Thermopolis) attender. I am pleased to say that, besides Sen. and Mrs. Barrasso, I knew two people in the crowd. One was State Rep. Lorraine Quarberg (whom I met at the Big Horn County Lincoln Day Dinner), and the other was Steve Frank (fortunately he recognized me), whom I know because his wife is in the same genre of music that my parents are in. What’s really neat is that he did the wedding ceremony for the Senator and his wife last year. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Barrasso’s parents, who were sitting right behind me.

If you are not proud to be an American, you have not heard Sen. Barrasso speak. If you’re not thrilled about being a Republican, you need to find a way to listen to Sen. Barrasso speak. When you listen to him speak, you will be amazed at the excitement and passion he has in his voice and the common sense that he has in his thoughts. Admittedly, I did not get to know his politics that well until last summer when the process was underway to select a successor to the late Sen. Thomas. Until that point, to me he was some doctor that came on the radio in the mornings and the K2 news in the evenings to talk about some “health thing.” I knew he was a State Senator from Casper, and I had heard good things of him in that regard.

This was my fourth Sen. Barrasso event to attend. I was no longer a stranger to hearing him speak politically. On the plus side, I think I am becoming less of a stranger at his events. He certainly was enthusiastic about seeing me present in Thermopolis, camera in hand, recording device (cell-phone) ready, and Cynthia Lummis button on. Unfortunately, the cell phone did not work like I thought it would, and I failed to utilize my pad and paper. It is neat to hear him speak and share what he’s doing for Wyoming back in Washington, and to talk about the weekend visits he has every weekend back in Wyoming.

Even the anecdotes that seem to come up in every speech never get old. My favorite one is when he talks of growing up and working with his dad, and his dad telling him to “thank God every day you’re an American.” I believe that Sen. Barrasso does that to this day. Every speech I’ve heard him give is about American exceptionalism, and optimism, and how we have the ability to work though our problems.

The campaign quote that perhaps has stuck out the most to me from this speech is his commitment to earn the votes of the people of Wyoming. It is not much of a secret that Sen. Barrasso has done much in less than a year, and it is likely that, at least on the Republican side, he will be unopposed, and even if he has someone challenging him, it will likely be an easy election. Nevertheless, here’s Sen. Barrasso on his plans for the campaign and for the future:

I will not be out-worked. I will not be out-worked in this campaign, I will not be out-worked in the United States Senate. I will not be out-worked, ever.

With a commitment like that, and he will likely live up to it, he is well on his way to having a legacy in national politics that will be remembered long after he’s gone.

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