What’s the deal with Reid Rasner?

You can’t swing a dead cat in the Big Empty these days without hitting an advertisement or social media post by Reid Rasner, extolling his own virtues as the savior of all things Wyoming. The dude is forking out some serious cash to grab our attention. What’s he up to?

Rasner’s glitzy media blitz has the distinctive aroma of a political campaign, not just a sales pitch for a stock jockey, but he hasn’t announced for any elective office. Whenever I see someone exert this much effort to gain name recognition and Cowboy State trail cred for no apparent reason, my bullshit detector kicks into overdrive. I become curious and suspicious.

Because I honestly can’t calculate why Rasner is spending all this money, I ran my rumor trapline from Pine Bluff to Evanston and from Baggs to Big Horn. Nobody could enlighten me; they’re all as mystified as I am. What’s the deal with Reid Rasner?

So, not wanting to get ahead of the lead horse, I called Rasner on Friday and left a voicemail that I have a question or two, and informed him that my deadline is Monday evening around happy hour. As of deadline, all I’ve heard is crickets from Rasner.

Without hearing from the horse’s mouth, we are left with a bit of history, what is heard on the sagebrush telegraph and what has been the public record.

Here’s a bit of political history. Rasner ran for a seat on the Las Vegas City Council in 2017. The Sin City council is widely regarded as a springboard to statewide political office in Wyoming, but alas, he collected only 74 votes in that race.

That experience prepared Rasner for the drubbing that he endured when he unsuccessfully tried to primary Sen. John Barrasso in 2024. That lesson only cost him a million bucks and change. Strike two.

On Rasner’s Facebook page, he self-identifies as a politician, but, for the life of me, I can’t think of a significant office in Wyoming that he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. Rep. Harriet Hageman will likely defend her seat in Congress, and Chuck Gray will probably run for re-election as secretary of state, since neither relishes the prospect of butting heads with state Sen. Eric Barlow in a contest for governor.

And all three aforementioned names would squash Rasner like a bug if he tested their political prowess at the polls.

Here’s a thought. Rasner could run for Wyoming treasurer and, if he could somehow pull off a political miracle, he would have enough ready cash at his fingertips to buy TikTok. Rasner drew a lot of attention when he announced plans to buy the social media app, and in March said the Trump administration was “very interested” in his bid. Four months later, he announced a pause on the deal. But he’d have to beat Curt Meier at the ballot box.

It certainly appears as if Rasner is no lightweight, though. He sued former state Sen. Anthony “Romeo” Bouchard for defamation when Bouchard accused Rasner of sexual misconduct while working as a drama teacher at Casper College. Rasner said he was a student, not a teacher, and that he did not sexually abuse anyone. The judicial outcome of that soap opera is pending, and popcorn futures are up to the limit in anticipation.

So we are left to examine chicken entrails, read smoke signals and follow Rasner’s footprints in the dust as we try to figure out what is going on in his noggin.

His ads and Facebook page have the look of expensive Madison Avenue media pros, so it’s not like he’s nickel-and-diming his dream, or cobbling things together in Mom’s basement.

Rasner’s media extravaganza smacks of uber-MAGA orthodoxy, Honor Wyoming outrage, Project 2025 faux patriotism and folksy Freedom Caucus populism, but where is it pointed? If he’s not running for office, he’s spending a wagonload of cash to do nothing more than raise political consciousness in Wyoming. I am on record testifying that a “raised consciousness” and seven bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

As far as ego-driven, snake-oil sales pitches go, I’ve seen ‘em all. But if I’m understanding the citizens of Wyoming correctly, they’ve already had a bellyful of snake oil forced on them in recent years and are weary of the taste.

If Rasner lacks the transparency to tell his friends and neighbors why he is going through all these contortions to promote himself, he will remain nothing more than a noisy bobble-head doll trying to hijack our attention when we have other, more pressing chores.

And we’ll be left with the annoying unanswered question, “What’s the deal with Reid Rasner?”