Who is Curt Blake? The fourth Republican running to be Wyoming governor.

If you thought only three Republicans were running for Wyoming governor, that’s probably because Curt Blake, a fourth contender hailing from Centennial, has kept a low profile. 

“I’m not really your traditional candidate,” Blake told WyoFile this week in his first interview since filing to run for office in May. 

Blake, a rodeo-production professional, said he hasn’t accepted donations, endorsements or debate invitations. 

“Not that I’m afraid to debate anybody,” he said. “I’ve always felt that debates are just an excuse for candidates to get up and grandstand and beat themselves on the chest and tell you how great they are. But there’s really no substance to it.”

Instead, Blake said he’s relying on “word of mouth” to get his name out there — even as he realizes that puts him at a disadvantage.

“It’s probably all name recognition is mostly how people get elected, and so that probably puts me behind because I don’t have a sign on every corner,” Blake said. 

So why run?

“I just was like everybody else, I sit around and griped about the direction the state was heading, and wasn’t doing anything, so I thought at the very least I should try to run.” 

Some of Blake’s top concerns include healthcare costs, the increasing divisiveness of politics and public coffers not receiving adequate returns from the tourism and property development that rely on Wyoming’s unique resources. 

“I don’t know what the answer is, but there should be a balance there. Wyoming has so much to offer, and we should benefit from it,” Blake said. “But it seems like just outside, big, mega corporations are taking the money, and we are getting the bottom-feeding, low-income jobs out of the deal, and we’re trading off whatever soul Wyoming has for that.” 

Blake’s Republican opponents include Sen. Eric Barlow, Col. Brent Bien and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, all of whom have been running high-profile campaigns for the last several months. 

Who’s Curt Blake?

Blake, a fifth-generation Wyomingite, grew up in Laramie, where he attended the University of Wyoming. He left college before finishing an engineering degree when “there were far more opportunities available to me in the business world.”

“I quit and went to work,” Blake said. 

He then spent most of his life working as a general contractor and in real estate development. Blake now owns a production company that puts on western events, including rodeos and bull riding. A large portion of that, Blake said, involves pyrotechnics. He and his wife, Lane, live outside of Centennial. 

Blake said his experience working in private industry would make him a good fit for public service. 

“Wyoming needs somebody who knows what it’s like to sign the front of a check, and to try to cover payroll,” he said. “And that’s not meant to be disparaging against any state or federal jobs; they’re all necessary. But I think you approach things with a different mindset when you spend your own life playing the game with your own money and not somebody else’s.”

The campaign process, Blake said, has opened his eyes to the number of special interest groups “that reach out to you as a candidate, promising to support you, if you support them.”

Blake is running on the Republican ticket, “but I would say that I’m probably purple,” he said, adding that he’s not beholden to any party or group. 

“I’m going to listen to all of the facts and make a decision based on what’s good for Wyoming, not what’s good for my party or what’s good for your special group,” he said. 

Asked what he thought of Gov. Mark Gordon, who is in his second and final term, Blake said, “I think he’s done a good job.”

“I wasn’t a big fan of how he handled COVID, but in all fairness to him, none of us had ever had to drive that car before, so none of us knew what to expect,” he said. Otherwise, Blake said he agrees with Gordon’s energy policies as well as his commitment to remove grizzly bears from the Endangered Species Act. 

When it comes to public lands, Blake said he’s opposed to selling them — but with a caveat. He pointed to Laramie as an example. 

“Let’s say Laramie is growing and there is a section of BLM land that abuts Laramie that doesn’t serve any real purpose for recreation or for general public use,” he said, “I think that the municipality should be able to take that land and help develop it to bring down housing costs and provide reasonable housing for the residents of Wyoming,” he said. 

However, doing so with a section of Medicine Bow National Forest, Blake said, is off the table.

Blake also said he’s split on Wyoming’s corner-crossing dispute. The public should have access to public lands, he said, but the lawsuit filed by out-of-state hunters pitted resident hunters against landowners. 

“Now, instead of having Wyoming, where we could all enjoy it, the ranchers have buckled down, and the hunters have buckled down, and it’s ruined it for all of us here,” Blake said. 

Perhaps the biggest distinction between Blake and his Republican opponents is his stance on abortion, which remains legal in Wyoming despite several legislative attempts to curtail or ban it. 

“I’ve never known or understood why it was anybody’s business except for the person making the decision,” Blake said. “Whether it’s right or wrong, I don’t think that that’s for me to judge. We’re supposed to live in a country where you have free choice.”

“Now that’s probably going to make a lot of people angry, but I’ve always kind of chuckled about the irony that the right is for smaller government and less government interference, but yet they take a stand on something so personal as this,” Blake said. 

The primary election is Aug. 18.