Wyoming businessman Reid Rasner formally launched a bid for Congress this week. It’s his second bid for public office.
Rasner, a fourth-generation Wyoming native and Omnivest Financial CEO, previously wanted to buy TikTok when it was up for sale and to bring the headquarters to the Mountain West.
“I’m a Wyoming businessman. I’m not a career politician,” Rasner said in an interview with the Deseret News. “Why I’m running is because Washington wastes money, drives up costs for families and businesses, and Wyoming truly deserves representation that knows how to cut waste and grow an economy.”
Rasner is set to face off against Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray in the Republican primary.
Current Rep. Harriet Hageman announced she run for the Senate with hopes of replacing Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who is retiring.
President Donald Trump gave Hageman his “Complete and Total Endorsement,” something Rasner is also looking to earn, calling himself a “100% Trump Conservative Republican.”
Asked how he feels competing against someone already holding a statewide position like Gray, Rasner said the race isn’t about “politics or personality,” but rather about results. He highlighted his long history of being a successful businessman based out of Wyoming, beginning when he bought his first company at 18 years old.
Rasner put forward a hefty bid to buy TikTok when it was up for sale, as it was required by U.S. law for ByteDance to divest from the popular social media app. After months of delay, and Trump extending the deadline several times, Rasner said he knew the chances of being the app’s owner were dwindling.
“When we realized that TikTok was unwilling to sell the algorithm, we knew that we just couldn’t make a deal, because that’s what the bulk of our bid was … preserving the algorithm for American sovereignty,” he said.
With that tech opportunity for Wyoming gone, Rasner said he hopes to be elected to Congress as the state’s lone member of the House to bring a different kind of economic change to the state.
“Wyoming needs a do-er, not another politician, and someone that knows how to run and operate businesses and budgets and can actually get this done and make life more affordable for Wyoming, and deregulate industries, bringing in really good businesses and business opportunities in Wyoming, like TikTok, like our nuclear opportunities that we have recently lost in Wyoming,” he said. “I want to create a fourth legacy industry in the state revolving around finance and technology and I think this is so important to stabilize our economy.”
Rasner put $1 million of his own money toward his campaign, and now, he said, outside donations are coming in.
It’s his second political campaign, after previously challenging Sen. John Barrasso in the 2024 Republican primary. He said this time around, he’s hired FP1 Strategies and a “solid team.” He has a campaign that is “fully funded” and he is going to continue to fundraise, Rasner said.
Rasner shared that if elected he’d be enthusiastic about being on the energy, agriculture and finance committees in the House. They are some of the strongest committees for Wyoming, he said.
“I’m running to take Wyoming business sense to Washington, D.C., and make Wyoming affordable again, and make Wyoming wealthy,” he said. “It’s so important that we get business leadership and someone who knows what they’re doing outside of politics in the real world to deliver that message in Washington.”
