Wyoming state congressional candidates visit Thermopolis

Republican Congressional candidate Rex Rammell has made the reclamation of Wyoming's public lands and natural resources his primary focus. To that end, he plans to contest the constitutional jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It's not Rammell's first foray into politics, as it's been a part of his life for 20 years. He grew up on the Wyoming/Idaho line, in the small town of Teton Valley.

"We have seen and dealt with the environmental movement all of my life, all of my father's life, all of my grandfather's life, and its all been about public land issues," said Rammell.

In the West, he added, the federal government retained a lot of the land, requiring leases to graze or mine, or any other number of activities. "We've just seen an erosion of those permits, and our way of life has just changed."

Those changes in turn propelled Rammell into politics. His passion was further fueled when he established an elk ranch in Idaho in 1994. Environmentalists, he said, tried to put elk ranchers out of business with regulations and harassment. "That's where I really got into politics."

In 2006, he established a ranch eight miles from Yellowstone, on private ground, but bears in the area were able to get under the fence and create a hole, resulting in a loss of 140 head of elk. While he was gathering up the animals for a couple weeks, Rammell said anti-game farmers were petitioning for an executive order to kill them. Fish and Game showed up and over the next month scattered or killed about 100 head, he noted.

With no elk, and having to sell the ranch, Rammell chose to fight what he called an "almost anti-American attack on the west." He ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2008, his first taste of big-time politics. 2009 saw him seek the Republican nomination for Governor, but he lost to incumbent Butch Otter.

Sensing he was becoming an unpopular figure in Idaho, Rammell and his wife Lynda officially became Wyoming residents in 2012 and he promised never to run in politics again. He continued to work, but last summer learned of a bill to transfer all of the public lands from the federal government back to the state.

"This was my issue. I started it back in '08." His political heart began to beat again, but he walked away. He moved to Gillette in August and tried to keep out of the political arena, but the retirement announcement from Cynthia Lummis brought him back in.

With his years of experience, he wanted to get back into the fight, "so here I am today."

The primary election will be held Aug. 16 and the general election will be held Nov. 8.