By Joel Funk
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CHEYENNE – A second Democrat said he will enter the race to replace U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., but it doesn’t appear the candidate is necessarily mounting a primary battle against the other Democrat.
Mark Harvey of Cody made his announcement recently in Thermopolis that he would campaign for Wyoming’s sole seat in the U.S. House. He joins Travis Helm, an immigration attorney in Laramie, in the Democratic primary.
Harvey, a retired U.S. Department of Transportation surveyor, made it clear in an interview Friday that he has one purpose in running for Congress: promoting his plan to fix health care.
“I’m not running for myself,” Harvey said. “I ain’t got no hankering to go to (Washington,) D.C., but this Wyoming health-care plan I’m promoting is way larger than myself.”
The plan, Harvey said, was set up by looking at a health-care cooperative established by Wyoming cowboys more than a century ago. Those cowboys would pay $1 out of their salary each month into the cooperative in order to cover health-care needs.
If all American taxpayers pitched in one-30th of their monthly salary, Harvey said health-care would be covered. And that doesn’t mean only individual men and women would be pitching in; in Harvey’s plan, corporations would also have portions of their profit dedicated to covering health-care costs. He points to the controversial 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Federal Elections Commission v. Citizens United, where the court ruled the First Amendment applies to corporations, which many Americans say establishes that corporations are essentially people.
As Harvey sees it, the plan would put everyone in the U.S. on a level playing field and benefit the entire nation.
“Everybody should take care of one another,” he said. “Jesus taught that.”
It’s something Harvey said will take a cultural movement to advance. And he sees himself as the person who needs to initiate such a movement. Running for Congress, Harvey said, is simply a vehicle for bringing the idea to the national conversation. Harvey said he doesn’t care if he wins his primary race. In fact, he said he doesn’t really want to win.
“My true purpose in running for Congress is that I am the only person that I know of that can sell this health-care plan, because I’ve been a cowboy,” he said. “I just think this is the only way I can get this issue on the national debate stage. That’s the only reason.”
When it comes to his primary opponent, Harvey said he thinks Helm is a “good man” and “would be a stronger candidate” against Cheney in the general election. Harvey said he just hopes Helm would carry the cowboy health-care plan with him to the general election.
“I’m pressing him only because I want to gather enough momentum where if he carries the banner, he carries the health-care plan with him,” Harvey said.
Harvey said he doesn’t know a lot about Cheney’s time in office as she heads into her first re-election bid. During her 2016 run for office, Cheney’s opponents threw out accusations that she was a carpetbagger and only moved to Wyoming for the opportunity to hold national office.
Cheney easily bested the other seven Republicans in the primary and Democrat Ryan Greene in the general, but it appears her political opponents, including Harvey, will continue throwing out the carpetbagger accusations.
“The only thing I know is she ain’t from Wyoming,” Harvey said. “Maybe she’s lived here for a year or two or a couple years, but for the most part, she has no clue about Wyoming, as far as I can understand. That’s all I can say.”
Cheney’s been a stalwart supporter of Republican President Donald Trump. If Democrats find themselves in the majority in the U.S. House after the November election, Cheney and Trump have said chances are good they would move to impeach the president.
But Harvey and Helm have both said they wouldn’t be looking to impeach Trump if they take a seat in the House, preferring to let voters decide in 2020. That doesn’t mean, however, that Harvey supports the president. It was Trump’s election that led to Harvey’s decision to retire from the federal agency he worked for because, he said, the president is a liar.
“I will not work for a liar,” Harvey said. “I don’t want anything to do with a liar. And I know that every politician lies. It’s just that Trump has taken it to a whole new level.”
Trump “lies every time he opens his mouth,” Harvey said. He pointed specifically to the president’s ongoing changing narrative about an alleged affair with the adult film star known as Stormy Daniels. It proves, Harvey said, that the president cannot be trusted. As such, he said he wouldn’t cooperate with the administration if he’s elected to serve in Congress.
The primary election is Aug. 21. As of the close of business Friday, Harvey had not filed his candidacy with the secretary of state. The filing period began Thursday and continues through June 1, however.