By Joel Funk
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CHEYENNE –- A Laramie man challenging U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., in the Republican primary said he’s more conservative and thinks he’d better protect national security than his incumbent opponent.
John Holtz is a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, attorney, judge and current Albany County GOP member living in Laramie. As an attorney in the Hughes Aircraft Company Contracts Department, Holtz set a new high bar by obtaining its first double-digit firm fixed price contract in the company’s history.
He was one of the youngest judges in Wyoming history at 31 and helped establish the circuit court system the state knows today.
As a full-time judge in Wyoming counties from 1981-92, then in a part-time capacity for several years after, Holtz was prohibited from participating in political activities. But he took an active role in conservative causes around 2007 when he said he played a significant part in setting the Wyoming GOP on the course it embraces today.
In 2010, Holtz said, he pushed for establishing the State Republican Party platform of calling for Wyoming residents to carry guns concealed without a permit. The Wyoming Legislature passed Senate File 47 the following year, which allowed concealed carry without a permit.
“Once it was on the platform of the Republican Party, I think it made it easier for the Legislature to pass (that bill),” Holtz said.
Holtz has never held public office before, but he said he thinks of himself as well-suited for the U.S. Senate. Between spending years in the legal system, his life experience overseas and working with weapons systems, Holtz said he has an informed perspective that would make him an effective congressman.
Barrasso doesn’t have the direct experience with other nations that would allow him to understand foreign policy in the way Holtz does, he said.
Additionally, Holtz said he thinks Barrasso could have flipped his positions on areas such as reproductive issues. However, the National Right to Life, an anti-abortion organization, found Barrasso voted in line with its values on all 10 bills it evaluated between 2014 and 2018.
Regardless of Barrasso’s voting record, Holtz said he thinks he’s more in line with the values of Wyoming conservatives.
“I actually think I’m much more conservative,” he said. “I’m 100 percent against abortion; probably on firearms and weapons, too, absolutely. I think we should leave that matter to the states.”
Barrasso has also been stalwart on his pro-Second Amendment stance, while some national figures, including President Donald Trump, have floated new gun-control measures, such as banning so-called “bump stocks.”
Holtz maintained that he would not only oppose future regulations on guns, but wants to see federal laws currently on the books rolled back.
Barrasso has differed with members of Congress who voted against budget proposals in recent years that shut down the federal government. If elected, Holtz said he would take a decidedly more drastic approach to cutting the budget.
“I’ve advocated for years that we need something called ‘vampire politics,’ or a ‘vampire approach,’ where you drive a stake into the heart of these programs, and they don’t come back to life; you actually kill them and the money is saved,” Holtz said.
Immigration would be another area where Holtz said he would take an aggressive approach. The president’s proposed border wall, Holtz said, likely wouldn’t work because of the landscape. But Holtz said he supports securing the border through a combination of infrastructure and technology, essentially accomplishing the same desired end. Funding for the nation’s refugee program must end, he said, and immigration should be limited beyond where it is today.
“We need to take an approach against illegal immigration to basically stop it and look at immigrant programs where we admit less people,” Holtz said.
The field of primary challengers to Barrasso is getting full with the candidate filing period ending Friday. In addition to the incumbent, there are four candidates filed to run in the GOP U.S. Senate primary.
Holtz said his campaign of meeting with voters and trying to raise funds is underway, but it will be a mammoth task to beat Barrasso. Along with unmatched power to raise funds and the support of Trump – a very popular president in Wyoming – Holtz and his fellow challengers certainly have a hill to climb. And with four candidates somewhere on the spectrum of the same basic policy positions, they’ll likely split the vote.
Barrasso rolled over his past primary opponents and cruised easily to election in 2008 and re-election in 2014 (Barrasso was appointed to the seat in 2007).
But like the other primary hopefuls, Holtz said he’s in the race to fight it out until it’s over.
“We toss a coin and the good Lord makes a decision,” he said of elections. “Anything can happen.”
U.S. senators serve four-year terms in office and are paid an annual salary of $174,000.