The Centrist Independent Voter endorses Kevin Christensen in Wyoming’s August 18 Republican primary for the United States House of Representatives.
Wyoming’s only House seat is open because Representative Harriet Hageman is running for the United States Senate. Christensen is one of eight Republicans competing for the nomination in a state where the Republican primary will probably determine the next representative.
Christensen describes himself directly and usefully:
“I am not a MAGA. I am a traditional conservative Republican who puts Wyoming first over a national political agenda.”
That statement alone would not justify an endorsement. His experience and policy positions do.
Christensen served in the Army for 27 years, including two combat tours in Iraq as an Apache helicopter pilot. He rose to the rank of colonel and later worked on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, advising senior military and civilian officials. After retiring from the Army, he managed the Bureau of Land Management’s High Plains District in Wyoming, overseeing eight million acres of public land and thirteen million acres of federal mineral estate.
His campaign combines fiscal conservatism with an understanding that governing requires choices rather than slogans. Christensen calls the federal debt a national-security threat, supports a balanced-budget amendment and proposes reforms to the appropriations process, congressional stock ownership and legislative term limits.
CIVPAC may disagree with some of his proposed budget rules. A balanced-budget amendment can become dangerously inflexible during wars, recessions and emergencies. But Christensen’s insistence that Congress confront long-term debt and pass appropriations bills through a functioning legislative process is welcome.
He is equally strong on congressional independence. At a July candidate forum, most of the Republican field avoided identifying any specific Trump overreach. Christensen directly criticized the administration’s conduct of the war with Iran, called the conflict unclear and unwinnable, and insisted that Congress reclaim its constitutional authority over war.
That is precisely the kind of independent judgment CIVPAC seeks in Republican candidates.
Christensen’s approach to public lands is also unusually thoughtful. He supports energy development, grazing and recreation, but opposes selling federal lands and favors retaining the Roadless Rule with practical modifications. As a BLM manager, he authorized major oil and gas development while also expanding public access.
His immigration position combines secure borders and removal of people who commit serious crimes with workable, screened legal pathways for workers needed by agriculture, energy, construction and other Wyoming industries. Enforcement and functional legal immigration are complements, not contradictions.
There are significant disagreements.
Christensen is firmly opposed to abortion and favors constitutional carry throughout the country. CIVPAC believes abortion decisions should generally remain with women, their families and their physicians, and we do not support eliminating all meaningful state discretion over firearm regulation.
He also proposes aggressive antitrust enforcement in several industries. Market concentration can justify scrutiny, but concentration and high prices are not themselves proof of wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, Christensen’s overall outlook is remarkably close to the kind of Republicanism CIVPAC hopes to encourage: fiscally responsible, market-oriented, respectful of constitutional limits, protective of public lands and willing to work across party lines.
Several candidates in this race offer louder declarations of loyalty to Trump or the Republican Party’s hardest-right faction. Christensen instead offers military and administrative experience, independent judgment and a willingness to distinguish conservative principles from obedience to a political leader.
Wyoming deserves a representative of the entire state, not an additional member of a national ideological machine.
The Centrist Independent Voter endorses Kevin Christensen in the Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district.