Cale Case (born June 2, 1958) is an American economist, businessman, and politician from

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

. A

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, Case has been a member of the

Wyoming State Senate The Wyoming Senate is the upper house of the Wyoming State Legislature. There are 30 Senators in the Senate, representing an equal number of constituencies across Wyoming, each with a population of at least 17,000. The Senate meets at the Wyomi ...

since 1999. From 1994 to 1998, he was a member of the

Wyoming House of Representatives The Wyoming House of Representatives is the lower house of the Wyoming State Legislature. There are 60 Representatives in the House, representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts across the state, each with a population of ...

Education and consulting career

Case holds a B.A. in economics and a Ph.D. in economics, both from the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

at Laramie.Jeff Gearino
Rancher, 77, takes on SD25 incumbent
''Casper Star-Tribune'' (August 14, 2010). He is a consultant.

Political career

Tenure in the legislature

Case was a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1994 through 1998. He has been a member of the Wyoming Senate since 1999.Gregory Nickerson
Top races to follow in Wyoming Senate primaries
''WyoFile'' (July 11, 2014). Case has been a longtime chairman of the Senate Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee. In the state Senate, Case represents Fremont County District 25. The district includes an area along the Wind River Front, including

Eastern Shoshone Eastern Shoshone are Shoshone who primarily live in Wyoming and in the northeast corner of the Great Basin where Utah, Idaho and Wyoming meet and are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They lived in the Rocky Mountains d ...

and Northern Arapaho constituencies. Case is known for his contrarian and libertarian views.Jared Miller
Who will get Wyo's vote? State GOP's early conventions, Saturday forums have some picking presidential favorites
''Casper Star-Tribune'' (September 28, 2007). He endorsed Ron Paul in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. In 2013, Case spoke in opposition to two nominees to the

Wyoming Public Service Commission The Wyoming Public Service Commission is a public utilities commission, a quasi-judicial tribunal, which regulates natural gas, electric, telecommunications, water, and pipeline services in the U.S. state of Wyoming. Commission members *Chris Petri ...

selected by Governor

Matt Mead Matthew Hansen Mead (born March 11, 1962) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 32nd Governor of Wyoming from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the United States Attorney for the D ...

, and the two appointments were rejected by the Senate, a rare step. Case said that the nominees were unqualified and called for the governor to consider more economist nominees to the Commission. Case voted against legislation approved by the Wyoming Senate which would have forbidden the state from recognizing

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

s legally made in other states or countries. Case said that Wyoming has been damaged in the eyes of the nation by the murder of

Matthew Shepard Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Po ...

, and said that he was "a religious man" but he believed that "there has to be a separation between the laws of this state and what religious people believe." Case supported 2021 legislation to abolish

capital punishment in Wyoming Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Wyoming. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, Wyoming carried out only one execution: that of Mark Hopkinson in 1992 for ordering the murder of four ...

(Wyoming last executed an inmate in 1992). Although usually a strong opponent of tax increases,Bob Beck
House Committee Will Allow Corporate Income Tax Bill To Die
Wyoming Public Radio (February 20, 2019).Bob Beck
Interest In Increasing Taxes May Be Waning
Wyoming Public Radio (August 25, 2017). Case supported a 2019 bill that would have created a

corporate income tax A corporate tax, also called corporation tax or company tax, is a direct tax imposed on the income or capital of corporations or analogous legal entities. Many countries impose such taxes at the national level, and a similar tax may be imposed at ...

targeted mostly at

big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...

s. (The legislation did not pass). Case has also been a longtime leading proponent of higher taxes on

wind energy Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically, w ...

. In 2012, Case supported a resolution urging Congress to grant federal funding to remediate uranium contamination at the Riverton Uranium Mill Tailings, an abandoned uranium mill at the

Wind River Indian Reservation The Wind River Indian Reservation, in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, is shared by two Native American tribes, the Eastern Shoshone ( shh, Gweechoon Deka, ''meaning: "buffalo eaters"'') and the Northern Arapaho ( arp, ...

. Case noted that the tribes lacked the resources to clean up the site without federal aid. In 2019, Case supported legislation to end net metering in Wyoming, which allowed small-scale

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

users to sell their surplus electricity to the utility company, saving money. Case described net metering as a "subsidy" that put a strain on the utility and on customers who did not use solar power. In 2019, as co-chairman of the Joint Revenue Committee, Case supported legislation for Wyoming to accept the

Medicaid expansion In the context of American public healthcare policy, Medicaid coverage gap refers to uninsured people who reside in states which have opted out of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), who are both ineligible for Medicaid unde ...

, extending health insurance coverage to an estimated 19,000 Wyomingites saying: "I'd like to hang tough, I suppose, and say people ought to find their own insurance that the health care markets work, but I think the health care markets are really screwed up, I really do. And I think without insurance you are at a real disadvantage to get care, especially if you have a

chronic disease A chronic condition is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term ''chronic'' is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three m ...

." In 2021, Case supported a bill to create tolls for

Interstate 80 in Wyoming Interstate 80 (I-80) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey. In Wyoming, the Interstate Highway runs from the Utah state line near Evanston east to the Nebraska state ...

, one of the state's largest highways; the bill narrowly passed the Senate. In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wyoming, Case opposed the federal mandates requiring certain employers with more than 100 employees to require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be

tested ''Tested'' is a live album by punk rock band Bad Religion. It was recorded in the USA, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Italy and Austria, in 1996, and released in 1997. It is Bad Religion's second live album. Instead of using crowd microphon ...

regularly. However, Case opposed the calling of a

special session In a legislature, a special session (also extraordinary session) is a period when the body convenes outside of the normal legislative session. This most frequently occurs in order to complete unfinished tasks for the year (often delayed by confli ...

of the state legislature to pass anti-vaccine mandate legislation. During the session, Case opposed legislation that would ban insurance companies and private businesses from denying services to customers who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, citing the rights of private enterprise.

Unsuccessful bids for U.S. House and U.S. Senate

Case unsuccessfully launched a campaign for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in the 2004 election, challenging U.S. Representative

Barbara Cubin Barbara Lynn Cubin (born November 30, 1946) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, Wyoming’s sole member of that body. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Wyoming. Earl ...

(elected from

Wyoming's at-large congressional district Wyoming's at-large congressional district is the sole congressional district for the US state of Wyoming. It is the third largest congressional district in the United States in terms of land size. The district is currently represented by Liz Che ...

) in the Republican primary.David Miller
Cubin Easily Survives Primary Challenge in Wyoming
''CQ'' (August 18, 2004). Case criticized Cubin over missed votes and contended that she was too aligned with " pork-barrel politics." In the August 2004 Republican primary, Case came in third place: Cubin took 54%,

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

attorney Bruce Asay 26%, and Case 15%. In 2007, Case was one of 31 candidates to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy created by the death of

Craig L. Thomas Craig Lyle Thomas (February 17, 1933 – June 4, 2007) was an American politician who served as United States Senator from Wyoming from 1995 until his death in 2007. He was a member of the Republican Party. In the Senate, Thomas was considered ...

; the

Wyoming Republican Party The Wyoming Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in Wyoming. It is currently the dominant party in the state, and is one of the strongest affiliates of the national Republican Party. The party currently controls Wyoming's at ...

Central Committee did not select Case as a finalist, choosing

John Barrasso John Anthony Barrasso III ( ; born July 21, 1952) is an American physician and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wyoming, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the Wyoming State ...

Cynthia Lummis Cynthia Marie Lummis Wiederspahn ( ; born September 10, 1954) is an American attorney and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Wyoming since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Lummis served as the U.S representative ...

, and

Tom Sansonetti Thomas Lawrence Sansonetti (born May 18, 1949), is an attorney and a former government official from the U.S. state of Wyoming. He now resides in Greenwood Village, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. After graduation from high school, he earne ...

instead.David M. Drucker, yoming GOP Chooses Possible Senate Picks ''Roll Call'' (June 19, 2007).

Personal life

Case lives in Lander in Fremont County.Wyoming lawmakers look again at higher wind energy tax
Associated Press (August 25, 2020).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Case, Cale 1958 births Living people Republican Party members of the Wyoming House of Representatives Republican Party Wyoming state senators Economists from Wyoming People from Lander, Wyoming University of Wyoming alumni American libertarians 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American economists Wind River Indian Reservation