Rex Rammell is fine with being referred to as a perennial candidate. Being frequently in the public eye while running for office is a way to build name recognition, he said.

Rammell, of Rock Springs, sat down with the Tribune Thursday during a whirlwind tour of the state that launched his campaign for governor. The election won’t be held until 2022, but he said he began the campaign now because of the size of the state.

“It takes time to get around and visit with everybody and get the momentum going,” he said.

Rammell, who calls himself a “true Republican,” is seeking the office so that, with the authority of the state behind him, he can reclaim for the state public land currently designated as federal property. 

“It is clear the Biden administration’s agenda wants fossil fuels eliminated from public lands. In Wyoming, 90% of fossil fuels are on public land and the only way to stop his agenda is to move those public lands from federal to state,” he said.

Rammell’s justification for such a move is contained, he said, in the U.S. Constitution. Not only does the document not include authority for the federal government to administer public lands, Rammell believes that authority is relegated to the states through the 10th Amendment.

That amendment reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

“There is no power in the Constitution given to the feds to control 25% of the land mass of the nation. That has been argued since Wyoming became a state,” Rammell opined.

How, then, would he reclaim the lands if he does manage to get elected?

“I have no intention of going through the courts or through Congress to get the land back. It would be done through executive order and justified by the Constitution. We’re going to throw them out,” Rammell said, speaking of the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. The administration of public lands in a Rammell governorship would be turned over to state land administration, he said. The royalties on natural resources that are currently paid to the federal government — about 50% — would instead go into the state’s general fund.

“There really is no option at this point,” he said. “The [Biden] administration has declared war on us in Wyoming and we will give him a taste of his own medicine. We will show him the power of the 10th Amendment.”

There are some powers that Rammell believes are retained by the federal government — such as to mint money, declare war, maintain a national defense and deliver the mail, among others.

Rammell knows his candidacy is something of a longshot.

“It isn’t easy to become a governor. This is my third attempt,” said Rammell, who challenged Idaho Gov. Butch Otter in the 2010 Republican primary and ran as the Constitution Party candidate in Wyoming’s 2018 gubernatorial election, won by Republican Gov. Mark Gordon.

“But it is hard to beat a guy who never gives up,” he said. “I’m that guy.”

Thus far, despite some rumblings of potential challenges to Gov. Gordon, Rammell is the only declared candidate in the race.

He said Gordon has bought into the idea of the Green New Deal, charging that the governor has made it clear he doesn’t support the fossil fuel industry. 

“In reality, he wants to see it ended,” Rammell said. 

He also knows his campaign will have to be a grassroots effort. Name recognition, he said, takes a lot of time, unless there is a lot of money spent to get that recognition.

The primary election for the governor’s race is scheduled for Aug. 16, 2022.