JACKSON — Wyoming’s congressional candidates are off to the races — which may get expensive.

Of the 11 candidates who have announced campaigns for Rep. Harriet Hageman’s soon-to-be-vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, three have already infused their campaigns with hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal loans. One candidate has loaned himself more than $1.2 million.

While there are limits on how much individuals can donate to campaigns, candidates can loan themselves as much money as they want, a process known as “self-funding.” The practice indicates that a race will likely be expensive and competitive, according to Ryan Williamson, a University of Wyoming assistant professor of political science who specializes in electoral politics.

Candidates like entrepreneur Reid Rasner, Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Moran rancher Frank Chapman may have chosen to self fund for different reasons, Williamson said.

“Some candidates self-fund just to get a jump start on spending because they’re confident that they can raise that money back and pay themselves back,” he said.

Other times, Williamson said, candidates self-fund because they don’t have a “strong donor base.”

“They need essentially their own money to win,” he said.

Gray declined an interview and instead provided the News&Guide a statement saying he had the “strongest campaign” in the House race. He added that he would comment further on his campaign’s finances after the April 15 Federal Election Commission filing deadline for the first quarter of 2026. Gray provided his campaign a $500,000 loan in 2025, shortly after declaring his candidacy.

Rasner, who has loaned his campaign over $1.2 million, declined to comment.

Only Chapman, who loaned himself $560,000, agreed to an interview for this article, saying that he believes in his campaign and that he hopes his own financial backing will encourage other donors.

“If I’m not willing to support myself then who is?” Chapman said.

Chapman and Rasner both loaned themselves money during the first quarter of 2026.

The other eight congressional candidates had not filed campaign finance reports by press time Tuesday. They had until April 15 to do so, giving politicos and their competitors a peek into the financial lifeblood of their campaigns as election season heats up.

The News&Guide took a look to see which candidates were making early moves in the campaign cycle.

‘An arms race’

Williamson, the University of Wyoming professor, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the busy Wyoming U.S. House contest is “an arms race” in fundraising and spending.

High profile political races can be expensive. In 2022, when Hageman ousted Rep. Liz Cheney, the U.S. House race cost $10 million, Williamson said.

He also said a busy primary is not unusual when there’s no incumbent, pointing to outgoing Sen. Cynthis Lummis’ race in 2020. She faced nine other candidates in the Republican primary.

This year’s contenders will need to differentiate themselves to get their messages to the voters, Williamson said.

Money helps do that.

“As soon as one candidate starts spending money, this creates an incentive for other campaigns to respond, because they don’t want to fall behind,” he said.

But money isn’t enough to win elections, Williamson said.

“Money is a necessary but insufficient condition to winning,” he said. “At a certain point, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, how much money you raise, or how much money you spend.”

Having more money can signal a candidate is trying to buy themselves “into a more competitive environment” when they aren’t “strong” by default.

Williamson said that isn’t necessarily the case with any of the candidates in Wyoming’s U.S. House race but spending does raise questions about “why someone would spend so much money on themselves in an ultimately unsuccessful election.”

The FEC allows candidates to loan themselves unlimited amounts of money, and candidates can use future donations to pay off those loans or forgive all or part of the loan to their campaign.

In the Senate race, none of the candidates are self-funded.

At the end of 2025, Hageman had already spent more than  $1 million on her campaign and still had close to $775,000 in the bank from personal donations. She has yet to file her first quarterly report for 2026.

Jimmy Skovgard, a Republican challenger, filed his first quarter report and hasn’t self funded. He reported $2,165 in donations. Democratic candidate James Byrd hadn’t yet filed any reports.

The August primary is only four months away.

A prominent self-funder

Rasner was the first person to announce his candidacy, in January 2025.

He’s already filed his first quarter report for 2026 and loaned himself the most of any candidate.

By the end of March, Rasner had put $1.2 million toward his own campaign, making it more than 95% self-funded. He has also raised around $55,000 from other donors.

In the last year, Rasner has already spent nearly all of the $1.2 million on a mix of strategic services, media and ads, according to his expenditure report.

While Rasner’s campaign team didn’t agree to an interview before press time about his finances, the candidate has self-funded before.

In 2024, when Rasner ran to represent Wyoming in the U.S. Senate, his campaign was 97.65% self-funded. He loaned himself $1.28 million and raised around $30,000 from others.

That year, Rasner was one of the top self-funders in federal races nationwide. Only seven people in the United States gave more to their own campaigns than Rasner did.

Gregg Kidd, an Independent running for a Nevada House seat, was the leading self-funder in the U.S. in 2024, putting $8.7 million toward his campaign.

Of the top 65 self-funders in the 2024 election, 55 lost, according to Open Secrets.

Rasner did too, losing by more than 40 points in the primary to Republican incumbent John Barrasso, who has served as a Wyoming Senator since 2007.

The sitting official

Secretary of State Chuck Gray also quickly announced his intent to run in December 2025 — and shortly thereafter loaned himself $500,000.

In 2021, when Gray last ran for the seat, he loaned himself nearly $300,000. He eventually withdrew from that race and endorsed Hageman, who won.

Gray, then a state representative, ran for secretary of state in 2024 and won the Republican primary against state Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne. After the primary, Cowboy State Daily reported that Gray’s father, Jan Charles Gray, contributed $500,000 of the $527,980 total the representative had raised.

In 2025, Gray didn’t report any individual donations from other people, though donations will likely show up in his first quarter report for 2026. He also didn’t report any spending.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received from the people of Wyoming,” Gray said in a statement Tuesday about his 2025 end-of-year report. “We are running the strongest campaign with our clear cash on hand lead from our last quarterly report. I have strong support from the grassroots, America First, silent majority in Wyoming due to my proven track record of advancing the priorities of the people of Wyoming.”

The first timer

Chapman, one of two candidates from Teton County running for Congress this year, loaned his campaign $560,000 as soon as he announced at the end of March, and reported $1,782 in individual contributions.

Chapman told the News&Guide that he’s fortunate to be able to front the money to kickstart his campaign as he finds his donor base. He’s not concerned about a lack of individual donations right now. He believes he’ll build it on the campaign trail.

“I believe in what I’m doing,” Chapman said.

Chapman said there’s a “basic level” needed “to be a professional campaign” and a “serious contender.” He ballparked that around $700,000 is needed to fund driving around the state, advertisements and professional media content.

Williamson said there isn’t data available about how much money is necessary to be taken seriously, but he agreed with Chapman to a degree: You have to have money in order to be considered a viable candidate.

“There’s a kind of psychological aspect of if a candidate doesn’t have any money, then additional money might not follow,” he said.