John Barrasso
...the country was much better off under President Donald Trump and Joe Biden continues to fail America. You know, when President Trump was in office, we had the best economy in my lifetime, in most of our lifetimes, we had energy independence, our enemies feared us, and we had a secure border…We need Donald Trump back in the White House. John Barrasso, January 9, 2024, Fox News’ Hannity
John Barrasso, III, is a Republican Senator from Wyoming who chairs the Senate Republican Conference, the third-highest GOP leadership position in the U.S. Senate. In January 2024, just days before the Iowa caucuses, Barrasso endorsed Trump for president, the highest-ranking member of Senate Republican leadership to do so at that time. Trump has endorsed Barrasso in his 2024 Senate reelection bid. Barrasso invited Trump to meet with Senate Republicans in June 2024 where he claimed they discussed “how Republicans will get America back on track.”
Barrasso is a close Trump ally. Barrasso refused to criticize Trump for defending the January 6 insurrectionists that called for Mike Pence to be hanged for certifying the election. Barrasso voted twice to acquit Trump in his impeachment trials for his actions inciting the insurrection, claiming impeachment efforts constituted a “two-tiered system of justice” and calling it a “partisan crusade.” He voted against the commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection, and refused to say if he believed the 2020 election was stolen, though he voted to certify it after the Senate reconvened following the violent insurrection. In 2019, he even embraced a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election against Trump.
A former orthopedic surgeon, Barrasso got involved in electoral politics as a candidate in 1996 and served briefly in the Wyoming State Senate before becoming a U.S. Senator. Over the past two decades, he has taken numerous controversial positions on public policies, such as opposing expanded background checks for gun purchases. A graduate of private Catholic schools, he has proudly said he has “voted for prayer in [public] schools, against gay marriage,” and against abortion.
Barrasso is the ranking member of the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and he has opposed numerous efforts to mitigate climate change. For example, he introduced a bill that would have prevented the EPA from limiting greenhouse gasses, introduced another bill to remove tax credits for electric cars, and demonized the Green New Deal with misinformation. He has attacked President Joe Biden’s energy policies for moving toward electrification and supporting alternatives to limit reliance on fossil fuels. The oil and gas industry has contributed over $500,000 to Barrasso’s campaign since 2019, according to OpenSecrets.