Worland Democrat announces run for Secretary of State

WORLAND — Worland resident Democrat Bryan McCarty has announced his candidacy for Secretary of State.

McCarty said the situation our democracy is in prompted his decision to run for office. 

“People are dying prematurely every day,” said McCarty. “People are medically suffering unnecessarily every day,” he said. “People are getting kidnapped every day and taken to concentration camps, some in this country, some outside of this country. Sometimes with something resembling due process, sometimes without anything resembling due process ... at the risk of overstating it, the expression I keep using is that our democracy is not just on fire, it’s burning down around us. And if not me, then who? And if not now, when?”

Prior to retirement, McCarty spent decades working in the locomotive industry. He worked as an internal auditor for a multi-billion-dollar business enterprise, and he says the skills acquired lend themselves well to fulfilling the role of Secretary of State.

“That gave me a real appreciation for the importance of a source document.” McCarty said. “People can say anything they want, but what does the contract say? What does the bill of lading say? So that was something that I really placed a lot of value on when I was working for the railroad.”

Another part of McCarty’s training centered around how to investigate and determine the cause of derailments.

“One of the things that really just resonated with me is you cannot spin the evidence of a derailment. When a derailment happens, you’ve got several hours to gather investigative data, and one of the key things that you always try to look for is, ‘Where did the first wheel come off the rail?’ And it’ll typically leave a mark, unless it’s like a collision or something like that, where you might end up under a pile of rubble. But there is really no way to spin the evidence; you can’t politic about. What happened is what happened.”

McCarty said his respect for facts and law rather than emotion-fueled decision-making tie well into the Secretary of State duties. 

He views the Secretary of State as a non-partisan role — different from a lot of elected positions. While most elected representatives are there to represent their constituents and speak on their behalf, McCarty said, “The Secretary of State is really more in the role of an executive. The Secretary of State is responsible for administering the legislation that defines the role of the office, and so there’s less of an influence of advocating on behalf of your constituents than there is in, let’s say, a legislative-elected position.”

If elected, McCarty said he will prioritize performing his duties as effectively and efficiently as possible. Another priority will be to ensure Wyoming businesses are properly registered with the Secretary of State.