Gay GOP Candidate Settles “Pedophile” Defamation Suit
Wyoming's Reid Rasner settled with one defendant who admitted the allegations were false, while four other defamation lawsuits continue.
Reid Rasner, a gay Republican running for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat, has settled a federal defamation lawsuit against an Iowa man who falsely called him a “pedophile” on social media and is continuing separate defamation lawsuits against four Wyoming Republicans in state court.
Rasner sued Iowa resident Michael Leonard Cooley Jr. in March, alleging that Cooley repeatedly accused him on social media of being a “pedophile.” According to the complaint, Cooley made “hateful false statements” intended to harm Rasner “in his Wyoming personal and professional life.”
The two men did not know each other before the lawsuit, but Rasner alleged that Cooley’s accusations caused him personal, professional, and political harm.
In an affidavit obtained by Newsweek, Cooley said he “reviewed multiple social media posts and news articles accusing Reid Rasner of serious sexual misconduct. When I read those posts and articles, I believed that the authors were making truthful statements regarding Mr. Rasner based on verified facts or personal knowledge.” He then created his own social media posts repeating those allegations.
“I now understand that the allegations against Mr. Rasner are untrue, not supported by any facts, and were made in an effort to harm his personal and professional reputation,” Cooley states in the affidavit.
During a July 2 pretrial conference, Rasner and Cooley told the court they had reached a settlement agreement. Court records show they filed paperwork to dismiss the case on July 10. The terms of the settlement have not been publicly disclosed.
“This Federal Court affidavit speaks for itself: the person who repeated these claims now says under oath that he never met me, had no firsthand knowledge, had no factual basis, recognizes his posts were wholly false, and apologizes,” Rasner told Newsweek.
Rasner, a 42-year-old financial advisor, finished second in the 2024 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, earning 24% of the vote behind incumbent U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, according to Semafor.
In both that race and his current campaign for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat, Rasner has sought to position himself as more loyal to President Trump and the MAGA movement than his Republican rivals. He is running to succeed U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis.
In 2025, Rasner drew national attention with a $47.45 billion bid to acquire a controlling stake in TikTok, reportedly intending to establish the social media platform’s U.S. headquarters in Wyoming. He told Semafor that rumors alleging sexual misconduct began circulating after his bid, damaging both his reputation and congressional campaign.
As other LGBTQ news outlets have noted, Rasner — who has called gender-affirming care a form of “child abuse” and said parents who allow their children to receive it should lose their parental rights — now finds himself targeted by some conservatives because of his sexual orientation.
In May, a poll conducted by Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s campaign informed respondents that Rasner had “married his gay husband in New York,” according to the Cowboy State Daily. (Rasner married a man in New York in 2012, but the couple divorced in 2020, according to court records.) The poll showed Rasner trailing Gray by single digits, but losing support after voters were told about his sexual orientation.
While Rasner told Semafor he was discouraged by the poll’s findings, he said he would pursue defamation claims only over posts alleging he was a “pedophile” or had engaged in sexual misconduct — including the claims that Cooley said in his affidavit prompted him to make similar accusations.
Rasner also said he had been excluded from some candidate forums after the rumors began circulating, including one organized by the Wyoming Family Alliance, a socially conservative group that opposes same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights. A representative for the organization, however, told Semafor that Rasner was excluded because forum organizers considered him overly litigious.
Although his lawsuit against Cooley has been settled, Rasner is continuing defamation lawsuits against four others: former State Sen. Austin “Kit” Jennings (R-Casper), former State Sen. Anthony Bouchard (R-Antelope Meadows), Bar Nunn Town Council Member Dan Sabrosky, and Sabrosky’s ex-wife, Michelle St. Louis.
In those lawsuits, Rasner alleges the defendants either spread, or coordinated with others to spread, false allegations of sexual misconduct that damaged his professional reputation and congressional campaign. The defendants have largely disputed the claims, arguing that their statements are protected speech or legally privileged, while others deny participating in any coordinated campaign against Rasner, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
Ross Hemminger, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, which has endorsed Rasner, praised the candidate for filing the defamation lawsuits.
“I give Reid a lot of credit for standing up and actually doing something to put a stop to this…. [T]hese are the kinds of allegations that if you don’t push back on them other people will grab it and run with it,” Hemminger told Newsweek. He called the pedophilia claims “disgusting” because they invoke “a trope, a stereotype, about gay people that is obviously very, very untrue and wrong.”
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