November 6, 2007

From rodeo doctor to U.S. senator

John Barrasso, a Yale-trained orthopaedic surgeon and now a U.S. senator from Wyoming, was spared the bronco ride that is a run for federal office. He'll enter that ring in 2008.

U.S. Senator John Barrasso says he supports "lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense."

For candidates across the nation today, the hand-shaking, door-knocking, baby-kissing, speech-making, opponent-debating, fund-raising nightmare is over. All that’s left is the champagne uncorking and the Monday-morning quarterbacking.

Yale-trained surgeon John A. Barrasso—the new Republican U.S. senator from Wyoming—escaped all that.  In June, after five years in the state senate, he was appointed by Gov. David Freudenthal to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the late Craig Thomas. He still faces an election-day odyssey, though; in order to retain his seat, Barrasso, 54, must run as the incumbent in a special election during the 2008 general election.

When Barrasso was a resident in orthodpaedics at Yale (from 1978 to1983), his attendings stressed the importance of having a plan before going into the operating room. This advice has served him well both
as an orthopaedic surgeon and as a politician and civic activist.

Early in his career, Barrasso wanted to provide health care for as many people as possible inside and outside the operating room. “Affordable and available health care is a big issue in Wyoming,” he said. “It’s a rural state, and people are spread out. I want to help find ways to get health care to them.”

As a medical student at Georgetown University, Barrasso joined the American Medical Student Association, where he worked on issues related to preventive medicine and health care access.

He produced television and radio reports and newspaper articles on health and fitness for more than 20 years, and served as the medical director of Wyoming Health Fairs, a series of programs on preventive medicine held across the state. He still writes a monthly series of articles on preventive health care for elders called “Caring for Wyoming’s Seniors.”

In 2002 he ran for a seat in the Wyoming State Senate. “I knew I could help patients one-on-one in the office,” he said, “but I felt I could do more to help more people working legislatively.”  Barrasso won the seat and was reelected in 2006.

Seeking the vacant U.S. Senate seat was another way in which Barrasso sought to broaden the scope of his influence. “I wanted to do on the national level what I had been doing on the state level,” he said.

Gary E. Friedlaender, the Wayne O. Southwick Professor of Orthopaedics and Professor of Pathology and chair of orthopaedics and rehabilitation, met Barrasso during his training at Yale and has stayed in touch over the years. What characterized Barrasso as a resident, he says, was his “strong intellect and highly capable technical skills. As a house officer, he was a great physician who had compassion, commitment and ethical moral character.” 

Barrasso says he supports “lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense.” In the state senate he received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, voted for prayer in schools, voted against gay marriage and sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life.

“In today’s world, his views would earn him a conservative label,” Friedlaender says, “but John is not inured to the needs of people, especially in terms of health care. I would describe his politics as thoughtful.”

Friedlaender calls Barrasso’s ability to combine a health care mindset with his political skills a “powerful partnership.”

—Jennifer Kaylin

Subscribe