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Carl Beach has rarely strayed far from the place he’s grown up.

Born in Rawlins and residing now in Ryan Park near Saratoga, the University of Northern Colorado graduate has remained rooted to Wyoming even when his job has taken him halfway across the globe. For the last 15 years, Beach has split his time between Wyoming and his job as an educator working abroad. Still in 2016, Beach was active enough in local politics to participate in the last presidential caucus held in Wyoming, when he supported Sen. Bernie Sanders.

He took a break from politics for a while, but the 44-year-old eventually thought he might try and run for something himself. A position in local government, perhaps, or maybe even the state legislature. But a run for Congress? That, Beach said in an interview last week, was not on the table.

Until recently, that is.

“To be honest with you, I really thought it’d be more on the local or state level to start with,” Beach said. “But as I watched this year kind of unfold, I didn’t really see anyone rising up to challenge the sort of Republican establishment. And it really just came down to like, if not, if not me, then who’s going to do this?”