Ross Davenport House District 45: Why I Love Rebuilding Jeeps and Getting Out on the Trail

Campaigns spend a lot of time talking about policy, government, and elections. But I also think people should know something about the person behind the campaign.

So here’s something you may not know about me:

I love jeeping.

One of my favorite things to do is get outdoors, get off the pavement, and spend some time behind the wheel of my Willys Jeep — a Jeep my father and I rebuilt.

For me, it’s more than just a hobby. Rebuilding an old Jeep combines several things I enjoy: engineering, working with my hands, troubleshooting problems, and getting outside.

As Ross Davenport House District 45 voters get to know me, I think this side of my life says a lot about the way I approach problems in general.

Built, Tested, and Put to Work

When you rebuild an old vehicle, you learn pretty quickly that good intentions don’t matter very much.

Something either works or it doesn’t.

You can spend hours diagnosing a problem, replacing a part, adjusting something, and then discovering that fixing one issue revealed another one somewhere else.

So you keep working.

You troubleshoot.

You test it.

You make another adjustment.

And eventually, you take it out on the trail and find out whether the work you did actually holds up in the real world.

That process is one of the reasons engineering has always appealed to me.

It requires patience, attention to detail, and a willingness to look at the entire system instead of focusing only on one piece.

Ross Davenport House District 45: Engineering and Problem-Solving

That same mindset carries over into how I look at complicated issues.

When something isn’t working, my first instinct is to understand why.

What caused the problem?

How do the different pieces affect each other?

What happens if we change one part of the system?

And what unintended consequences could show up later?

Those are the kinds of questions engineers ask every day.

They’re also useful questions whenever you’re trying to solve a complicated problem.

Rebuilding my Willys Jeep has been a good reminder of that.

Sometimes the obvious fix isn’t the right fix. Sometimes you have to slow down, understand what’s really happening, and solve the underlying problem rather than putting a temporary patch over it.

Getting Off the Pavement

Of course, not everything has to be a lesson.

Sometimes jeeping is simply fun.

There is something about getting away from screens, meetings, and everyday responsibilities and heading out onto a trail that gives you perspective.

You slow down.

You pay attention to the terrain.

You enjoy the outdoors.

And you get to experience places you would never see from the highway.

That is one of the things I appreciate most about living in this part of the country.

There is a strong culture here of independence, self-reliance, working with your hands, and figuring things out for yourself.

Those values mean something to me.

Why I Rebuilt a Willys Jeep

I could have simply bought something newer.

But rebuilding an old Willys was part of the experience.

There’s satisfaction in taking something that has already lived a long life, understanding how it works, repairing what needs to be repaired, and getting it back on the trail.

You develop a connection with a machine when you’ve spent that much time working on it.

You know what went into it.

You know what has been replaced.

You know what still needs attention.

And when you finally drive it through water, rocks, mud, and rough terrain, there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that the work you put into it mattered.

More Than Politics

One reason I wanted to share this story is that campaigns can make candidates look like they spend every waking moment thinking about politics.

I don’t.

I’m an engineer.

I’m an educator.

I enjoy working with my hands.

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For people searching for Ross Davenport House District 45, I hope this gives you a little better idea of who I am outside of politics.

Whether I’m working on an engineering problem, teaching, rebuilding a Jeep, or working my way through a difficult trail, I tend to approach things the same way:

Understand the problem.  Do the work.  Fix what needs fixing.  Build something that lasts.

— Ross Davenport

Republican Candidate for Wyoming House District 45

Laramie, Wyoming