Idaho dodged a bullet with some statewide races, but far-right extremism is on the march

Reactions to Tuesday’s Republican primary in Idaho were decidedly mixed.

Many Idahoans woke up breathing a sigh of relief to find out that incumbent Gov. Brad Little had defeated Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, Scott Bedke defeated Priscilla Giddings for lieutenant governor and Phil McGrane beat out Dorothy Moon for secretary of state.

But looking more closely at the numbers and further down the ballot, many Idahoans noticed something troubling, an ominous warning sign.

How is it possible, for example, that Dorothy Moon, a John Bircher, “big lie” believer and election conspiracy theorist was able to receive 109,637 votes, just 4,000 votes shy of McGrane, a self-described “elections nerd” who’s been doing elections his entire professional career and was endorsed by Little, three former governors, U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, much-beloved former state Rep. Maxine Bell and former Secretary of State Ben Ysursa?

Not only that, Mary Souza, another “big lie” believer, received 41,057 votes.

After the glow of victory wore off, many Idahoans realized we were one Mary Souza press conference away from electing as the state’s top election official someone who talked about Canadians crossing the border to vote in Idaho.

And even though Giddings lost the race for lieutenant governor, no fewer than 114,582 people voted for her — someone who shared the identity of a rape victim in an effort to defend the rapist, a fellow Republican legislator, and then was censured by the House and removed from the Commerce and Human Resources Committee.

Branden Durst, an inflammatory candidate with legal issues who was once a Democratic legislator but has since moved to the far right, earned nearly 90,000 votes in his bid to be superintendent of public instruction, more than incumbent Sherri Ybarra.

These are frightening numbers for candidates who shouldn’t even be polling in double digits, let alone seriously contending for a constitutional office.

A look down the ballot provides even more cause for concern.

A whole host of fringe candidates won seats to the Idaho Senate, in place of vastly more sensible Republicans.

Canyon County, in particular, was a hotbed for extremist candidates who won.

Brian Lenney is a California transplant who labeled incumbent Sen. Jeff Agenbroad a liberal because Agenbroad voted in favor of a sales tax exemption for data center equipment, leading Facebook/Meta to open a data center in Kuna, which Lenney doesn’t want in Idaho because he thinks it will turn Kuna into Menlo Park or Silicon Valley. Where did he post this accusation? On Facebook, apparently not recognizing that his video diatribe is the data for which Facebook needs storage.

Idaho Freedom Foundation script reader Tammy Nichols, who was instrumental in punishing Idahoans by killing a federal early childhood learning grant, won her primary for Senate. Chris Trakel, who couldn’t even earn an endorsement for Caldwell mayor seven months ago and finished third out of five candidates, defeated Greg Chaney for the Senate.

Ben Adams said “the question is fair” when a man at a far-right rally in Nampa asked, “When do we get to use the guns? ... How many elections are they going to steal before we start killing these people?” He will now be Sen. Ben Adams, with no Democratic opponent in November. In fact, his District 12, along with District 13, have not a single Democratic candidate in any race.

Jacyn Gallagher, a self-described “Christian patriot” who calls Rush Limbaugh “the voice of reason,” ousted Ryan Kerby, a former school superintendent and moderating influence in the House, especially on the Education Committee. Even longtime Senate leader and current Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder faced stiff competition from Rosa Martinez, a political newcomer and relative unknown who was backed by the Conservatives Of PAC and received 46% of the vote.

In North Idaho, Scott Herndon, who would end all abortions without exceptions, wants Idaho to ignore federal court orders and opposes an early childhood learning grant because he buys into the bogus conspiracy theory that it’s a leftist, Marxist indoctrination program, defeated the eminently more qualified incumbent Sen. Jim Woodward.

The wins in the Idaho Senate will make it much more difficult for that body to counteract the crazy, often unconstitutional whims of the House, such as passing government restrictions on transgender rights, criminalizing librarians or fining school districts for not designing individualized lesson plans for every student in school. Look for more battles in the Senate over whether Big Bird is radicalizing our children or whether the Kuna School District is using a federal early childhood learning grant to indoctrinate 4-year-olds into becoming left-wing antifa activists.

This isn’t just a Republican vs. Democrat battle any longer in Idaho. It’s clear that the far-right fringe is carving out its own niche and voters are diving in. Even though they suffered some significant losses in Tuesday’s primary, they also made serious headway in gaining a foothold in Gem State politics.

An all-out catastrophe may have been avoided this time around, but the future isn’t looking good.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members J.J. Saldaña and Christy Perry.