Contenders For the Throne
Three primary challengers offer unique visions for Idaho
In my previous newsletters I have explained how Governor Brad Little used his emergency authority to instigate or allow many infringements upon our natural rights, how Idaho conservatives attempted to fight back but were stonewalled by the GOP machine, and how many of our elected leaders are out-of-touch with their constituents. Today I would like to look at some of the people who are challenging this system.
Even though the recall campaign against Governor Little fizzled, there was enough discontent in the air to convince people that he might be vulnerable to a primary challenge from the right. Three challengers have separated themselves from the pack. While each one agrees that Little must go, they have very different ideas on how to reform state government. Let us examine each in turn:
The first to declare was Ed Humphreys, a financial advisor from Eagle who has been a state Republican Party official for several years. In full disclosure, I have known Ed since I became involved in Idaho politics in late 2019. I have had many conversations with him and have watched as he developed his vision for Idaho.
Humphreys’ focus in the race is on breaking the political machine that has controlled local politics for far too long. He often talks about the financial connections between establishment politicians like Governor Little and the big corporate interests in healthcare, ranching, and lobbying. He has dug into the state books and found tons of quid pro quo and dirty dealings by our elected leaders. Remember from my last newsletter how Senator Fred Martin received exponentially more money from Big Pharma than his own constituents? That is just the tip of the iceberg. On his website, Humphreys says, “As a finance guy, I’ve followed the money and I know exactly what is going on. We need to disrupt the status quo built by the ruling class.”
Humphreys emphasizes his humble background. His father’s family escaped Nazi Germany and his mother escaped Communist Yugoslavia, which gives him a unique perspective on the danger of totalitarianism. Humphreys himself was working on an oil well just twelve years ago, saving enough to put himself through college to achieve a business degree that allowed him to start his financial planning firm. He only recently became involved in politics, but once he caught a glimpse of how the sausage has been made he could not stay on the sidelines.
I believe that Ed is sincere in his desire to root out the corruption and machine hackery that controls Idaho politics. However, he has a tall hill to climb. When he began his campaign nearly a year ago, he was virtually unknown outside of the 14th District. Those of us who know him are aware of how he has been involved behind the scenes of some good legislation, but this campaign for governor was his first introduction to the public. Some voters, especially those who support Lt. Governor McGeachin, have wondered if Humphreys is a deliberate spoiler on behalf of Governor Little - the same rumors that followed businessman Tommy Ahlquist after his third-place finish in the 2018 gubernatorial primary.
Even if Ed Humphreys is not successful in this campaign, I hope he continues his work in crafting good bills and digging into the financial dealings of the career politicians in Boise.
The second major challenger to announce a campaign for governor was the lieutenant governor herself, Janice McGeachin. McGeachin was a state legislator for several years before leaving politics to run her businesses in the 2010s. She won election to her current position in 2018. She has established herself as a political maverick, repeatedly clashing with Governor Little to the point where she twice used his absence from the state to issue executive orders banning mask mandates. She started a program called Capitol Clarity to keep citizens informed of the goings-on in the Legislature.
As lieutenant governor, McGeachin is well-placed for an insurgent campaign, however the GOP establishment and leftist media have done their best to portray her as radical and extreme. This effort has borne fruit, as a recent poll commissioned by the Idaho Dispatch showed her with much higher “unfavorable” ratings than the other candidates.
In November, former President Donald Trump endorsed McGeachin after she traveled to Mar-a-Lago to pay homage to the leader of the MAGA caucus. Interestingly, Governor Little had also traveled to Florida to meet with President Trump around the same time.
The McGeachin campaign has focused on standard conservative issues of fiscal responsibility, pro-life legislation, and 2nd Amendment protection. She has also made state sovereignty a centerpiece of her campaign, which is encouraging in these troubled times where each new day seems to reveal new tyranny emanating from Washington, DC. McGeachin has been advocating for protection for Idaho citizens against medical tyranny, both by the government and by private employers. This puts her at odds with Governor Little, who joined the lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate but sees no problem with big corporations enforcing the mandate on their employees.
Lt. Gov. McGeachin probably has the best shot of any of the challengers to King Brad’s throne, but her unfavorable ratings could be a problem. The Trump endorsement gave her a huge lift, but there are still many low-information voters in Idaho who are convinced that she is a crazy gun-waving Bible-thumping would-be theocrat. (If only!) She fits the mold of the female right-wing firebrand that is currently in vogue - see Congresswomen Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. I have to wonder if a primary campaign against Senator Mike Crapo, who is running for his fifth term this year, might have been a better strategic move on her part, drawing more national attention and contributions.
McGeachin has also drawn the ire of her fellow challengers for refusing any debate that does not include Governor Little himself. McGeachin is clearly trying to portray herself as the standard-bearer of the MAGA caucus, refusing to acknowledge the other insurgent candidates and instead trying to frame the campaign as between herself and the governor alone. While this is probably the politically sound move, it leaves her open to charges of egoism and risks creating bad blood with supporters of the other candidates.
The third major challenger this year is rancher and activist Ammon Bundy. Where do I begin to tell his story? Bundy gained national notoriety in 2014 after a standoff between federal agents and patriots at his father’s ranch in Nevada. The feds had attempted to collect fines against the elder Bundy for what they considered to be illegal grazing, while the family contended that their grazing rights predated federal control of the land. Worried that federal agents might respond with force - readers here surely remember Ruby Ridge - patriots from across the country came to the Bundy Ranch and stood their ground, forcing the feds to back down. Eventually, charges against the Bundy family were dismissed.
Ammon Bundy tried to take his fight against the federal government even further in 2016, occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon on behalf of another family that claimed to be experiencing persecution at the hands of federal agents. This time things did not end peacefully - a shootout claimed the life of one of the occupiers, and nine others were imprisoned. Ammon Bundy himself was later exonerated of all charges, and it was later revealed that undercover FBI agents had been involved with planning the operation, apparently hoping to use it to disrupt several of the organizations involved.
Since then, Bundy has kept himself in the news. He got himself arrested protesting lockdowns and mask mandates at the Capitol in Boise in the summer of 2020. He angered local conservatives by downplaying the threat of the Black Lives Matter movement, saying that he agreed with them about the need to defund police departments. While Humphreys and McGeachin align with the MAGA caucus of the Republican Party, Bundy is very much a libertarian. Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, perhaps the most respected libertarian in the country, has endorsed Bundy’s campaign for governor.
Ammon Bundy’s campaign is therefore focused much more on libertarian issues. He calls his campaign “Keep Idaho IDAHO,” and has extensive policy plans that would radically reshape the structure of state government. As would be expected from his background, he decries federal control of state lands, and wants states to retake what is currently owned by federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the National Forest Service. Like the other candidates, Bundy is very pro-life.
Ammon Bundy is very much the outsider in this race. Despite being disdained by both the Republican establishment and the conservative MAGA caucus, Bundy has a small but vociferous contingent of supporters. While there is a lot of overlap in the positions of Humphreys and McGeachin supporters, Bundy’s caucus is its own beast. I attended one of his events, a barn dance, and saw many good salt-of-the-earth people who believed that Bundy had the best plan to take Idaho back from both the federal bureaucracy and the state political machines.
These three contenders to the throne each bring very different backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas to the race. To be honest, I wish there was a way that they could all work together, Avengers-style, to take on the powerful interests that currently run this state. Unfortunately, politics does not work that way. If we are to successfully oust Governor Little, then we need to unite behind a single challenger. The lesson of 2018 is that even one well-funded candidate can alter the outcome of a close race.
Yet who gets to bear the standard? The relatively unknown Humphreys, who has run a grueling campaign all across the state and raised a lot of money from passionate individuals? The fiery McGeachin, who has been endorsed by President Trump himself? Or the outsider Bundy, who has the most radical ideas on how to reshape the state? Supporters of each of the three can make reasonable arguments that their candidate is the one.
Unfortunately, it might be too late. Last week, the Idaho Dispatch commissioned a poll to gauge the status of the primary campaign. This poll showed Governor Little sitting at 59% of the vote - an outright majority no matter who else is in the race. When people were polled on possible head-to-head races, Governor Little won them all easily. Fervent supporters of Humphreys, McGeachin, and Bundy may not agree on much, but they all concur that the poll must be wrong. However, this poll probably represents a reasonable view of the race as it stands today.
Those of us who are active in politics sometimes forget that we live in a bubble. We go to party meetings, we wave signs on the street corner, we follow the events in the Legislature, and we dig into the backgrounds of our candidates. It is easy to forget that the majority of voters do not live this way. Most Idahoans have probably at least heard of Lt. Gov. McGeachin and might have seen the names Bundy and Humphreys here or there, but they don’t know much about any of them. When it comes time to vote in the primary, they’ll turn on the TV or do a quick Google search, if they bother voting at all.
That is why incumbency is a huge advantage. Governor Little gets free press everywhere he goes. Every public statement of his becomes headline news, and he can count on his name being more familiar than any of his would-be replacements. The average Idaho Republican probably does not consider the issues we have with the governor - ruling like a king throughout 2020, unilaterally issuing a stay-at-home order, refusing to stop school and businesses from imposing mandates - rather, they just hear that Idaho’s economy is doing better than the rest of the country and we took “prudent” steps to stop the Covid-19 pandemic without going so far as blue states such as California, Oregon, and Washington. While he has not yet officially announced his candidacy for reelection, it seems likely that the race remains his to lose, barring any black swan events.
What then?
The office of governor is not the be-all end-all of political and social change. It would be great to have Governor Humphreys, Governor McGeachin, or even Governor Bundy shaking things up in Boise, but our fight continues no matter who occupies that position. A number of powerful Republicans in the State Legislature are blocking good legislation that would protect Idahoans from medical tyranny. The state bureaucracy is full of dutiful cogs in the political machine that must be exposed. Our city councils, school boards, and library boards often go ignored and end up occupied by people who are staunchly opposed to our values.
Even if Ed Humphreys, Janice McGeachin, and Ammon Bundy are not successful in their insurgent campaigns, each of them has something to add to the discussion, and a part to play in the battles to come. We must build upon this political insurgency and continue the fight in the years to come.
However, we still hold out hope for a victory here and now. Incumbency should not automatically grant reelection, and Governor Little must be challenged to defend his record. There are four long months left before Idaho Republicans vote in the primary, and I am looking forward to seeing a serious debate between all the primary candidates. All three have put tremendous amounts of energy into their campaigns, and there are a lot of potential voters who remain convincable. Anything can happen!
In the next newsletter I will look at some of the other insurgent campaigns against the Idaho political machine.
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Thank you for the write up. As a political refugee from CA and actively involved conservative, my family and I decided to support Ed Humphreys. I have heard all the candidates speak about their platforms and based on today's government special interest antics, we need a leader that can't be bought. We need a leader we can trust will do the right thing and not cater to his donors.
Ed was instrumental in exposing CRT in Idaho schools and exposing non profits that used state funds to continue CRT teachings. Ed was instrumental in getting Idaho to secure its elections after the 2020 election. Ed has been instrumental in exposing the special interest politicians, like Little, that catered to IACI by refusing to stop vaccine mandates in Idaho. Everyone needs to realize Idaho's voters are apathetic. Idaho voters need to start voting for strong leaders that won't sell their soul for money, power and popularity. ED HUMPHREYS NEEDS TO BE IDAHO'S NEXT GOVERNOR!
I appreciate your thoughts on each of the 3 contenders against Little. I am supporting Ed Humphreys for Governor. You are correct, that with relatively no name recognition, Ed has has a big hill to climb, traveling all over the State, pretty much every day, to spread his message. He has a grassroots support staff who, like you Brian, have known Ed through his work in the GOP and with legislators. And this is the thing. He's actually worked with legislators on bills that represent Conservative values. Let's face it, Janice and Ammon have alienated pretty much most of our current legislature, and unless RINO legislators are voted out en masse, electing either of those two will pretty much ensure endless EOs or vetoes to accomplish their goals. Then, add in a combo pack involving either Bedke or Giddings (both polarizing figures depending on which side of the Conservative aisle you stand), will only serve up another 4 years of a contentious government, not accomplishing anything of value for Idaho's working class citizens. I see Ed as the only real contender against Little, a person that will be able to accomplish what is needed for a truly Conservative Idaho- less Government intrusion into the liberties and bank accounts of Idahoans. I hope another month of vigorous campaigning and the power of 10 (spread the word) will work to inform others of his worthiness.