Democrats believe that a right-wing overreach by Republicans presents them with an opportunity to pick up legislature seats in deep-red Idaho.
Dozens of left-leaning candidates are seeking statewide office as part of a recruitment strategy that has put a Democrat on the ballot in every district in the state for the first time in at least 30 years. It follows the GOP supermajority's enactment of a strict abortion ban, limited LGBTQ+ rights and a proposal to jail librarians for circulating books they don't like, reported Politico.
“You can’t win if you don’t run,” said legislative candidate Loree Peery, a retired nurse running as a long shot against far-right incumbent Heather Scott, who recently pushed to expand a law against cannibalism prompted by a hoax video.
“It forces the Republicans to work, it forces [Scott] to get out there and talk to people so they can see what she’s about. It forces Republicans to spend more resources on the races.”
Republican overreach has motivated Democrats in other conservative states, including Iowa, North Carolina and Tennessee, to run for legislative office, and they've flipped chambers in recent elections in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, but Republicans still hold 55 percent of state legislative seats nationally.
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“It’s really been a hair-on-fire situation, even for people who are not historically Democrats,” said Idaho state Rep. Ilana Rubel, the Democratic minority leader. “[Republicans] have really overshot the mark in a big way and we’ve seen in other states when Republican supermajorities do this, they can lose.”
Democrats began recruiting candidates last spring, and recent public opinion polling found a majority of respondents feel that Idaho is on the wrong track, and the top reason they cited was the GOP's conservative supermajority.
“I would always say to people, there is no cavalry coming to save us here in Idaho, and it’s getting worse and worse every year,” said Jared DeLoof, the state Democratic Party's new executive director. “The place they want to take us is really scary and we can’t take it lying down. That really resonated.”