To paraphrase: A New York felon who leads a shady gang of billionaires is gutting our national security, relief programs for hungry kids, and our expert federal workforce so they can pay themselves more money (“tax breaks” is the term of art). And, that New York felon loves seeing the same thing happening to Idaho!

To be clear, President Trump only cares about Idaho schools because he wants all states to follow his lead on gutting public education. His goal is to end public education altogether. Gut the department of education nationally – check! Now onto the states –  check! Thanks, Brad Little.

Don’t let them fool you–it’s not alarmist to call this out. In fact, I’ve been warning for years that Brad Little and his puppeteers have been working on this. 

It’s simple math. The GOP supermajority wants to give money to their wealthy cronies, who are affiliated with private, usually religious schools. (The bonus is that they buy the loyalty of parents this way too). They shift that money from public schools. It’s $50 million this time. Does anyone really think that’s a cap?

If you are interested, let me go a little more deeply into how the school voucher program works to hurt Idaho kids:

School vouchers drain funding from public schools, which rely heavily on local and state taxes. When students head for private options, the money follows them. This cuts money available to run, staff, and maintain the local public schools. These schools, particularly rural ones, already struggle with overcrowded classrooms, outdated facilities, and insufficient educational materials. So, the funding loss makes it even harder for public schools to offer high quality education. This fuels a cycle of disinvestment and declining standards. Oh, and say goodbye to things like sports, clubs, and after school programs. That’s where cuts come first.

School vouchers weaken the public education system. Public schools serve students from various socioeconomic backgrounds, races, and abilities, providing an equitable education regardless of a student’s circumstances. School vouchers starve this opportunity-creating system by shifting resources to private institutions that have lower accountability standards. Private schools do not adhere to the same, high standards of public schools, such as teacher certification, curriculum requirements, and access for students with disabilities. Lack of oversight decreases educational quality for private-school students, especially those with special needs or those from marginalized communities. Cuts to public schools makes it harder for them to serve a diverse student population as well.

Count on school vouchers to exacerbate inequality by benefiting wealthier families. That bears repeating: School vouchers help the wealthy while harming the poor.

Trump and today’s new brand of billionaire robber barons have captured our federal government and they love the all-GOP, all-the-time make up of Idaho’s state government.

Shifting money from the public schools to the private and religious schools favors the rich and hurts the poor and that’s why Trump likes it. Brad Little? Who knows. He’s not known for his courage, so it’s likely that he’s just scared to death of Idaho MAGA. And, he’s probably scared of the President. Or, maybe he really doesn’t care about Idaho kids.

It doesn’t really matter what drives our governor. What matters is that he is complicit, and acts enthusiastic, about a terrible terrible school voucher program that can only hurt kids and destroy our education system that has a long history of helping America find her “best and brightest” hidden among our poorest and most disadvantaged populations.

The post HB93 – Making the Rich Richer? appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

Yes, back in 2016, before the first Trump Administration, Michelle Obama advised, “When they go low, we go high.” That didn’t work. MAGA has bitten every hand offered to them and in the past 8 years they have dived lower than we ever imagined possible.

We need to stop them. That means fighting back. And, I can tell you, right now that’s a real problem for freedom-loving Americans. Too many of our champions are conflicted, or just plain in denial, and keep pretending like the old decorum still exists. It doesn’t. Right now, we need champions to fight an onslaught of cruel chaos from free-wheeling billionaires who are on the verge of taking everything from us. 

I am a leader who will not cower and quail. I tell it like it REALLY is. 

And, look just how much Idaho Republicans are to mistreat and endanger the lives of regular people like you and me. Here are the recent priorities: 

• Slash Medicaid–that’s healthcare for poor kids (if their poor parents are too old for Idaho’s famous empathy).
• Give your tax dollars to private and religious schools–any legislator who claims this isn’t a public schools cut is exactly the kind of shameless liar that can go places in today’s BIG MAGA government. 
• Criminalize Abortion: it’s healthcare, period. It’s healthcare that also revolutionized a woman’s chances at having meaningful lives, giving us new paths toward freedom from poverty. Don’t like women’s rights? Then you don’t like women. And if it’s your religion that advises you to treat women like chattel, that’s why I don’t want my tax dollars paying for your cruel religious school.
• Let Brad Little veto ballot initiatives–when all of the power is in the Executive, you have the kind of government that Italy’s Benito Mussolini is credited for starting. He called it fascism. A youngish Adolf Hitler once sent Benito a fan letter about how great he thought fascism was. Brad already abuses the power he has: he and his MAGA overlords don’t need more.

And Let me say this loud and clear to everyone: I told you so! 

Too many of our leaders were cordial; they fretted over how to get along with our MAGA neighbors; and talked about the niceties of tradition, compromise, and decorum when we should have been fighting tooth and nail. If you don’t stand up to bullies, they keep bullying.

So, no. Now is not the time to be nice. 

The examples of the folly of being nice to this bunch are too many to list. But I think once Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade it was a clear sign that, in politics (or Monopoly or Poker or … name the game), cheating with impunity is the side that wins. Everytime. Last year, SCOTUS declared that the convicted felon who is right now installing an army of thieves, miscreants, and dilettantes to lead our country can go ahead and commit crimes (aka, cheat all he wants) with impunity.

Nice hasn’t worked. Nice won’t work.

I will likely get much louder and more vigilant as we all see with our own eyes the destruction that is happening in Idaho and in this country.  As I watch the marginalized get trampled, the LGBTQIA+ community attacked, women told that it’s “your body, my choice” all the while a small handful of rich men take over this country as an oligarchy and do Nazi salutes on national television. Yeah, count me out of being nice. Our society is falling apart, so now is not the time for being docile and nice. The most dignified and loving action right now is to speak the truth.

Instead, I commit to the following:

• I will loudly support the LGBTQIA+ community
• I will show up for people of color when they are being attacked
• I WILL PROTECT WOMEN
• I will fight for kids to get a chance to be healthy, educated, and free.
• I will oppose attempts by the Idaho GOP and federal government–and the MAGA faction that put them in power–to further infringe on the rights of all of us citizens.

Pay attention to this moment in our history and think hard about what is happening. I have.The trendline is clear and if things keep going the way they seem to be going, soon we may all be committing crimes just by speaking our minds–whether we are nice about it or not.

The post I will “tone it down” when we get back our rights appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

My opponent, Gov. Brad Little, decided that former President Carter did not deserve to have the flag lowered for 30 days as a show of respect.

That’s petty. 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we have to venerate our political leaders as though they are demigods. But I do think it unites our country to honor the memories of those who came before us. 

Of course, Mr. Little was also defying a presidential executive order by making the decision to fly flags at full staff. The idea wasn’t his own. Only after Mr. Little traveled to Mar a Lago—short-brimmed, white cowboy hat in hand—to kiss the ring of our new president, did he decide to fly the flag high for the first-ever felon to be elevated to our nation’s top post.

That’s tyranny.

I assure you that if I am governor when Mr. Trump dies, I would not fly flags at full-staff. (I hope I am not defying some new executive order by imagining the world without our new president). Obviously, I wouldn’t fly the flag half-staff because I had thought of the president as highly as he thinks of himself. I would do it out of common decency. I would do it out of respect for our customs. I would do it to honor the solemnity of the occasion.

Mr. Little marked Mr. Trump’s presidential start with a soft, wealthy man’s act of defiance. It’s an act of privilege and selfishness. An uncourageous defiance of the law by a man who knew he would not suffer any ill consequences. Don’t even get me started on the blanket pardon of over a thousand insurrectionists responsible for the deaths of police officers and the desecration of our nation’s capital.

Unfortunately, the petty games of the privileged men and women (let’s face it … still mostly men) in charge of our country matter to the rest of us. 

The wealthy elite make rules that help themselves. They make rules that punish their enemies. When those laws help the rest of us, it is only by accident and never by design.

As we move forward, we need to be very clear: the Republican Party leaders have discarded anything but the pretense of being “the party of law and order.” Understand, that flag flown full-staff on January 20 (and given the patina of legality with a new presidential order demanding full-staff flags for the day) was a symbol of what is to come for the rest of us: a great struggle for Justice.

With so many of our elected leaders—such as Mr. Little—bending the knee to lawlessness, those of us who seek justice will need to be brave, and true, and strong.

The post The Lawlessness Begins appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

(First rule is “me and my wealthy buddies come first.)

Poor Mr. House Speaker Mike Moyle can’t live by the Second Rule any longer. That’s why he is talking about fixing an actual, real problem that hurts us all. The problem? Dark Money in elections.

Sound familiar? It should. Folks have sounded the alarm for years after the US Supreme Court Citizen’s United ruling let corporations and nonprofits spend big dollars electing candidates. That means Political Action Committees (PACs)—(whose names usually include words like “truth”, “freedom,” “America,” and “conservative”)—now run smear campaigns where transparency has gone from shady to pitch black.

A well-seasoned old political goat like Moyle wasn’t troubled by this until last year when it finally became his problem. In the closed Republican primary, PACs spent nearly $190,000 to beat Moyle.

Moyle told the Lewiston Tribune he wants to stop PACs from “saying something that’s not truthful and then hiding how much they spent, where they spent it, and what they did until after the election when it’s too late to counter it.” Poor little fella. It hurts when your frenemies turn on you, doesn’t it? If I don’t sound empathetic, it’s because I am not.

For a dozen years, the meanest, crookedest, stupidest kinds of campaigns have elected the meanest, crookedest, stupidest kinds of politicians. Moyle didn’t care because he kept getting re-elected and his party became the undisputed heavyweight chumps of every branch of Idaho government.

But one-party rule can’t stand long before it starts to fall under its own weight. Now that Moyle is at the top of this mess, it’s finally his problem.

If we get some good policy changes because the self-interests of Speaker Moyle accidentally align with the self-governing interests of the public, great!

Be clear, this good policy work isn’t for us taxpaying Idaho citizens, it’s for Moyle. And, he is a model for his whole party—especially those who are trying to chop him down.

This matters because of the other issues at the forefront this year. 

For instance, my opponent, Gov. Brad Little, wants to spend tax dollars on private, religious schools (if this sounds okay, pretend it’s for a religion that you don’t like). He has taken the position … Gosh, the program will be fine! We’ll do good! No way will it blow up in our faces … until well after you finally vote to retire me.

Yes. Brad lives by the Second Rule too.

In the meantime, our best defense is one where we keep the whole team on the field all the time. I encourage everyone to find creative ways to make sure that the politicians who are mismanaging our state finally all end up where Moyle is.

Let’s all work to make sure our problems are “their problems” too.

The post Second Rule of Idaho Politics: If it’s not my problem, it’s not my problem appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

As governor, I would fight this attack on a minority group—the LGBTQIA+ community—for the following reasons:

• It makes zero sense to take rights away from people who harm no one.
• Leaders should not kneel to the insatiable demands of a powerful group, with a self-proclaimed religious mandate, especially when that same group demands that the government honor their “religious freedom”—be assured, many religious folks support marriage equality.
• It is disgusting for crass politicians to inflame the passions of their most vociferous supporters for political gain.
• It is puny and cruel to create laws that give one class of people more rights than another based on who they love—this Apartheid for the LGBTQIA+ community.
• This bill is part of a noxious nationwide effort to set American rights back 165 years, or so, and turn America into the kind of theocracy that once burned innocent women in Salem for political gain.
• The only debate here is just how much freedom do our lawmakers think is too much freedom for the people who elected them.

On a personal note, I am a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, mother of a gay daughter, and friends with so many in the queer community whom I love and admire. We all know that printing this bill is a direct attack on our Civil Rights. Voting to give this bill the platform of a hearing in our Capitol breathes life into some of the darkest political and societal impulses that history warns can only have ugly, dangerous consequences for all of us.

To say that I am disappointed would be a gargantuan understatement.

The post I oppose the decision to print a bill seeking to outlaw same-sex marriage in Idaho appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

One kind of “freedom” in Idaho is being called “school choice” or “parental choice.” There’s nothing wrong with “choices.” But politicians are debasing, defunding, and dead-ending public education to pay for their so-called choice. It’s absolutely unnecessary, and it’s needlessly cruel to thousands of kids. But the corrupted political leaders have worked hard to make us believe you can only have good public education or good private education—not both. And at this point, they aren’t even hiding behind words like “choice”, they have decided to make your choices for you. So what if you can’t afford private school for your family. They don’t care.

These elected Idaho GOP officials are thieves, stealing your freedoms, and now your public school dollars. Thieves? Basically, yes. What is really happening is that corrupt politicians have discovered that the ghost-givers behind rightwing Super PACs will shovel them tons of campaign dough—just look at the millions that lined their pockets this last campaign cycle—as well as jobs and perks for their friends and families. The hitch is that the private donors will only give big if politicians funnel our tax dollars to them in return. One example: Prager University. Need I say more? Well I will.

It’s a simple scam. But Idaho politicians are fully in charge and they aren’t going to tattle on each other. It helps to have full collusion with the governor’s office, the attorney general, the Legislature, and don’t count on the judiciary staying independent forever either. In fact, they would prefer that we all just stay out of their “business” and continue our straight-ticket, party-line voting because they sure have relied on that for years. And why wouldn’t they? It seems to be working for them.

I know we’re all pretty worn out after being hammered for political attention for the past year. I am not suggesting that you do anything right now. Relax. Enjoy the holidays with family and loved ones. Recover. We are all going to need our strength and stamina to survive the whirlwind that will be the next two years.

So when the middle of January rolls back around, be ready to stand up for yourself and your families—Lord knows there are scarce few politicians who will stand up for you. (And I am so grateful for those who will, but they are vastly outnumbered.)

By then, when you hear Idaho legislators bad-mouthing teachers, or threatening to pass bills to raise your kids for you, or passing laws about what you can read, or telling you that your boys are one trip to the school nurse from becoming girls, or that the school historian’s section on the Civil War is a Marxist plot, or calling you a pedophile because they are completely devoid of any actual moral compass, all the while insisting on kids being read the Bible in public schools, then it will be time to engage. Folks, I thought we dealt with this nonsense seventy-five years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court said no thank you to prayer in school. All that nasty rhetoric will be your cue that they are unabashedly coming after your kids’ learning experience, your town’s gymnasium, your school library, and your reasonably sized classrooms.

And, they’re not just going to gobble up and divert the money from your schools either … that increase in the property tax on your home? Sales tax on your groceries? The gays, and the immigrants, and the universities didn’t do that. The all-powerful political machine that runs this state did —and, frankly, they look like they’re just getting started. So buckle up. We’re in for one hell of a ride.

I am sure you agree with me. That’s an awful big price for “freedom” in Idaho.

The post Freedom Shouldn’t Cost This Much appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

When I do check my campaign’s Instagram and Facebook, this freedom-loving candidate for governor of a state where Republican politicians are systematically stripping the basic rights of people who don’t have their vast riches and connections, or who don’t think religious fanaticism is a good excuse for forcing women to give birth or die trying, or who are well on their way to destroying our most effective pathway for people to escape poverty—public education—well, I love to scroll Instagram to engage with friends and supporters who aren’t willing to sacrifice freedom for … Electoral greed? Religious hegemony? Fascistic fashion trends?

Yet, as much as I want to dance in digital sunshine, the internet’s algorithm goblins keep stuffing my news feeds with gloom. That’s how an unplanned bout of doomscrolling dredged up the ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Thompson’s classic election-year novel, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, is NOT a piece of writing that will make you feel better. In fact, it’s a pre-internet version of doomscrolling. Thompson wrote for the Rolling Stone as he followed the Democratic presidential primary.

What’s amazing about the 1972 reporting is the same life-or-death urgency that we feel today: Kamala v. Trump.

Voters are worried about wars maiming and killing America’s youth. Voters don’t understand how their political lions meekly put party over politics. Voters feel betrayed by being forced to choose between someone unhinged and corrupt versus someone sane … they always want a choice between two sane candidates. Voters are battered with emotional distractions, crude insults, and outright lies.

And, at the end of the ’72 election, Nixon, the cheating criminal, won—only to resign two years later. We all know that today’s Congress will not hold the felon on the 2024 ballot to account, ever. That’s just galling.

I made it about 60 pages into this book and then put it down.

The truth is, today we have a great candidate for president who has worked to uphold the laws of the land. Someone from America’s middle class. Someone who believes that Americans who disagree with her are still Americans. Someone who isn’t beholden to billionaires out to buy their very own corrupt and cruel fascist.

Still, as a former Republican, my enthusiasm for Kamala Harris is tempered with my deep sense of betrayal by Republican political leaders. Why on earth did they field a presidential candidate who is so mean, senile, and criminal?

Vice President Kamala Harris is a great candidate any year. This year, she’s the only candidate we can trust to lead America with true greatness.

Please vote.

The post Fear and Loathing 2024 appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

I thrive on adversity. The tougher it gets, the tougher I get.

But I was pleasantly surprised to find out this summer what a national campaign filled with actual JOY would feel like. How wonderful it was to have young people so energized. My own campaign has benefited with an uptick in volunteers contacting me and offering to help.

And seriously, the immutable Mr. Trump just became MORE himself—he seemed to have become focused on displaying his meanest, smallest, puniest traits as if Americans weren’t already fully decided on which president they’d least enjoy having over for non-NC-17 rated family function.

As much as Trump spun out – “They are eating the pets!”—Kamala stepped up.

She let Trump’s temper tantrum scare off a whole season worth of hurricane’s from Mar-a-largo (I half-wonder if Trump is underestimating Hurricane Helene because it’s a woman’s name) and went about the business of showing us what a person of substance might offer as a leader.

And seriously Trump isn’t just a foil, he’s truly “perfect.” Consider Taylor Swift’s well-reasoned and sober endorsement of Kamala. For millions of Swifies–aka brand new voters–Swift wrote:

I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.

Trump turned his foil super powers on Taylor Swift with this very august and dignified missive:

“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”

With the race so close, I have to keep reminding myself that we live in a world where a lot of us get completely different information. The “truth” on Truth Social is exactly the opposite of truth by most reliable objective standards. Since about a third of America and a substantial chunk of the Republican party have abandoned facts and logic in favor of fantasy-backed, white fever homilies about a great America that never existed, well, the presidential election is close when it should not close at all.

I don’t care. I am excited and encouraged by the joy and love that has risen to inspire people to participate. I believe good judgment will prevail. I believe love will heal our fractured nation.

I believe that we won’t go back.

The post Feel the Joy, Finally appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

A politician like Brad Little can be slippery because he can seem like a good-natured son of Idaho wealth. But it helps to pay attention to the people who he takes the greatest pains to please:

These people outlawed abortion in Idaho.

These people want to imprison doctors who give basic reproductive care.

These people want to outlaw women from traveling out of state for healthcare.

These people want to outlaw contraception.

These people don’t want parents to protect children from gun crime.

These people won’t protect children from cults that deny them life-saving medical care.

These people want to tell us what books we should read.

These people call us “pedophiles” if we oppose their anti-freedom attack on libraries.
These people fight to keep the minimum wage low.

These people fight against workers’ rights to organize.

These people don’t want sick people to have medical marijuana.

These people take millions from oil lobbyists and will not support alternative energy.

These people fight against laws to protect Idaho’s pure public waters.

These people complain about forest fires but won’t budget to fight them.

These people want to sell public lands.

These people say climate change is a liberal hoax.

These people call the rioters who desecrated our Capitol on January 6 “heroes.”

These people try to fix their friends’ “problems” by throwing money at them.

These people fix schools by starving them to death.

These people hate that facts refute their worldview.

These people want to censor public colleges and universities.

These people call human rights for LGBTQ people “special” rights.

These people call human rights for people of color “special” rights.

These people are confused.

These people are mean.

These are the people who Gov. Brad Little was talking to this week when he signed an executive order to bully transgender girls and women out of sports. He is them.

The post Brad Little’s People Fight the Bad Fight appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

By jeering a jury that convicted Mr. Trump of financial crimes related to his tryst with a porn star, Mr. Little endorsed a plan to tyrannize the American people. That plan is detailed in a 900-page manifesto called Project 2025:  Read it here.

Project 2025 removes scientific data from decision-making, appeases cruel anti-abortion zealots, ignores climate change, impoverishes the poor while enriching the rich, and much more.

That’s fine with Mr. Little.

Later, we can explore other parts of Project 2025, but for now let’s look at abortion.

Idaho’s cruel anti-abortion law, which violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), was appealed to the US Supreme Court. Last week, SCOTUS punted. For now, they won’t say whether doctors must let women die rather than give life-saving abortion care. I’m sure SCOTUS will let us know sometime after the 2024 Presidential election.

For now, EMTALA requires hospitals that get federal funds to provide life-saving care, including abortions. Project 2025 would change that by having the federal government stop enforcing EMTALA.

When Mr. Little supports Project 2025 (and Idaho’s abortion bans), he supports letting women die—women who could be saved. Period. There is no “alternative” fact. Mr. Little supports the most radical anti-women’s medical care laws in history. That’s because Idaho politicians ignored the best medical science in our world’s history when they created those laws.

Think about it. What’s more radical than a “just let her die” philosophy? What’s more radical than forcing doctors NOT to save a woman who can be saved?

Our state government mandates our deaths. Our elected leaders passed the laws to create that death mandate. These were leaders who we elected to lead us because we trusted them.

It’s a stunning betrayal. And it makes no sense to me.

Don’t we all know some women—love some women—who could easily need abortion care to save their lives? Don’t Republican politicians love their mothers, their sisters, their daughters? I can’t imagine otherwise.

What political-zealotry drives Idaho’s elected leaders to outlaw the choice of life for pregnant women?

What leader forces a woman to rely on faith-healing when she would much rather rely on medical science?

What leader forces women to die?

And to think, these anti-medical science laws are what Mr. Little and other Republican leaders call “conservative ideas.” These laws that kill us.

There’s plenty more that’s bad about Project 2025. For instance, it has nothing to say about protecting birth control options from anti-reproductive-care zealots who have taken over Republican parties in Idaho and other states. That leaves people in states where zealotry reigns at the mercy of laws that ban abortion care, birth control, in vitro fertilization, and anything to do with a woman holding sovereignty over her body.

That’s fine with Mr. Little.

Of course, there’s more. Project 2025 also proposes that doctors, doulas and nurses NOT be taught how to give abortion care. And the Department of Justice will hunt down anyone who mails abortion pills.

In a way Mr. Little has created another situation where we have no choice. By backing laws that will kill us, he has made the outcome of the election a matter of life or death.We have no choice but to win.

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