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.

The post Gov. Little Mandates Our Deaths appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

The nicest thing I can say about that convention is that, while the convention was terrible for freedom, it was great for irony!

The people who attended all have “freedom” and “liberty” tattooed to their shirts, bumpers, buttons, flags, and forearms. Yet, they re-elected an anti-freedom chairwoman, Dorothy Moon, and doubled-down revoking the last 100 years of gains for women’s rights.

One hundred years? Well, they didn’t propose revoking the 19^th Amendment, which guarantees a woman’s right to vote, but I doubt the idea offends them. They did pass a platform plank to revoke every Idahoan’s right to vote for Idaho’s U.S. senators.

In the post-Roe v. Wade era, only fools, appeasers, and cowards deny the danger that extreme, anti-freedom forces in the Republican Party pose.

As for specifically taking away the rights of women, these lovers of “freedom and liberty” declare that embryos are people and that abortions (with zero exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of a pregnant person) be classified as murders. Thus, their platform reads, “We support the criminalization of all murders by abortion within the state’s jurisdiction.”

That means no more in vitro fertilization, IVF.

Logic tells me there must be energy behind finding ways to allow the State to track, record, and intercept our mail. Otherwise, Idaho women still have freedom to buy abortion pills. And, the State will need to prosecute that illicit mailing as murder and attempted murder.

Does any of this feel remotely like freedom to you? Does it look like liberty?

It sure does to my opponent, current Gov. Brad Little.

Mr. Little just sent a fundraising letter declaring that he wants to “KEEP IDAHO RED.”  

Ironically, Mr. Little bragged about his Idaho Launch program, which provides workforce training grants, as proof that Idaho Dems aren’t helping. Come on, Brad. That’s nuts. Not only were Democrats crucial for passing that program, IDGOP Chair Moon and her anti-freedom flag wavers have declared they don’t want Idaho funding education past high school—that’s the Red State opposing good ideas, not Democrats.

It’s worth repeating: Moon and her red state radicals want to end state-funding for higher education. That’s Idaho Republicans proposing a HUGE TUITION HIKE on Idaho families.

It’s all very very bad. And, by now, this isn’t the absent rambling from Idaho’s lunatic fringe that we can ignore. These are policy objectives that Brad Little will let become law, even if he whines about it a little. These ideas are what Idaho Republican lawmakers will champion. These ideas could potentially become instruments of State oppression because a few people—out-of-touch, mean people who only love freedom when it’s written on a t-shirt—held secret deliberations for a couple days in Coeur d’Alene.

It’s true. I have nothing nice to say about Brad Little, or Dorothy Moon, or her beady-eyed gang of red state radicals dead set on taking away our rights.

So, my campaign will operate under this guideline: It doesn’t matter if you can’t say anything nice as long as you’re telling the truth.

The post Moon, Little, and the Red State Radicals Agree: Freedom’s Just a Word On T-Shirts appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

“Our governor is saying the rule of law doesn’t matter anymore,” Pickens said. “For years, Little and other Republicans have closed their eyes and covered their ears to all the shady, nasty, and cruel behavior surrounding Mr. Trump. But they always said he was innocent until proven guilty. They don’t have that excuse anymore.”

Pickens is an Idaho lawyer, Little is the leader of the executive branch of Idaho’s government. Little has spent his adult life as a career politician taking roles in and around the Capitol. Pickens, who owns a law firm, didn’t enter politics until 2022. She had been a Republican, and was even the target of political recruiting efforts by Idaho’s top elected Republicans. However, she left the party after its relentless attacks on the rights of Idaho’s LGBTQ citizens and basic women’s healthcare. She fights hard to reverse the loss of abortion rights after repeal of Roe v. Wade.

“Maybe Mr. Little has joined the parade of jesters trying out for the role of Mr. Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Brad can’t be running for governor.  You simply can’t claim that jury convictions do not matter and be trusted as Idaho’s top executive officer in charge of implementing those same laws and defending Idaho’s Constitution.”

Pickens added:

“It would have been courageous for Little to condemn Trump. It would have been reasonable to simply stay silent. By endorsing a felon for President, Mr. Little chose to betray his own oaths to defend the rule of law. To be clear, he made the cowardly choice to fend off radical, mean, anti-democratic members of his party.”

Idaho needs leaders who respect the rule of law. That is why Terri Pickens is the best choice to be Idaho’s next governor.

The post Press Release: Little Makes Cowardly Statement on Trump appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

That’s why I think Idaho should give a big “thank you” to Eric Posey of Post Falls for standing up to one of Idaho’s far-right lies.

Last week, an Idaho jury awarded Mr. Posey $1.1 million in a civil suit against a blogger who claimed Mr. Posey, a drag show performer, had exposed himself to children—which he did not do. The lie amounted to the sort of free speech abuse that former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes likened to yelling fire in a crowded theater. The blogger’s lie piggy-backed onto the “conservative” rhetoric of the day that accused good people of being “groomers.”

Among many propaganda projects hatched by far-right communication networks, the “groomer” ploy has been successful. Extremist groups have rallied to the cry to protect children from obscenity. That’s nonsense of course. We all live here. We know our libraries. We know our librarians. We trust them because they have earned our trust.

But the slurs have done their damage. During this year’s primary elections, Idaho’s majority party shifted even further to the right.

Still, I believe in the power of truth. I believe that in truth we find justice.

I am running for governor to fight for truth and justice. Together, we can stop the lies about librarians, school teachers, performers, LGBTQ  people, political opponents, and anyone who looks like an easy target for cruel, darkly funded, anti-democratic campaigns.

I am running for governor because I believe that all of us—the right, the middle, the left, and even the apolitical and disaffected—ALL OF US want fairness and respect and love.

I take heart knowing that the bloggers, the operatives, the haters, and the muckrakers, the whole steaming pile of them, are not so powerful as they would have us believe. Otherwise, why would they need to dishonestly label themselves with words like “Liberty” and “Freedom” and “Patriotic” and “Rights”?

If the truth about who you are is so repellent that you cannot be honest about that, then yours is not a movement that can last long.

Mr. Posey just won a battle. It’s up to the rest of us to continue the struggle.

The post Let’s Celebrate a Victory for Truth appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

“Bad governors sign bad laws. Terrible governors sign bad laws even when they know they shouldn’t.”

In 2023, when Mr. Little signed the law targeting transgender children, he said, “… as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.” Pickens, who was born in Pocatello and now owns a Boise-based law firm, said Republican politics is hurting Idaho kids:

“Mr. Little will interfere with parents’ medical decisions when it’s the divisive, anti-freedom bill of the day from the Idaho GOP’s unhinged Chair Dorothy Moon. If you want a lesson in hypocrisy, look at the years that Democratic legislators tried to require a religious sect in Idaho to get medical treatment for their children who die painfully of treatable ailments such as appendicitis or respiratory infections. Why not interfere with parents whose medical decisions are actually killing their kids? Why only interfere with parents who seek treatment that doctors recommend?

Instead of helping kids, Idaho far-right Republican lawmakers only help their party leaders. If that means transgender kids will be more likely to attempt suicide, they don’t care. If that means painful, preventable deaths for kids unlucky enough to be born into a religious sect that hates modern medicine, so be it.

Judging by the legislation they write, Idaho Republican leaders don’t care about kids. Their anti-abortion fervor that endangers the lives of Idaho women means they don’t care about adults either. Since the transgender law comes with a threat to imprison doctors for 10 years, they want to put a punctuation mark on it all.

Judging by what Governor Little lets become law, Republican leaders don’t care a bit about freedom.“

(For a sobering look at the results of Idaho’s religious medical exemption law, read “Idaho Religious Exemption Law: Unneeded death and suffering to children.”)

The post Gov. Little Lets Far-Right Republicans Kill Freedom and Kids appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

Pickens made the following statement:

“I want to thank Governor Little for announcing he’s not running for governor because he wouldn’t sign these terrible bills if he were listening to the thousands of people who begged him not to sign these laws. Little has no fight left in him and he won’t even stand up to the anti-freedom forces in the Idaho Republican Party that lets a few rigid, angry and mean voices dictate the agenda simply because they are frightened of them.

Good bye and good riddance, Mr. Little. You have missed your chance to lead with courage and dignity and instead you are leaving with a whimper – the dying gasps of the liberty we took for granted.

The list of repellent laws is long and consequences of Mr. Little timid leadership are already harming the lives of Idaho people. Doctors are leaving the state in droves for fear of being prosecuted for treating pregnant women. Businesses will find it much harder to compete for talent with other states that don’t paint targets on members of the LGBTQIA community. And don’t forget that Mr. Little still hasn’t let us know what—in real time—he is doing to address the dangerous, disastrous and disgusting racist attacks on collegiate athletes last month on a downtown Coeur d’Alene street.

So, thank you, Mr. Little, for not running again. You’ve done too much already.”

Pickens is a mother, a business owner, and multi-generational Idahoan who left the Idaho Republican Party when it became clear that the party was choosing to pursue dangerous policies that would attack freedom, target unpopular groups for political gain, and threaten our democracy.

xxx

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