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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The post Statement from Terri Pickens: Thank you Governor Little for letting us know you don’t intend to run again appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

Honestly, it’s beyond baffling to watch Idaho’s far-right book-burners push around Idaho’s “traditional Republicans,” who rarely muster better than a Neville-Chamberlain-like courage. So, Idaho gets a state government that goes after librarians.

The fight should be an easy one too.

The professionals they are attacking are popular and they are trusted. An astounding 69% of Idahoans report they trust librarians to choose books for libraries (Idaho Public Policy Survey). That same poll shows that Idaho politicians are leading the way for an intolerant and inconsolable 23% minority of the state that doesn’t trust librarians.

Bear in mind, too, that politicians, like every one of the Idaho Republicans who pressed this bad law through the Legislature, are unpopular and untrusted. A whopping 59 percent of Americans say they distrust people in political life (Gallup survey).

So, these unpopular politicians press their unpopular attack.

One of the library attack sponsors, Sen. Cindy Carlson of Riggins, claimed the law is “fair to both sides of the issue.”

Look. I believe in fairness. As a lawyer, I make sure my clients are treated fairly. When I attend parent-teacher conferences, I make sure my kid is being treated fairly. When I feed my bird dogs, I make sure the bigger one doesn’t eat the smaller one’s food.

But “fairness” has nothing to do with it when one side is clearly wrong.

It is wrong to let Idaho’s far-right tell Idahoans what we can and cannot read. 

It is wrong for craven politicians to invent divisive issues for personal gain. 

It is wrong to call the people who oppose them supporters of obscenity.

Fairness? That’s a political ruse.

Brad Little has been a politician for ages and ages. He knows what’s going on here. And while he performs a waiting game to veto this bill—his deadline is Wednesday—he is signaling his far-right base that he takes their wrong-headed ideas “seriously.”

That’s also why Brad Little has not held another press conference to update Idaho on what he is doing about the racist attack on NCAA women’s basketball players in Coeur d’Alene. His mealy-mouthed assurance to the nation that Idahoans don’t support racism—when, clearly, racists harassed and harangued a team of college athletes who were trying to spend money at Idaho restaurants and hotels on an Idaho downtown street—was pathetic and embarrassing.

So here we are. Again.

Our governor is letting fools and fascists know that he’s being “fair” when he needs to show the state and the nation that he’s being “right.”

Veto the bill, immediately, Brad Little. Once you do that, let us know what exactly you are doing about the racists who are attacking innocent visitors to our state.

The post Governor dithers; Idaho reputation withers appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

“I apologize to the NCAA players, staff, and supporters of the Utah Utes who were targeted and threatened by an unforgivable racist attack this week in Coeur d’Alene. I extend my apology as well to the players of UC-Urvine who were also made to feel threatened and sought safe harbor outside of the Coeur d’Alene. I apologize to the city of Spokane and to the organizers of the NCAA tournament.

Today, I declare an end to the days where racists and others who share ideologies based on hate and bigotry feel at home in Idaho. You are unwelcome. It may be your right to fill your heart with malice and hatred, but it is an American right to live a life free of tyranny and fear. 

In the short-term, I am allocating as many resources as it takes to hunt down, identify, and prosecute the people responsible for this racist attack. Longer term, we will review Idaho laws and make them as punitive as necessary to dissuade this kind of public attack. Further, we will work with the NCAA to make sure no team ever has to feel unsafe traveling freely in America. Someday, it is my goal that people think of Idaho when they think of what it looks like to stand up to and defeat hate-filled ideologies and the people who would terrorize their neighbors.

Let me be clear, my office and most Idahoans consider any attempt to bully or belittle or harass someone based on their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religion to be reprehensible and criminal.

Public displays of racism, or the malicious targeting of any group for whatever malign bigoted purpose, will be a thing of the unfortunate past.

Today, I say “go away” to the racists and haters. Today, I say, “go to prison” to the racists and haters who terrorize their neighbors.”

–My name is Terri Pickens and I am running to be Idaho’s next governor. Like you I am tired of the mealy-mouthed platitudes of our current governor who is convinced that he has to placate far-right, anti-freedom extremists. Appeasement does not work. What works is a serious, courageous, transparent campaign to stamp out the forces of hate who are now terrorizing Idaho communities with impunity. Under my watch, Idaho will earn a reputation for true freedom, true liberty, and become a beacon for human rights. I am not bullied or confused by the far-right’s embrace of hatred. I am not deterred in my commitment to justice for all. Idaho needs a leader who will be a champion for human rights. I am that leader.

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