That’s what the group, 50501, is all about. And that’s why I am asking people to help build this movement. Of many things we can do to help, one tactic is very hard for me–welcome back those folks who have been hurt by MAGA.

I admit it: I am a true F Around and Find Out kind of gal. If you vote for criminal idiocy and then you become a victim of criminal idiocy, the voice in my head is screaming a loud, righteous, “I told you so!”

But vendettas and grudges are the MAGA way. If we are to reclaim our country, our state, and our communities, we need to recruit folks to join the struggle. That means extending grace. It means extending understanding and compassion to past MAGA supporters who have been stung by the outrageous policies.

A caveat: I am not talking about the 15% who make up the cutlish core of Trumpers who are filled with bile and hatred. I’m talking about our friends, our neighbors, our family members who may have just been hoodwinked by the idea of a different style of politics.

For the 50501 Movement to succeed it will be built, in part, on the understanding of where MAGA found its strength. Ironically, MAGA unified around the idea of division. That division created disunity. In disunity grew the chaos they needed to hoodwink ordinary people into thinking that billionaires have their best interests at heart. In disunity, MAGA appealed to society’s most venal impulses and ignored our better angels.

As painful as it is to see an authoritarian regime attack Americans, we must embrace some of those who empowered them. 

Our basic values will guide us. After all, hatred or exclusion have no place in our shared future. And we can acknowledge that, to some, the MAGA movement was more than just a political ideology; it was a movement that promised to listen, to hear them. They felt they were voiceless–and sometimes they were. They felt they were powerless–and sometimes they were. MAGA promised. They believed. 

So, how do we bring these folks back into the fold?

First, we must listen. People will not trust us if we are unwilling to listen to their stories. We must listen to listen to why they supported certain policies or leaders. Listen to their concerns, their fears, and their hopes. We must give them space to reflect and speak freely without judgment.

Second, we must offer empathy and forgiveness. Bitterness or retribution will not heal our divided country. We truly believe in the values of inclusivity. And that means creating a path for people to return. That means giving them the dignity of redemption. We can acknowledge their mistakes without erasing their humanity.

Third, we should focus on shared goals and values. We must find areas where our hopes for a better nation align. Whether it’s the desire for a robust economy, equitable healthcare, or safer communities, there is common ground waiting to be found. Working together on tangible solutions will build trust once more.

Lastly, we must lead with love, patience, and resilience. There is no quick fix to political polarization. But when we extend our hand with the belief that we can grow together, even in disagreement, we create a foundation for long-lasting unity. It is easy to keep people at arm’s length, to mock them for their past choices, but it takes courage to invite them back into the conversation.

This is NOT easy. We admire courage because it is difficult. But we can do this. We can forgive. We can find the wisdom to understand. We can overcome anger, and fear, and resentment, to recreate the vision of a nation of people unified in their pursuit of liberty and justice. We can recreate an American Way that leads–once again–to an American dream of prosperity and peace for all. 

Let us be the generation that rises above division, that reaches out to those who may have once felt lost, and guides them back into the fold with grace and love.

The post My take on the state of our democracy? appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl is an American hero for showing us that there is no difference between those who perpetrate evil and those who idly watch it happen.

So, last weekend, Dr. Borrenpohl went to a public town hall meeting as a constituent of the Republican legislators for her district. As the lawmakers crowed about their deeds, Dr. Borrenpohl yelled from the crowd. Her words quickly brought down the wrath of off-duty Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris and three plain-clothed goons. The men set upon her, forced her to the floor, zip-tied her hands, and viciously dragged her out of the public forum.

What was her sin? Why did the local GOP order their goons to violate her constitutional and fundamental rights? She yelled the wrong free speech:  “Women are dying.”  

Women ARE dying in Idaho because we have been stripped of our right to access fundamental medical care. For telling the truth, Dr. Borrenpohl was assaulted and, get this, charged with battery and trespassing.  (Thankfully, the Coeur d’Alene police department and Kootenai County Prosecutor reversed course and have since dismissed all charges against Dr. Borrenpohl.)

But what about the REST of the folks sitting in that auditorium?  Those who clapped and cheered when she was violently forced face-down on the floor and sat on by two paramilitary men? The goons, of course, did what goons do when a government turns them loose on its people. BUT WHAT OF THE ONES WHO SAT IN SILENCE? What of those who cheered like this is all a damn sport? Let me remind you what Abraham Lincoln had to say:

“Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.”

And, for the women who cheered this assault on, I share the sentiments of the late-Madam Secretary Madeleine Albright who said:  

“There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”  

Nazi Germany in the late 30s and early 40s had Mein Kampf and Musselini’s Italy to guide their descent into darkness. Today, Idaho elected GOP officials have a plan called Project 2025.

What does Project 2025 look like for Idaho? It looks like government-sanctioned attacks on women who won’t behave. It looks like partisan mobs cheering while those women are dragged–shirts torn, zip-tied, bruised and helpless–by brutish men without pity or compassion or independent thought. It looks hellish. 

When will the silent majority use its voice, stand up, and start slapping down those folks that are cheering the loss of our fundamental rights and freedoms?

When will we STOP letting GOP leaders and lawless Sheriffs attack us for using “free speech”?

As I have previously stated, this is not the time to play nice. This is the time where we all need to be standing up for our fellow citizens and for ourselves. We NEED more Dr. Borrenpohls. Now more than ever.

Who’s with me?

The post The Axis of Evil 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.

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.

“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.

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.

The post Statement from the Idaho Governor that We Need: appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

I knew I could be a rational voice in the Capitol. I could stop the chaos. I could stand up to extremists. My values of honesty, fairness, and courage would guide me.

Now, I am running against House Speaker Scott Bedke. He eked out a 51% primary win over a deeply flawed opponent. Mr. Bedke is unpopular because he spent 20 years ignoring the public’s needs while lavishing tax breaks on his corporate backers. He let a fierce desire for power guide him. And he let extremists takeover the House to hang onto that power.

A Lewiston Tribune opinion, “On Bedke’s Watch, Idaho’s House Burned,” described it this way:

“Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Terri Pickens Manweiler raised a salient point Friday during a statewide televised debate with her GOP rival, House Speaker Scott Bedke.

On Bedke’s decade-long watch, the Idaho House devolved into even more extremism. How is he not responsible for that? And why would that recommend him for a promotion?

“My opponent sat back in the House with his gavel and stayed silent while the minority of extremists became the loudest voice in the Legislature,” Pickens Manweiler said. “And he thinks that’s earned him the gavel in the Senate. It has not.”

The House speaker is without equal in the Legislature. The various committee chairmen and chairwomen serve at his pleasure. He controls his own panel, the House Ways and Means Committee, where he can launch or kill any bill he pleases.“

I recently read a quote, attributed to Teddy Roosevelt, that describes the difference between the two of us:

         “Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

I am here today as the best choice for Lieutenant Governor. I have the right experience, the right temperament, and I have a powerful love for this state and the people here.

I know what’s right. I do what’s right.

If you haven’t voted already, I ask for your vote this Tuesday. For those who have already voted for me, I am deeply grateful. And thank you so much for allowing me the great honor of running to be Idaho’s next Lieutenant Governor.

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