Voters made their voices loud and clear. It won’t be business as usual in American politics next year, and that includes Idaho. But the special interests who controlled the political landscape in our state for so long appear to have missed the memo.

Last week, virtually the entire Idaho Legislature gathered in North Idaho to learn about the businesses sustaining the Gem State’s economic engine. Instead, they got three days of lectures advocating for more kickbacks, government schools, subsidies, and welfare while demonizing freedom-first policies like school choice, parental rights, and self-reliance.

It seems Idaho’s cronies are in for a rude awakening in 2025.

Special interests had a rough election night just two short weeks ago. In addition to President Trump’s landslide victory — a deafening response to the establishment’s overreach — voters made sure Idaho’s politicians were well aware of their priorities.

An astonishing 21 legislators with an average Freedom Index score of 49.9% will not return to the Legislature next year. Many stood opposed to passing school choice, stemming illegal immigration, and trimming the welfare state.

Issues like education freedom, immigration, and parental rights were critical to voters. Legislators like Rep. Megan Blanksma, Sen. Geoff Schroeder, and Senate Pro Tem. Chuck Winder lost their seats in favor of candidates who ran on these issues.

Idahoans prioritized election integrity, ensuring that their voices are uncompromised by gamesmanship. They rejected the perverted system of ranked-choice voting and jungle primaries presented in Proposition 1 — which failed by over a 2 to 1 margin. They also passed an initiative with 65% support to ensure illegal immigrants will never be able to vote in Idaho’s elections. This preserves the value of citizenship and thwarts a great deal of election manipulation.

But special interests missed the gravity of that victory for conservatives. It seems they assumed these voters cast their ballots only to go dormant and leave their politicians unaccountable for the next four years.

Here is just a sampling of the policies that special interests lobbied for (or against) during the Legislative Tour:

School choice

At one point, school superintendents from the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls School Districts presented their demands to the Legislature. Of course, they advocated for more funding for public schools, as is typical in the education bureaucracy. They also highlighted their opposition to the freedom school choice would grant students as they — and the funding tied to them — leave the system.

These bureaucrats decried how a few children might be left behind in “unaccountable” systems but ignored the masses of children left behind in their system. Respectively, only 44% and 36% of students in Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene can read at grade level. Worse yet, only half of the students in either district are at least proficient in math. This translates to nearly 3,200 North Idaho students who can’t read and 4,200 who can’t do math — utterly devastating results for these children.

Thus, rather than making the case against school choice, these districts are prime examples of how badly it is needed.

Entitlements and handouts

Unfortunately, Idaho’s businesses are leaning on the welfare system to sustain their workforce, too.

An entire presentation from the North Idaho College Center for New Directions advocated for expanding — and greater funding for — the Idaho Child Care Program. This is the same program that over-promised welfare benefits while skirting legislative oversight, which ultimately drove the program into its current $16 million budget deficit. It is a contributor to the rising cost of childcare, not a way to relieve it.

Idaho Launch

North Idaho College President Nick Swayne presented how the college performs in career and technical education. But during the question-and-answer period, several lobbyists in the audience planted questions designed to promote the socialist scheme for free college, Idaho Launch.

Launch is a program that centrally plans the workforce based on what the state determines to be “in-demand careers.” Those “in-demand careers” are chosen by the Workforce Development Council, which is populated by industry bigwigs. Launch also makes no effort to provide awards based on merit. In the 2024 application cycle, the mean GPA among applicants was only 2.73 — a C+ average.

Parental rights

Hospitals are upset about the aims of parental rights bills banning healthcare providers from treating minors without parental consent — barring certain exceptions. This law was passed to prevent the medical establishment from requiring youth to make decisions about their health that they simply aren’t mature enough to make. 

Opponents of the bill want to see additional exceptions for key areas that would allow them to treat minors without parental consent, particularly for conditions of sexual health, mental health, and substance abuse. These are all areas where physicians previously abused public trust and forced the woke agenda on vulnerable youth.

Where to go from here?

Idahoans will not stand for this abuse of the system to pad the pockets of big business. The Founders never intended for the government to distribute charity, be a top investor, and provide welfare to the masses.

We expect many lawmakers to keep their promises, becoming champions for school choice, border security, tax relief, reduced spending, and financial independence in the 2025 legislative session — as they should! In the aftermath of the pandemic, voters have renewed vigilance over how their elected officials prioritize liberty and keep their promises.

But the establishment expects business as usual, where politicians make promises they never keep and champion cronyism at the expense of individual freedom. These organizations stand in direct opposition to the mandate given by voters this month. 

Idahoans made their position clear that they want to shrink government, lower taxes, and bolster freedoms. They voted against the establishment and to upend status-quo politics. Cronies didn’t get the message, but Idahoans will ensure that 2025 won’t be business as usual for them.