The Idaho Republican Party will consider 31 resolutions at its three-day convention that begins Thursday, including one already approved by Texas Republicans that President Joe Biden is not the country’s rightful leader. Idaho’s resolution in the deeply conservative state that Donald Trump won with 64% of the vote in 2020 is nearly identical to the Texas resolution passed last month, declaring: “We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election. And we believe that the current president, Joseph Robin Biden, was not lawfully elected by the people of the United States.” Both the Idaho and Texas resolutions argue that the secretaries of state overrode their state legislatures, even though both states have Republican secretaries of state. Jim Jones, a former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court and former Republican state attorney general, called the resolution rejecting the 2020 presidential election results “unconscionable,” noting that many courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected attempts to overturn the election. “(The Idaho Republican Party) has gotten so caught up in conspiracy theories, meaningless culture war issues, that they’ve stopped functioning as a meaningful political party,” he said. “We need to get out of this authoritarian streak that has infected the Idaho Republican Party, as well as much of the nation, because it is tearing our country apart.” Idaho’s resolution goes further than Texas’ resolution by falsely stating that audits found vote counts for the 2020 elections were rigged in Wisconsin and Arizona. In Wisconsin, claims of voter fraud have been dismissed by the courts or rejected by the state’s bipartisan election commission. In Arizona, where Republicans submitted a list of fraudulent voters, Trump supporters hired inexperienced consultants to perform a discredited “forensic audit.” FBI agents probing the events surrounding Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss recently subpoenaed the Republican president of the Arizona Senate, who orchestrated a discredited election review. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump ally, even accused Idaho of allowing voter fraud. But Idaho’s secretary of state said the partial recount validated the accuracy of the 2020 results. Among the Idaho Republican Party’s other proposed resolutions this week is a resolution calling for “fantasy identities” not to be recognized, a resolution aimed at transgender people. Multiple resolutions involve voting, many focusing on people who aren’t considered to have voted enough Republican in the Republican primary. One resolution, titled “A Resolution to Protect Rural Representation,” calls for changing Idaho’s system for state elections to a national-style electoral college, a process that sometimes results in candidates winning without receiving the most votes . Trump, for example, in 2016 defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by winning more electoral college votes despite losing the popular vote by about 3 million votes. The proposed system for Idaho would count electoral votes by counties. Such a change in Idaho would require changing the state constitution. Among the Idaho Republican Party’s other proposed resolutions this week is a resolution calling for “fantasy identities” not to be recognized, a resolution aimed at transgender people. Another proposed resolution calls for the privatization of Idaho Public Television, a longtime goal of far-right Republicans. The Idaho Republican Party will also elect officers during the rally. First incumbent Tom Luna, who served two terms as the state’s superintendent of schools, is being challenged by Republican Rep. Dorothy Moon. Moon ran unsuccessfully in the May Republican primary for secretary of state, arguing that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that Biden was not president. Idaho’s ruling Republicans, who would be considered far-right in many states, have dominated the state for three decades. But they have been targeted by far-right members of their own party and labeled as RINOs – Republicans in Name Only. The May primaries were a mixed bag for the two groups, and the power struggle will likely continue into the convention. In the primary, first-time incumbent Gov. Brad Little crushed Trump supporter Janice McGitchin, and most statewide races went to more mainstream Idaho Republicans. But Raul Labrador, a Tea Party favorite during his eight years in the U.S. House, defeated five-term Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, known for his strategy of simply shouting balls and punches that often angered his Republican colleagues when he was giving them legal advice they didn’t want to hear. Several far-right lawmakers in the House lost their seats, but the Senate became decidedly more conservative with across-the-board losses that included the co-chairman of the legislature’s powerful budget-setting committee. The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
