Idaho Freedom Caucus announces it will ‘follow its own path’

The Idaho Freedom Caucus is going its own way and splitting from the national State Freedom Caucus Network.

The divide among state lawmakers in the ultra-conservative wing of the Idaho Legislature and the Washington, D.C.-based State Freedom Caucus Network has been bubbling, including rising tensions between the D.C.-funded director and state lawmakers, InvestigateWest reported.

The Idaho Freedom Caucus sent a newsletter Monday outlining the divide and declaring that it will “follow its own path,” and described why it no longer wants to be affiliated with the national organization.

The Idaho Freedom Caucus network was created in 2017 and modeled after the U.S. Congressional Freedom Caucus. The IFC joined a newly formed State Freedom Caucus Network in 2022.

“Initially it appeared both groups were aligned with the similar mission of protecting state sovereignty and fighting corruption,” Monday’s newsletter said. “As a result, the Idaho Caucus decided to voluntarily and publicly affiliate with this organization, known as the State Freedom Caucus Network (SFCN), based in Washington D.C.”

The State Freedom Caucus Network hired Maria Nate, married to former lawmaker and Idaho Freedom Foundation President Ron Nate, as a state director. Maria Nate and IFC co-chairperson Rep. Heather Scott clashed this March over Scott’s support of House Speaker Mike Moyle in a recorded conversation obtained by InvestigateWest. Moyle is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, and in the recording, Maria Nate saw the speaker as someone who had failed to use his power to push through a conservative agenda on things like school choice, InvestigateWest reported. Scott and most other lawmakers had publicly backed the speaker.

The newsletter sent by the IFC on Monday said “the majority of IFC members lost trust in the state director, as the appointed individual was more aligned with the SFCN than Caucus members, making the ongoing situation untenable.”

In a Zoom meeting last spring, the SFCN set a meeting with the IFC to discuss the disagreements, the newsletter said. The leaders told the Idaho Freedom Caucus that the current caucus had to be dissolved and re-formed “on the conditions that it alter its self-governing structure, rewrite its bylaws, and adhere to a rigid D.C.-driven agenda,” the newsletter said.

The national caucus network cut off its support of the Idaho caucus and is reportedly forming a competing state Freedom Caucus, as reported previously by InvestigateWest and in the IFC newsletter.

In July, the Idaho Freedom Caucus announced it had hired Sen. Scott Herndon, who lost his primary contest in May, as its state caucus director.

Several lawmakers have left the state Freedom Caucus over the interim, including Sens. Glenneda Zuiderveld and Cindy Carlson. Rep. Jacyn Gallagher was defeated in her primary contest and resigned. Rep. Mike Kingsley, one of the original founders of the IFC, retired and did not run again.

It’s unclear who is currently in the Idaho Freedom Caucus. The website no longer lists the legislative members. The Idaho Freedom Caucus did not respond to an emailed question from the Lewiston Tribune.

The national network also doesn’t list any Idaho lawmakers on its website currently.

An email State Freedom Caucus Network requesting comment was not immediately returned.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.