Freeland withdraws from state Senate race
A day after saying he wouldn’t, candidate drops out of 5th District contest
John Freeland, the GOP nominee for state senator in Idaho’s 5th Legislative District, withdrew from the race for personal reasons Tuesday, according to a news release he brought to the Daily News.
He refused to answer questions about the withdrawal.
The announcement came one day after declaring in another press release that he would not withdraw “under any circumstances,” even though he had been asked to withdraw by local Republican officials.
“I did not reach this decision lightly,” Freeland said in the Tuesday news release. “And will continue to serve the people of this district as the Latah County Republican vice chairman.”
Freeland submitted his withdrawal to Henrianne Westberg, Latah County clerk, and Gresham Bouma, chairman of the 5th District Republican Party, Tuesday morning.
Freeland said he will support whoever the party chooses to replace him.
That person will face incumbent state Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, in November.
Thomas Lawford, Latah County GOP chairman, said the next step is to find potential candidates to fill the GOP state senate nominee position in the next 15 days.
If the 5th District Republican Party committee finds at least one potential candidate, then the committee will meet and vote on the candidates. The candidate who receives the most votes will be the new GOP state Senate nominee. If the 5th District GOP committee does not find and vote on at least one potential candidate in the next 15 days, then the 5th District GOP will not have a state Senate nominee for November’s election.
