This story is part of a series of candidate profiles that Idaho Education News will publish leading up to the Nov. 5 general election. Our coverage focuses on competitive races in swing districts and those that have implications for education policy. Click here to see our previously published election stories. 

A competitive election in central Idaho is a key battleground for partisan leverage in the Senate. 

Democrats hope incumbent Sen. Ron Taylor wins back the District 26 seat so the party can retain its narrow claim to proportional committee assignments.

For Republicans, a victory for Laurie Lickley could swing the election after the election — a contest to replace outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder — for mainstream GOP senators over surging hardliners. 

Taylor versus Lickley is a rematch of a tight contest in 2022, but there’s a new wrinkle this time around. A third-party campaign from independent candidate Kala Tate could play spoiler for one — or both — of the major party candidates.

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And the divided District 26 race is a toss-up after boundary-redrawing two years ago combined liberal Blaine County with rural, conservative Jerome and Lincoln counties. 

Incumbent Democrat running to oppose private school subsidies

Taylor is a former firefighter and paramedic who’s seeking a second term in the Senate. The previous two-year term was Taylor’s second foray into politics, after a short stint on Blaine County’s planning and zoning board. 

The retiree, who lives in Hailey, said he was inspired to run for office after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “I could either sit at home and be mad and yell at the TV and not do anything, or I could try and get involved,” he told Idaho Education News. 

In his reelection bid, Taylor has said his top priorities are recreational access to public lands, natural resource preservation, housing affordability and reproductive rights. When it comes to education, he’s focused on resisting a private school choice program that would siphon public school resources. 

Taylor anticipates this legislative session will bring a renewed push to subsidize private schooling through vouchers, education savings accounts, tax credits or another mechanism. The state has a responsibility to take care of children who don’t have the access or means to private education, Taylor said, and it’s already falling short. 

“I think we’ve failed our children miserably,” he said. “We’re setting ourselves up to do it again.”

Taylor also said he supports an enrollment-based school funding formula, rather than the current attendance-based calculations. And he’d support repealing House Bill 710 — which made libraries liable for lawsuits stemming from book challenges — and reinstating a summer lunch program that the Senate defunded last year. 

“That’s a mistake that needs to be fixed,” he said. 

Taylor is one of seven Senate Democrats, who altogether represent 20% of the 35-member body. The minority party is hoping to avoid a repeat of a setback in 2022 that led to a member being removed from the Legislature’s powerful budget committee. 

House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, took away one of two Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee seats reserved for Democrats after a House seat in District 26 flipped to Republicans. 

The prospect of losing representation, not only on JFAC but also on the other committees that vet legislation, makes the District 26 race “paramount” for Democrats, Taylor said. One other Senate race, in east Boise, has similar implications. 

“If we lose just one Democrat, it’s like we won’t even be there,” Taylor said. 

Republican says she will represent diverse viewpoints

After a narrow defeat to Taylor two years ago, Lickley said she “regrouped” and “reanalyzed” before launching another bid to rejoin the Legislature. A cattle rancher in Jerome, Lickley previously served two terms in the House, representing Jerome and Twin Falls counties in the former District 25. 

Prior to her Statehouse tenure — when she served as vice chair of the House Resources and Conservation Committee — Lickley developed public policy for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and other industry groups. 

Lickley said she’s running again because she still sees herself as the “best person” to represent what “may be the most diverse legislative district” in the state. 

“I’m a mom, I’m a grandma, I’m a small business owner,” she said. “Most importantly, I’m really passionate about creating an Idaho that my grandchildren will be as fortunate as I am to inherit.”

In an interview with EdNews, Lickley was purposefully noncommittal on policy issues. “I don’t make promises, and I don’t have an agenda,” she said. But she is firmly opposed to the Lava Ridge Wind project, and she’s interested in easing the burden of inflation — possibly through property tax relief — and lowering health care costs, while tackling education and emergency service access in rural communities. 

Lickley is also skeptical of private school choice and expressed concern that a tuition subsidy program could harm public schools in rural communities. Any such program must leave the state’s public school budget intact, she said. And she emphasized that money going to private education must have “the same, the same, the same” accountability measures that are tied to public school funding.

“Our Constitution is clear about providing a free, public education to our young people,” she said. 

Lickley also touted her advocacy for early childhood education and mental health services. She served on the first Idaho Behavioral Health Council in 2020, and she sponsored the legislation rolling out the state’s 9-8-8 crisis hotline. 

She’s also standing behind her support for early childhood learning collaboratives, which came under fire from hardline conservatives during her House tenure. In 2021, citing concerns about “indoctrination,” House Republicans rejected a bill, which Lickley co-sponsored, that would have directed $6 million in federal funds to preschool literacy programs through community collaboratives.

“We’re still struggling with reading, and I think if we just sit back and focus on some of the basics, we’ll be a whole lot better off,” she told EdNews. “This is our future workforce. I care about our families.”

Independent wants to root out ‘woke ideology’ in schools

Tate is a political newcomer, who said she was inspired to run for office after getting a closer look at the legislative process in recent years. 

Tate told EdNews that she spent “a lot of time” at the Statehouse — watching committee meetings and testifying on bills — after her daughters took jobs working for lawmakers. Republican votes on certain bills “didn’t sit well” with Tate’s conservative family. 

“We just felt like…we don’t really have a conservative voice in the Legislature right now,” she said. “We decided, we’ll start getting involved a little bit.”

Tate said her previous community engagement was channeled through her family’s work as Christian pastors. Today, the family works outside the church walls, building “worship barns,” Tate said, and she currently lives north of Carey, where a new barn is under construction. 

The transition to politics is also a family affair. Kally Schiffler, Tate’s mother, ran for a District 26 House seat in this year’s GOP primary. She lost to Mike Pohanka, who’s challenging incumbent Rep. Ned Burns, D-Bellevue, in the general election. 

On policy issues, Tate favors shrinking the government, except around abortion, which she opposes “with absolutely no exceptions.” The Legislature is passing too many bills, Tate argued, and the state needs to “disengage” public schools from the federal government “so we can start thinking for ourselves.”

Tate is also skeptical of private school subsidies. Idaho already has “an abundance” of choice outside the tradition public school system, she said, while citizens are burdened by property taxes as well as taxes on groceries and fuel.

“I think the less government, all around, the better,” she said. “I don’t feel like we should be pulling any more funds for anything until we get our budget under control.”

Tate said that a “woke ideology” is pervading Idaho’s public schools. When asked to provide examples, Tate said her children haven’t attended public schools since the Covid-19 pandemic, but her intuition and her neighbors have said schools are promoting LGBTQ+ lifestyles. 

“It’s ruining family, it’s ruining marriages, it’s ruining our children by creating a warped sense of who we are,” she said. “We’ve ruined the definitions. We’ve created new definitions of who you are. ‘You can be a boy if you’re a girl and a girl if you’re a boy,’ these transgender ideologies.” 

Who’s supporting whom?

The three-way contest isn’t the state’s spendiest race. But contributions from leadership on both sides of the aisle offer a clue for its importance for both major parties. 

These Republican Senate leaders each gave $1,000 to Lickley’s campaign: 

• Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, of Burley
• Majority Caucus Chair Mark Harris, of Soda Springs
• State Affairs Committee Chair Jim Guthrie, of McCammon

And these Democratic Senate leaders each gave $1,000 to Taylor’s campaign: 

• Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, of Boise
• Assistant Minority Leader James Ruchti, of Pocatello 
• Minority Caucus Chair Janie Ward-Engelking, of Boise

While Taylor’s reelection could be key to the Democrats maintaining proportional committee representation, Lickley’s campaign could have major implications for a leadership transition.

The Senate will soon elect a new president pro tem, one of the Legislature’s two most powerful positions, along with House speaker, and second in the line of succession to the governor, after the lieutenant governor. Winder served in the role for four years, before he lost his primary election earlier this year. 

If elected, Lickley could cast a decisive vote for a pro tem candidate that aligns with the mainstream wing of the Republican party. Conservative hardliners, loosely organized in the Idaho Freedom Caucus, have gained ground in the Senate in recent years, and they’ll likely prop-up a candidate that aligns with their views on issues that divide the GOP, like abortion, election security and federal spending. 

“My race is extremely important…to elect leadership in the state of Idaho that will move us forward and not backward,” Lickley said. 

Outside of legislative circles, several industry and labor groups have weighed-in on the race. 

Both candidates have the support of Idaho’s teachers’ union. In a rare move, the Idaho Education Association’s political action committee gave a “dual endorsement” to Taylor and Lickley. The group did not endorse Tate. 

Taylor’s campaign is backed by the statewide firefighters’ union, along with Conservation Voters for Idaho and Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates of Idaho. Lickley has received contributions from political action committees representing the agriculture and banking industries. And various health care PACs have donated to both candidates. 

Overall, Lickley has raised $57,531 and Taylor has raised $52,567, as of Thursday. 

Tate has raised $5,493, including $1,000 from Lanceford Excavation, a Ketchum company, and $200 from former Rep. Mike Kingsley, of Lewiston.