This is the first in a series of candidate profiles that Idaho Education News will publish leading up to the Nov. 5 general election. Our coverage is focusing on competitive races in swing districts and those that have implications for education policy. Click here to see your ballot. Click here to check out EdNews’ voter guide to the 2024 general election races. 

When it comes to education, District 6’s Senate candidates have positioned themselves very differently.

Republican Sen. Dan Foreman is a hardline conservative who supported private school subsidies and voted against the higher education budget last year.

His challenger, Moscow City Council member and local nurse Julia Parker, said she hopes to increase state funding for public K-12 education to ensure a level playing field for all Idahoans. 

Parker, a Democrat, enjoys a large fundraising edge. She has raised more than $65,000 for her campaign; Foreman has raised more than  $18,000. 

District 6 takes in all of Latah and Lewis counties, and a section of Nez Perce County.

Parker on the issues

Parker, 57, has served on the City Council for three years while continuing to work as a nurse in assisted living and memory care, along with running her own consulting business. 

She has four adult children. Her youngest two recently graduated from Moscow High School.

First and foremost when it comes to education, Parker said she is tired of the negativity about schools and teachers. 

“I think that we really need to show respect for our schools and our school teachers — talk about a job that’s not easy,” Parker said. “I just want to acknowledge the hard work that our schools do to educate our children and provide all sorts of services for our kids that really go unrecognized.” 

Parker opposes vouchers and education savings accounts that would give families public funds to use at private schools. She argued that people like Betsy DeVos, who served as the secretary of education under President Donald Trump, and the Walton Family Foundation, funded by the owners of Walmart, are pushing vouchers to privatize education and make a profit. 

“It’s about a huge money grab for corporate interests,” Parker said.

Charter schools provide choice across much of Idaho, and Parker noted that her children attended charters. The state can hold charter schools accountable for spending, test scores, and content taught, unlike private schools. 

Rural areas have less school choice, but that makes investment in public education even more important, Parker argued. 

“What would be great is if we could fully fund our public schools and they could be innovative and they could be cutting edge and they could have facilities that kids actually want to learn in,” Parker said. 

She wants to move away from funding schools through property taxes in order to make funding more equitable across the state. 

Parker supports state funding for higher education along with career and technical education programs. Without state support, any post-high school education would be extremely expensive and cripple critical sectors like health care. 

Parker got her nursing degree from Lewis-Clark State College. Local colleges and universities provide key education for future phlebotomists, many types of health technicians and certified nursing assistants, Parker said.  

“Those are the vast majority of our health care workers and we need to continue training those people in Idaho,” she said. 

Outside of education, Parker said she hopes to focus on policies that help make her constituents’ lives better rather than focusing on culture war issues. 

Foreman’s record

Foreman, 70, is seeking a third overall Senate term. He represented Moscow from 2016 to 2018 before losing his reelection bid and winning back the seat in 2022.

Originally from Illinois, Foreman is a retired Moscow police officer and retired U.S. Air Force colonel. He describes himself as a “Christian Conservative Republican” and has touted his voting record as the most conservative in the Legislature.

He lists abolishing abortion as his top issue on the Idaho GOP website, saying he hopes to eliminate the current affirmative defense for providing an abortion in cases of rape and incest. Foreman said the only circumstance for an abortion should be to save the life of the mother.  

Foreman listed other priorities: an effort to investigate if the state violated Idahoans’ constitutional rights during the COVID-19 pandemic; and eliminating the sales tax on groceries. 

Foreman told EdNews that his “schedule does not permit any further media interviews at this time.” When asked if he could make any time to speak between early October and election day, Foreman did not respond. 

Last year, Foreman voted against the higher education budget after fellow hardline Republicans raised concerns over indoctrination and using state funds to support diversity, equity, inclusion or a social justice ideology.

He voted in support of a bill to create an education savings account for families with school-aged children that could be spent at private or religious schools. Opponents raised concerns that the bill would have taken funds away from public education. The issue is expected to come up again in the 2025 legislative session.

Foreman shared concerns about critical race theory during his 2022 campaign and decried additional funds for public education if test scores didn’t go up. 

“Public education is a sacred cash cow of the leftists, and the RINOs (Republicans in name only) don’t dare vote in any way that might make them look less sympathetic to the cash cow cause,” he wrote on his Facebook in September 2022.

Outbursts over issues

Foreman drew criticism online and from his opponent after an alleged outburst during a candidate forum Tuesday in Kendrick. 

The Senate candidates, along with candidates for state representative in District 6, were asked about a bill addressing discrimination in Idaho, according to a Facebook post by Democratic candidate Trish Carter-Goodheart. Carter-Goodheart is facing Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston, in the race for one of District 6’s two House seats.

While Carter-Goodheart was answering the question about discrimination, Foreman “jumped up out of his chair and started screaming at her,” Parker said in an interview. 

Carter-Goodheart, a Nez Perce tribal member, said in her post that Foreman asked her, “Why don’t you go back to where you came from?” 

Foreman denied using a “racial slur or statement of any nature” in a Facebook post late Thursday, calling that characterization of the situation “patently false.” He accused Carter-Goodheart of flying into a rage and shouting at him that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about because he’s not Native American.

“I enlightened this person to the fact I was born in America, and I am therefore a native American,” Foreman wrote.

Parker said she couldn’t remember the exact verbiage Foreman used but confirmed that Carter-Goodheart’s account was accurate. She described a hectic scene in which she tried to deflect Foreman’s “agitated” behavior. 

“He just continued to yell and be agitated and be physically aggressive in his posture and with his hands,” Parker said. “I just wanted to stand up to him and be between him and Trish (Carter-Goodheart).” 

Carter-Goodheart thanked the fellow candidates on stage in her post, including Parker and her opponent, McCann, who had her back during the situation.  

“People like Dan Foreman do not represent our diverse community, and I will continue to stand against the hatred and racism they spread,” Carter-Goodheart wrote. “Our state deserves better. Our community deserves better. We deserve better.”

Following the outburst, Foreman left the forum, Parker said.

In another earlier Facebook post, Foreman called the incident “a quintessential display of race-baiting.” 

He went on to say that there is no systemic racism in America or Idaho and criticized Democrats for supporting abortion access and gender-affirming care for transgender minors. 

This is not the first time Foreman has faced criticism for yelling at community members when asked about legislative issues. Body camera footage from 2017 confrontation at the Latah County Fair shows Foreman calling a man off camera “a liberal nuttard” and using profanity after the unseen man apparently criticized Foreman as a lawmaker, according to a Moscow-Pullman Daily News article.

In 2018, Foreman shouted at University of Idaho students affiliated with Planned Parenthood who attempted to schedule a meeting with him about birth control and sex education, according to an article in The Spokesman-Review.