All Democratic candidates for Idaho governor have been registered Republicans
Democratic voters next week will choose among one candidate on the ballot and two write-in candidates for governor — all of whom have had a history with the Republican Party.
The only name on the Democratic primary ballot for governor has run for office as a Republican. Stephen Heidt, of Marsing, told the Idaho Statesman that he has been an unaffiliated voter since the 1990s. He ran for Congress as a Republican twice in Utah, once in 1986 and again in 1994.
In March 2020, he registered as a Democrat because he thought the party was “most in line” with his values, he said.
Heidt isn’t the only one with ties to the Republican Party. Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad, a write-in candidate hoping to secure the nomination, was unable to make the candidate filing deadline last month because he was a registered Republican. He said his past affiliation with the GOP was strategic.
Rognstad, who was first elected mayor in 2015, told the Statesman he has registered with the Republican Party since it closed its primaries in 2011. Rognstad has been elected to the Sandpoint City Council and twice as mayor after running as a nonpartisan candidate.
“A lot of (people) will understand, when you’re in a very red district, the elections are won in the Republican primary,” Rognstad said. “If you want to have a voice, you vote in the Republican primary.”
David Reilly, a second write-in candidate seeking the Democratic nomination, ran as a conservative for the Post Falls School Board last year and has said he will “make Democrats conservative again.”
He lists “pro-life, pro-God and pro-gun” legislation as part of his platform, has been criticized for antisemitic tweets and was reportedly part of Kootenai County Republican Central Committee’s plans to take over the state’s Democratic Party, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press.
Heidt cites priorities in criminal justice, education
In an email, Heidt said his campaign priorities are criminal justice reform and education, which he thinks are intrinsically linked. The 61-year-old noted that Idaho consistently has one of the least-funded K-12 public schools in the nation as well as one of the highest incarceration rates.
“Higher education is the unchallenged best indicator for lower prison populations,” he said. “The link between poor education and incarceration is borne out in five decades of data gathering … Failure to pay for education is the same as paying for crime.”
Until recently, the fourth-generation Idahoan was an English language learning teacher at Idaho prisons, according to the Idaho Press.
Heidt ran for Congress as a Republican in 1986, when he was in his final semester at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, studying political science and international relations. He dropped out before the primary election due to his workload, he said.
Around that time, he said he was “voting fairly conservative.” Heidt ran for Congress again as a Republican in 1994, this time against Sen. Orrin Hatch, because he “so tremendously disliked his politics.”
After that election, he became an unaffiliated voter, he said.
Rognstad says he’s the only true Democrat
Rognstad maintained that he changed his party affiliation through the secretary of state’s website last fall when he first announced his gubernatorial campaign. Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck told the Idaho Capital Sun the office has no record of that change.
“Obviously I regret that I didn’t go in to file a week earlier, so if there was any kind of problem I would’ve had time to correct it,” Rognstad told the Statesman this week. “We are where we’re at, and we just have to pick up the pieces and make the best case (scenario).”
Rognstad said he is the only true Democratic candidate in the race, one with a proven record of working with Republicans in Bonner County.
“We’re in a very red district here and a very red county. The fact that I’ve been elected three times means I’m well-vetted by the local community and effective as a local leader,” Rognstad said.
The fourth-generation Idahoan said he focuses on issues that all his constituents seem to be able to find common ground on: the need to improve public education, access to affordable health care and housing, and voting rights.
“In the last year, 43 bills were introduced in the Legislature that were efforts to restrict or impede voting,” Rognstad said. “This is a big concern for the future of our democracy.”
Rognstad said he’s the only candidate in the gubernatorial race, regardless of party, that has said he wholly supports a woman’s right to choose abortion.
Rognstad said the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent indication that it will overturn Roe v. Wade — a landmark legal ruling that outlined people’s abortion rights — along with Idaho’s own tightening restrictions on abortion are “devastating, not just for women’s rights but for civil rights going forward.”
“It’s the first step in an assault on civil rights and human rights here in Idaho,” he said.
In an email, Heidt said he supports the right to an abortion “in certain instances,” which he said is a complex decision that needs to be made in privacy between a woman and her doctor.
But he added that “all life is precious,” including that of “an unborn child,” those in poverty, or those on death row.
“The government should be doing whatever is necessary to make life the most attractive choice,” he said. “As governor I would carefully examine any proposed legislation that transfers individual’s rights and freedoms over to the state … especially those that affect anything as intrinsically personal as medical issues.”
Debates and a Democratic path to victory
In the months leading up to Idaho’s primary election, attention has been focused on competitive Republican races. It’s been more than 30 years since Idaho last elected a Democratic governor, but Rognstad said he thinks this election will prove different.
If his write-in campaign successfully earns him the Democratic nomination in the May 17 primary, his name will appear on the general election ballot in November.
“This year I believe is a special election year, because we see an all-out civil war between the two factions of the Republican Party: moderate conservatives and a new faction that seems to throw traditional Republican values out the window in favor of a theocracy,” Rognstad said. “I think we have a very winnable race if Democrats can put ahead a qualified, electable candidate.”
Rognstad and Heidt have not debated each other, in part because Heidt declined to participate in a debate organized by a political group called Idaho Women for Biden/Harris, Heidt told the Statesman. Heidt also said the invitation was last-minute, and that he could not attend on such short notice.
Rognstad said his opponent’s refusal made it even more difficult to get his message across in a political environment that has largely focused on the Republican primary.
Still, he thinks his message can resonate with Idaho voters at a time when politics have become increasingly tense.
“I aspire to be the governor that represents all Idahoans,” Rognstad said. “I believe the direction of this new movement is so far out of the realm of what serves the interest of most Idahoans, that I believe there’s a strong will and desire among voters to restore balance back to the state of Idaho and just common decency.”
In reference to his Republican history, Heidt said his views have changed over the past 35 years since he is a “lifelong student.”
He then quoted a 16th Century Portuguese poet: “As times change, so do our desires.”
This story was originally published May 14, 2022 at 4:00 AM with the headline "All Democratic candidates for Idaho governor have been registered Republicans."
