‘Time for change’: Democrat Terri Pickens Manweiler runs for Idaho lieutenant governor
A Boise-based attorney and fourth-generation Idahoan on Wednesday became the first Democratic candidate to join the competitive field of challengers vying to be Idaho’s next lieutenant governor. She also filed for candidacy Wednesday morning, according to the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office.
Terri Pickens Manweiler, a Republican turned Democrat after the 2016 general election, announced her candidacy Wednesday morning in front of the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise. She said she felt the state needed new leadership, someone who would stop the “political theater” and use a voice to “say the hard stuff out loud.”
“It’s time for change,” Pickens Manweiler said. “It’s time for unity, not division. It’s time for healing and growing. And it’s time for new leadership.”
The 49-year-old University of Idaho law school graduate has never run for public office before. And she acknowledged that it will be an “uphill battle” for her. If she wins the Democratic primary, she faces the winner from a crowded field of Republicans in a conservative state: House Speaker Scott Bedke, of Oakley; Rep. Priscilla Giddings, of White Bird; and former state representative and attorney Luke Malek, of Coeur d’Alene. No Democrat has been elected to the position since 1974.
But Pickens Manweiler said she relates to the conservative voters of Idaho because she was one of them. She was raised on the belief that the Republican Party holds her values, a belief she said was “absolutely shattered” by the party in 2016. She criticized Bedke and other conservatives for how they “acquiescence” on key issues — such as debates over critical race theory — and said she trusts the teachers to determine what to teach Idaho’s children.
“I’ve just watched the political system around Idaho really veer in a direction I was not happy with, a direction that doesn’t represent the values of me and my family, and certainly not the values of most Idahoans,” Pickens Manweiler told the Idaho Statesman. “I decided it was time to be the voice of change.”
She said she would use her voice in the position to support better funding for Idaho’s public schools and protection of public lands. She said she also understands real estate policies as an attorney who has often dealt with easements and water rights. And she understands the needs of small-business owners, she said, as the founding partner of her law firm and someone who also struggled through the pandemic.
Born and raised in Pocatello, Pickens Manweiler said she’s a moderate who wants to defend Idahoans’ freedom and constitutional rights. She said labels such as “liberal” and “socialist” that some may try to pin on her “are not going to stick.” She’s a hunter, she said, and “I’m not trying to take away anyone’s guns.”
Pickens Manweiler has received the support of Sen. Melissa Wintrow, a Boise Democrat who introduced her on Wednesday, and former Idaho Democratic Party executive director Elle Casner is her campaign manager.
“It’s time to stop the political theater and it’s time to start investing in the people of Idaho,” Pickens Manweiler said. “It’s time to do better.”
