‘Voted for billionaires’ tax breaks’: Boise billboards target Idaho Republicans
Ada County Democrats have launched billboards attacking Idaho’s Republican congressional delegation for their votes supporting President Donald Trump’s budget bill, the start of what they called an “accountability campaign” to more aggressively denounce the GOP for its actions.
U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo and Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher “voted for billionaires’ tax breaks,” the Boise billboards read, one near the intersection of Curtis Road 175 and Franklin Road and another along Gowen Road and Orchard Street.
Because of the bill, the national debt will increase by $3 trillion, and 17 million Americans will lose health care, the displays read, citing data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit focused on health policy.
The billboards, which went up Monday, represented a new tactic for the party, which sees an opportunity to rally support for among “people that are tired of an unfair system,” Jared DeLoof, the county party’s vice president, told the Idaho Statesman by phone. It’s only the beginning of an “accountability campaign” targeting the state’s congressional delegation, he said.
“We really think this is a galvanizing moment,” he said. “There’s such an outcry right now.”
In a letter to the editor he published in the Statesman, Crapo disputed that the bill would “explode the national debt,” and that a “more accurate estimate” by the Congressional Budget Office showed the bill would reduce the deficit by $400 billion.
Spokespeople for Risch, Fulcher and Simpson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The billboards will be up for at least three months, DeLoof said, and the county party may follow them with another round elsewhere in the Treasure Valley. Other county parties have also reached out, interested in putting up billboards of their own, he said.
The party is already seeing the campaign pay off through a Facebook post about the billboards, which got about 100 times the engagement it normally does, DeLoof said. And the campaign has brought in “a ton of donations.”
“Our base is just really fired up,” he said.
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 4:38 PM.
