By cozying up to white nationalists, does McGeachin belong in Idaho Republican primary?

As a nearly 20-year resident of Boise, I have enjoyed the friendly and welcoming nature of Boiseans — and indeed Idahoans everywhere.

I have watched over the years as Boise welcomed refugees sent to Boise by the United Nations Refugee Agency from troubled spots around the world. I have visited numerous times and been moved by the Idaho Anne Frank Memorial, a beautiful monument that reminds us never to forget the victims of the Holocaust and the horrific consequences of antisemitism and racism. The monument also reveals the soul of a city that chose to place that message in its center.

It seemed the state had successfully shed its most unfortunate reputation of old for harboring white supremacists. That reputation was a lesson to all Idahoans that the actions of a very few can tarnish the whole state.

It was beyond jarring, then, to learn that the person who holds the second highest state office in Idaho as our lieutenant governor and who is running for the office of governor, hoping to replace Gov. Brad Little, thought it would be just fine for her to appear virtually at the recent America First Political Action Conference hosted by acknowledged white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes. To put this in context, the Anti-Defamation League has labeled Fuentes a white supremacist. His YouTube channel has been permanently suspended for violating its hate speech policy. He has expressed antisemitic views and denied the Holocaust.

Idaho is a small state, so unfortunately there has been little national focus on Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s shameful presence there. But there has been plenty of shock and criticism about two members of Congress, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who also attended.

The Republican Party harbors extreme views with scant comment from its leaders, as this column has covered in recent years, but the conference McGeachin addressed by video finally caused Republican leaders across the nation to speak out. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy condemned the participation of the two members of his caucus who attended the white nationalist event calling it “appalling and wrong,” and declaring it “unacceptable.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also criticized Republican attendance at the event, claiming “There’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or antisemitism.” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel commented on Republicans attending the conference by saying that “white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech and bigotry are disgusting and do not have a home in the Republican Party.”

Voters in the upcoming Idaho Republican primary will have the opportunity to weigh in on McGeachin’s known association with white nationalists. They simply can follow the lead of national Republican leaders who have made it abundantly clear there is no room in the Republican Party for those who buy into the hate fomented by white nationalists.

By speaking to a group that even CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) rejects and with the top three Republican officials calling out the conference for its racist and antisemitic views, McGeachin has shown her true colors by supporting with her presence a movement which stands for a host of racist, sexist and antisemitic views of our world.

With McGeachin on the Idaho primary ballot running for governor, it’s a fair question to ask: What would happen if someone who associates with white nationalists won a bid for governor? When insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, many displayed the slogans and symbols of the white nationalist movement. We saw then on our TV screens what kind of thugs could be welcomed onto the streets of Boise.

We saw that play out in Charlottesville, Virginia, at one of the largest white nationalist events in recent history when one of their ilk rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring at least 19 others. The Anti-Defamation League claims since the 2017 incident that more than 73 people have been murdered by white nationalists, spurred on by their hateful, racist ideology.

Would businesses ever consider moving to Idaho or expanding existing operations with all the jobs that entails if we were governed by someone who supports white nationalists or their agenda? How could we attract educators to our universities and colleges and how many teachers would we lose by simply not wanting to confront white nationalists emboldened by a governor of the same stripe? How would our health care system attract professionals steering clear of a state with affiliation with racists? Idaho would become nothing but a punchline and joke for late-night TV.

Just to be clear, the white nationalist creed appeals to narrow-minded fanatics who believe the white race is genetically and culturally superior and, therefore, whites should have their own nations. They are threatened by non-white immigration and civil rights for women, religious minorities, people of color and LGBTQ people. They accuse Jewish people of infiltrating our national institutions and our culture in what they claim are efforts to subjugate whites. To strengthen the white race, they believe white men must control white women who should have more children to increase the population.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that, yet McGeachin would have her Idaho constituents believe that she can attend and associate with any conference or rally she wants and then simply step away from what the conference stands for.

In her words, “The media wants us to play a guilt-by-association game where conservatives (and only conservatives) are accused of believing everything ever said by anyone with whom they share a stage.”

McGeachin represented all of Idaho as our lieutenant governor at a conference even condemned by Republican leadership, and this is her lame reply?

Janice McGeachin wants to make the rules for what she can be held accountable. To the contrary, she just doesn’t get to con her constituents with her alternate version of reality.

Instead, it raises the question of whether McGeachin belongs in the Idaho Republican Party and its primary now that Republican leaders have made it abundantly clear there is no room for the thinking of those with whom she chooses to associate. She doesn’t deserve to be on the ballot for nomination as the Republican candidate for governor in the primary election this May.

Gov. Brad Little and Idaho Republican Party chairman Tom Luna have joined the chorus of their fellow Republicans condemning white nationalism and racism. But for those who vote this May in the Republican Party primary (and registered Democrats who wish to do so must change their party affiliation to Republican by March 11, 2022) here’s yet another reason to send Janice McGeachin back to Idaho Falls.

This story was originally published March 6, 2022 at 4:00 AM.