What if McGeachin didn’t make a mistake? What if she knows what she’s doing?

The conventional wisdom about Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin is that she’s too stupid to be governor.

Only someone with a deficit of IQ points would consort with the white nationalist crowd. Such misbehavior used to get politicians disowned and discredited by their own political parties.

Unless, of course, McGeachin understands something about the Idaho GOP base that conventional wisdom has missed.

Those voters — whose attitudes have fermented under five years of former President Donald Trump’s direction — will choose between McGeachin and Gov. Brad Little in the May 17 closed Republican primary.

What else explains McGeachin delivering a taped address to the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla.?

That puts her in some prime company, including AFPAC leader and organizer Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of QAnon fame; and Vincent James, a Holocaust denier.

When KTVB’s Brian Holmes pressed the issue, McGeachin said she was unaware of Fuentes’ reputation. She didn’t research his record — until after she addressed AFPAC.

McGeachin couldn’t deny knowing James — she had her picture taken with him and he has endorsed her candidacy.

Then bemoaning the idea of “guilt by association,” McGeachin cut the interview short.

But this is not McGeachin’s first rodeo.

Or her second.

Or even her third.

Consider the following:

• Even before she won the 2018 election, McGeachin was encouraging racism. When a man calling himself Bob Jackson posted on Facebook that Trump made him “proud to be white again,” McGeachin responded: “Thank you, Bob.”
• In the fall campaign against Democratic nominee Kristin Collum, McGeachin showed up at the Idaho Public Television debate with a four-member security detail. Bryan Clark, then of the Idaho Falls Post Register, noted at least one of her bodyguards was wearing the tattoo of the far-right anti-government militia group, the 3 Percenters.
• That following spring, McGeachin posed for a photo outside her state Capitol office, making the “heart” sign to Todd Engel, imprisoned for joining in the 2014 Cliven Bundy standoff with federal law enforcement officers at Bunkerville, Nev. Joining her in that photo-op were a pair of 3 Percenters. Many consider the gesture they made to be a white power hand-sign.
• On the 24th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing — April 19, 2019 — while serving as acting governor because Little was briefly outside the state, McGeachin delivered a heavily edited oath of office to a conclave of 3 Percenters rallying outside the Capitol.
  
  They swore to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Left unsaid was any mention of answering to civilian authority.
  
  Exclaimed the woman a heartbeat away from the governor’s chair: “Hallelujah.”
• August 2020 — McGeachin headlined a John Birch Society organized rally at Twin Falls.
• October 2020 — As part of a video produced by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, McGeachin engaged in sacrilege by brandishing a semi-automatic pistol and placing it atop the Holy Bible.
• Feb. 9 — McGeachin won the endorsement of Michelle Malkin, the former Fox News commentator who switched over to Newsmax.
  
  For anyone else, Malkin’s ties to anti-Muslim groups and her defense of World War II internment camps and racial profiling might make her radioactive. McGeachin said she was “honored” to accept Malkin’s endorsement.
  
  Malkin also spoke at AFPAC.

Condemnation has come from a group of senior Idaho Republicans, Take Back Idaho — which called for her resignation — as well as Democrats.

But response from other GOP leaders has been abysmally slow and bordering on diplomatic. Little and GOP Chairman Tom Luna waited until Tuesday to speak up and even then, they failed to mention McGeachin by name.

You’ve heard nothing from Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch or Congressmen Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson, Little’s fellow state constitutional officers or any Republican member of the Legislature.

Could it be that they believe McGeachin knows what makes Idaho Republican voters tick better than they do?

In about 11 weeks, you’ll get your answer. — M.T.