Last night, James Ruchti and I attended the lecture at ISU presented by Alexander Heffner, author of A Documentary History of the United States, and host of The Open Mind. It was terrific, and James and I both purchased copies of the 11th Edition of the book, which Mr. Heffner inscribed for us, meaningfully. This campaign has had a lot of perks, and this was one of them. I have met some amazing people, and I have been inspired by so many stories. I have fallen in love with America again, and although it remains a somewhat dysfunctional relationship, I have faith again that the foundations are strong.

The lecture tonight was focused on the state of our nation, and how we might swing the pendulum back to civil political discourse. I know that seems impossible right now, but I agree with Mr. Heffner that the pendulum can swing back. I have lived long enough to know how the pendulum swings, and I have also lived long enough to understand how dangerous current rhetoric has become. January 6th. Paul Pelosi and false narratives. Threats to our Supreme Court Justices. Armed and masked “poll watchers.” Election deniers still getting credibility. This nation feels fragile, and our local politics are not immune to that fragility.

We have faced dark days in the past. My parents and their generation were forever imprinted by the back to back politically motivated assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Jr.; Bobby Kennedy; Martin Luther King Jr.; and Malcom X. My parents were born and raised in Chicago. My father was the son and grandson of Irish immigrants, raised on the hard streets of Southside Chicago, in an ethnically segregated neighborhood. My very early years were spent in a mixed race Southside Chicago neighborhood, blocks from the racial violence of the 1968 brutal riots. My parents were very young then, and they were both deeply affected by the racial, ethnic, and class injustices they witnessed and experienced, firsthand, on a daily basis. In turn, they were able to teach me and my siblings about civil rights and the meaning of real justice, and the promises of equality under the law. I am deeply grateful for all of these lessons. This is my origin story. This is why I believe in our Constitutional promises. This is why I fight the good fight for my clients every day. This is why, I am certain, that I am inspired to fight for your civil rights every single day as your representative in House District 29A.

This is what I took away from Mr. Heffner tonight: the key to civil discourse and swinging the pendulum back is embracing the tension between real intellectual honesty, and curiosity about why someone takes the position that they take. Wow. This is so powerful because it is so simple, and it is so true. We cannot sit in judgment. Judgment does not lead to understanding. We need to get curious about why we disagree, and why people feel they way they feel, because there are truths there. But we also need to hold ourselves and everyone accountable to truth. We need to understand that truths are colored by individual experiences. We need to listen to each other more, and judge each other less. This is the key to civil discourse in politics.

I think this election cycle has been the ugliest in Pocatello’s modern history. The Democratic legislative candidates are continually getting mailers that lie about us, funded by dark out of state money. If you received a mailer about me wanting to raise your taxes, that is a lie. Read my FB posts. I have voiced support for Reclaim Idaho’s ballot initiative for public education funding, and I reposted when fact checkers in the press found that the Reclaim Idaho proposal would NOT have raised your taxes. That ballot initiative was pulled from the ballot when the Governor and the legislature stepped up in special session to pass the most significant investment in public education we have seen in decades, and I still credit Reclaim Idaho for that accomplishment. For the record, I support the Governor’s 2022 Special Session HB 1, co- sponsored by James Ruchti, that provided both for public education funding and for tax breaks. I do not want to raise your taxes. I want to make your cost of living more affordable by reducing property tax, grocery tax, gas tax, and income tax burdens.

I think I have said all I need to say about the defacing of my opponent’s billboard. He did not deserve to feel unsafe; no one deserves that. I fully understand the anger of people of reproductive age about the Dobbs decision and the Idaho trigger bans. No one deserves to feel threatened, and that includes my opponent and his family.

James and Nate have also received ugly and threatening messages, as a result of the negative and false campaign mailers funded by out of state dark money.

We need to listen to each other more. We need to judge each other less. We find so much common ground when we do that. That is the real promise of democracy. That is the real promise of America.

This country has always been complicated and messy. It is also beautiful and inspiring. My father, the son and grandson of Irish immigrants, and my mother, the granddaughter of German and Italian immigrants, taught me to appreciate the freedoms and possibility that our forefathers created with our Constitution. We can all be better. We can all do better. Let us all learn to listen to understand. Vote. Engage. Listen.