{"id":19687,"date":"2026-04-11T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/?p=19687"},"modified":"2026-04-11T16:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:21:36","slug":"op-ed-wins-and-losses-from-the-2026-legislative-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/op-ed-wins-and-losses-from-the-2026-legislative-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: Wins and Losses from the 2026 Legislative Session"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Can you believe the 2026 legislative session is already over? It feels like it just got started. Time flies, but a lot happened in those three months. By my count, lawmakers considered more than 800 bills, resolutions, and memorials dealing with a wide range of issues, including water, property rights, education, protecting children, occupational licensing, and, of course, the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the most important issue facing our country today\u2014immigration\u2014saw fifteen bills introduced, but not a single one made it to the governor\u2019s desk. The Idaho GOP has always stood for strong enforcement of our immigration laws, and it was incredibly disappointing that Big Ag lobbyists managed to stop every piece of legislation that would have required them to follow those laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have to do better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, there were some wins this session as well. The weekend before legislators came to Boise, the Idaho GOP held its annual Winter Meeting, passing a slate of resolutions calling for action from the Legislature:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Resolution 2026-02, opposing men in women\u2019s locker rooms, became House Bill 752 and was signed into law by Gov. Brad Little.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Resolution 2026-05, calling for a prohibition on Sharia law in Idaho courts, became House Bill 602, also signed into law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Resolution 2026-15, regarding taxpayer subsidies for teachers\u2019 unions, eventually became House Bill 516, which is on the governor\u2019s desk right now. Call his office at 208-334-2100 and ask that he sign this important bill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Several previous resolutions also came to fruition this year, including 2025-04, extending Fourth Amendment property rights to all your land, not just your home, and 2025-46, opposing an Article V Convention. Resolution 2025-48 urged a transition to partisan races for local offices\u2014Senate Bill 1356 took that step for single-county highway districts such as ACHD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is still work to be done. Beyond immigration, there\u2019s the issue of the presidential primary. Recall that the Legislature eliminated the March primary a few years ago, leaving it up to the Idaho GOP to host a firehouse caucus to choose our presidential nominee. With 2028 on the horizon, we\u2019re asking the Legislature to restore that March primary so that Idaho voters have a voice in the presidential nominating process, which is nearly always over by May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Never forget that your elected lawmakers don\u2019t work for the governor, they don\u2019t work for lobbyists, and they don\u2019t work for the party\u2014they work for you, the people of Idaho. Now that the session is done, it\u2019s time for you to decide who will represent you next year. Check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/idgop.org\/integrity26\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Integrity in Affiliation<\/a> forms on our website to see which candidates support the grassroots Idaho GOP platform, then go make your voice heard at the ballot box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can you believe the 2026 legislative session is already over? It feels like it just got started. Time flies, but a lot happened in those three months. By my count, lawmakers considered more than 800 bills, resolutions, and memorials dealing with a wide range of issues, including water, property rights, education, protecting children, occupational licensing, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":18468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-19687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions-op-eds","tag-idaho-legislature","cat-243-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19688,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19687\/revisions\/19688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}