I am fighting to keep Idaho safe and livable.

I am not fearmongering. That’s their game.

I will be the governor who stops Idaho from becoming the nation’s nuclear waste dump.

If you’re ready for a governor who cares about Idaho, please consider helping my campaign buy crucial advertising. And check out the this op-ed that ran this week in the Idaho Statesman:

To Republican Lawmakers Who Don’t Like “Domestic Opposition”:

By Idaho Gov. Candidate Terri Pickens

So, what’s a demagogue? Judging by an Idaho Statesman opinion by Sen. Dave Lent and Rep. Ted Hill, a demagogue is anyone who disagrees with Dave, Ted, Brad Little, or Donald Trump. 

The couple name-checked me alongside two big United States rivals–no, no, NOT Greenland and Canada. They want to scare readers into believing I am trying to score political points by scaring folks. I am “fearmongering,” the pair warned, gravely, as they fearmongered over the economic rise of China and Russia if Idaho doesn’t welcome the nation’s nuclear waste.

I detected genuine envy as the pair noted that Chinese and Russian leaders “face no similar domestic opposition” to how those nations handle nuclear issues. 

Seriously, these two are implying that autocracies are preferable to democracies. That wrongheaded idea is why our Legislature needs a governor who believes the State works for the people, not the other way around.

They can call it “demogaugery” all they want–I admit I look that word up every time I see it–but it’s rather rich to accuse me, alongside Rep. Monica Church and former Cecil Andrus staffer Marc Johnson, of stoking fear for political gain when it comes from members of an ascendant far-right movement that attacks our individual freedoms (abortion rights, book censorship, library attacks, fact-based classroom science classes, LGBTQ+ civil rights, pervasive government surveillance, giving public lands to billionaires, tax dollars poured into religious schools … the list really does go on) usually in the name of vague safety concerns and out-of-context Bible verses.

Let me be clear, again: I am proud of the Idaho National Laboratory for developing powerful new technology. I WANT safe and clean nuclear technology. But it’s a betrayal for Gov. Little to try to sneak nuclear waste into Idaho–And offend our intelligence by naming the new dump a “Nuclear Innovation Lifecycle Campus:” I mean, it’s like they’re PR hacks are just going through the motions now that they figure the fix is in–I oppose making Idaho the nation’s nuclear waste dump.

And by any objective analysis (Note: I said “objective”), the Trump Administration, which guarantees NO payment if Idaho parks all that nuclear waste over the Snake River Plain aquifer, has given us every reason NOT TO TRUST THEM!

So, no, I am not fearmongering. That’s their game. 

I am standing up for Idahoans. I am fighting to keep Idaho safe and livable. 

I am saying that the INL can lead the world in nuclear innovation without phony ploys to scare us into debasing our precious water and land resources.

And, not for nothing, if you look back over 250 years, just shutting up and letting the government tell us what’s good for us isn’t in our nature. It isn’t what made America a super power. In fact, “domestic opposition” is why our nation exists in the first place. That freedom is how we will compete with autocracies like China and Russia.