Brandon Shippy

We don’t know much about his opponent, Brandon Shippy, in the upcoming Republican primary for the Idaho Senate seat in District 9, but we’ve seen his social media accounts enough to get the idea. Shippy has posted on social media that when a woman takes her husband’s name, she is “claiming to be under his authority,” and that there should be no abortion exceptions for rape. We don’t need another extremist in the Idaho Legislature. We’re full.

Idaho’s strict abortion ban prohibits all abortions except to protect a mother’s life or when rape or incest are reported to police. “Should she die for the sins of her father?” Shippy told the Statesman by phone, defending his view. “If we believe in justice, then let’s also hold to equal justice.” When asked whether the state should also remove exceptions for incest, Shippy said it should. “If we have equal value as human beings, then we have to be treated equally,” he said. In March, he posted that giving names to people is “grounded in hierarchy,” noting that parents assign names to their children because of their authority. Shippy went on to suggest that transgender people are violating God’s wishes.

Among the list of candidates who has raised the most money, Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth, is the only one who has not been elected to the Idaho Legislature before. Shippy is running for election to the Idaho Senate to represent District 9, the spot that currently belongs to Sen. Abby Lee, R-Fruitland. Lee announced this year that she would not run for reelection.

Shippy said that he is a proponent of empowering parents, but not with state-supported options, and said he is not a supporter of public-funded private, religious, or home schools.

“Whenever you start taking money and putting it into private curriculum, private schools, it starts to pervert the free market,” Shippy said.

The early selections break some news on several GOP primary contests between current and former legislators. And not surprisingly, there is zero agreement between the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry endorsements and the Idaho Freedom PAC picks, foreshadowing another bitter Republican primary next spring.