Dan Foreman

Dan Foreman: Idaho Republican Incumbent for Senate District 6

Dan Foreman is a Republican member of the Idaho State Senate representing District 6, which covers parts of Latah and Nez Perce counties in northern Idaho. Foreman lives in Viola and is seeking re-election in the May 19, 2026 Republican primary. He faces two Republican challengers, Robert Blair and Rep. Lori McCann. Foreman has served in District 6 since December 2022 and previously represented District 5 from 2016 to 2018.

Background

Daniel David Foreman III was born on September 20, 1953, in Lake Forest, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and administration from Bradley University in 1975. He served in the United States Air Force for 30 years and retired as a colonel, serving as a combat veteran on KC-135 jet tankers and C-130 cargo aircraft and as vice commander of the 168th Air Refueling Wing in Fairbanks, Alaska. He later served eleven years as a police officer with the Moscow Police Department. His career experience also includes commercial aviation. Foreman is a life member of the National Rifle Association, the Military Officers Association of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Potlatch, according to his Ballotpedia profile. He and his wife Maria have seven children and twenty grandchildren. He identifies himself publicly as a "Christian conservative Republican."

Political Career

Foreman was first elected to the Idaho Senate in 2016, defeating three-term Democratic incumbent Dan Schmidt in District 5 by a narrow margin. During his first weeks in that term, he introduced bills to reduce Idaho's sales tax, provide private school tuition deductions, and classify abortion as first-degree murder for both patient and provider except when the mother's life was endangered. He lost his 2018 re-election bid to Democrat David Nelson and was defeated again by Nelson in 2020. Foreman returned to the Senate in 2022 by defeating then-incumbent Sen. Robert Blair and Jen Seegmiller in the Republican primary, then defeating David Nelson and a Constitution Party candidate in the general election. In 2024, he again defeated Blair in the primary before defeating Democrat Julia Parker in the general election, receiving 50.07 percent of the vote. In the 2026 session, Foreman serves as Vice Chair of the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee and as a member of the Senate Agricultural Affairs and Commerce and Human Resources committees. In the 2026 session, Foreman introduced the Constitutional Courts Act, heard by the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee. The legislation, as reported by the Idaho Press, would direct Idaho courts to remain bound by the U.S. Constitution and the Idaho Constitution. Foreman said the bill "does not intend to discriminate against anybody" and is intended to guard against courts applying legal frameworks outside those constitutions. In 2024, Foreman introduced legislation to remove rape and incest exemptions from Idaho's abortion law, a bill covered by KTVB. In 2023, he supported Senate Bill 1056, which repealed a state law banning groups of people from parading in public with firearms in Idaho cities and towns, arguing the bill was necessary to support rights expressed in the First and Second Amendments.

Policy Positions

On abortion, Foreman has maintained a maximalist anti-abortion position throughout his legislative career. His 2022 legislative priorities included eliminating the affirmative defense for abortion, with the only permitted exception being to save the life of the mother. This position is consistent with his 2024 legislation seeking to remove rape and incest exceptions from Idaho's existing abortion law. On taxes, Foreman has consistently opposed tax increases and expressed support for reductions. His 2022 campaign platform called for elimination of Idaho's sales tax on groceries. In his first term he introduced bills to reduce the state sales tax rate and to provide private school tuition deductions. On constitutional and judicial matters, his 2026 Constitutional Courts Act reflects a stated concern about courts applying legal frameworks outside the U.S. and Idaho constitutions. On climate change, Foreman has characterized the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change as a "scam." In a 2017 email to a constituent reported by the Lewiston Tribune, Foreman wrote that global warming is "nonsense" and called climate change "a scam perpetrated by left-wing fanatics looking for an excuse to raise taxes and grow government." He added, "I know credible scientists in the former Soviet Union who have concluded the Earth is actually cooling." On the separation of church and state, Foreman has stated publicly that he does not believe in the doctrine. In constituent correspondence reported in 2017, he wrote: "I'm a Christian conservative Republican, which means I have a moral compass. I don't believe in the separation of church and state, it's a figment of somebody's imagination."

Political Alignment

Dan Foreman is a Far-Right Extremist, a classification supported by multiple documented indicators. Foreman is a member of the Senate Gang of Eight Caucus and a signature re-election priority of Idaho Freedom PAC, the political action committee associated with the Idaho Freedom Foundation. His campaign is supported by Idaho Freedom PAC, Idaho Freedom Caucus PAC, Stop Idaho RINOs, and Think Liberty Idaho PAC, all organizations that operate on the activist right of Idaho Republican politics. He is also affiliated with the Citizens Alliance of Idaho. He scored 91.0 percent on the Idaho Freedom Foundation's 2024 Freedom Index, one of the highest scores among Idaho senators. Foreman's public statements reach beyond ordinary conservative framing. His explicit rejection of the separation of church and state, his characterization of climate change as a fabrication, his introduction of absolutist abortion legislation, and his repeated public confrontations with constituents and colleagues all contribute to placing him at the outermost right edge of Idaho Republican politics.

Campaign and Endorsements

Ballotpedia has not identified formal endorsements for Foreman's 2024 primary or general election races. His 2026 campaign is supported by Idaho Freedom PAC, Idaho Freedom Caucus PAC, Stop Idaho RINOs, and Think Liberty Idaho PAC.

Public Controversies and Criticism

Foreman has been the subject of several documented public incidents during his legislative career. In October 2024, at a bipartisan "meet the candidates" forum in Kendrick, Foreman angrily confronted Trish Carter-Goodheart, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe who was running for a House seat in the district. After an audience question about whether discrimination exists in Idaho, Carter-Goodheart responded that racism and discrimination are real issues in the state. Foreman reportedly stood up, said "I'm so sick and tired of this liberal bullshit. Why don't you go back to where you came from?" and left the forum. Several attendees, including Foreman's own Republican colleague Rep. Lori McCann, confirmed Carter-Goodheart's account. Foreman later posted on Facebook that he had "made no, repeat no, racial slur," that he was himself born in America and therefore "a native American," and that the incident was "a quintessential display of race-baiting." In February 2018, State Senator Maryanne Jordan filed an ethics complaint against Foreman after an unverified Twitter account presenting itself as Foreman's directed University of Idaho students to discuss "killing babies" with a Democratic colleague. Foreman said he was the victim of identity theft. The incident followed a separately recorded confrontation in which Foreman yelled at University of Idaho students visiting the Capitol to lobby for a birth control bill, telling them "abortion is murder." In April 2018, as reported by the Spokesman-Review, Foreman told an audience at a candidate forum in Fernwood that his own legislative district was "a cesspool of liberalism," referring particularly to the University of Idaho and greater Moscow area.