Kyle N. Harris

Kingsley is endorsing Lewiston Republican Kyle Harris, who will face Jim Chmelik of Cottonwood in the May 21 GOP primary...First elected to the House in 2016, Kingsley is a member of the Idaho Freedom Caucus, a group that includes many of the Legislature’s hardline conservatives. In his post, Kingsley said he will stay on as head of the Idaho Freedom Caucus PAC.

Rep. Mike Kingsley voted for the legislation in 2019 and said he believed maternal mortality to be an “important” issue, but added the committee had “served its purpose.”

Rep. Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston, said he voted in favor of creating the committee back in 2019. But now, after reading the reports it has issued, “they all seem to identify the same thing: substance abuse, mental health. So, I think this has served its purpose,” he said...Fred Birnbaum, a representative of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, spoke to oppose the bill.

He argued that it was designed to increase government spending and cause more low-income pregnant and postpartum Idahoans to be covered by Medicaid, to ensure they have health care.

Nostrant, a Democrat from Boise, is running for State Rep. 7A, who will be on the November ballot, facing the winner — either Jim Chmelik of Cottonwood or Kyle Harris of Lewiston — in the upcoming May 21 Republican primary.