I Went Back to Idaho to See How the Hard-Right Changed This State | WSJ

The fear voiced by some Idahoans is that outofsters are trying to turn Idaho into something it never was. And the fear voiced by some of the furtherright conservatives is that Idaho is at risk of being pulled to the left. I went to one of the spots in the state up in the mountains where this is all playing out. A place I spent a lot of time as a kid backpacking, hiking, and fishing. >> So Robbie, you've been coming here a while. Yeah, I have been coming here ever since I was a little kid. My family took me to Red Fish Lake all the time. >> Yeah. What's your favorite thing on the menu? >> Oatmeal pancakes. Before every hike, before every backpacking trip, I always need oatmeal pancakes. Tim Cron is a different kind of out of stater. He moved here in the '90s as a ski bump. He's been here ever since running a popular bakery with his wife, and for the first time, he can see the potential for an independent candidate. There's now candidates that are running as independents that are giving Idahoans a real alternative to what has been going on on the federal and and local level for a long time. people who are concerned about selling off of public lands, people who um want to work across the aisle um with both Democrats and Republicans. Christina Lords is a fifth generation Idahoan. She's covered Idaho politics for over a decade. >> I think people need to understand just how Republican Idaho is. the political battles are between the more moderate part of the Republican party and um the far right. >> Has the far right in Idaho hit a ceiling? >> No. No, I don't I don't think so. I think it's all going to depend on if people continue to move here for the reasons that we're starting to see that they have. Idaho feels like a safe place for a lot of people that are really looking for a conservative place to be and conservative place to raise their family. Idaho isn't turning blue anytime soon, but with President Trump no longer on the ballot, Idaho's politics could be an early indicator of the Republican party's direction nationwide.