Far-right activists seize Kootenai County GOP, oust moderate Republicans

Mother Jones reports “a surge of far-right extremists and white nationalists in Coeur d’Alene targeting moderate Republicans in Kootenai County politics,” a shift that local advocates say has effectively seized the county Republican apparatus and pushed moderates out of party posts and trustee races. The takeover has immediate consequences: The New York Times reports the upheaval at North Idaho College has produced “less ideological overhaul than organizational chaos,” and the threat of losing accreditation “has drawn local business leaders off the sidelines.”

In Kootenai County, the political contest plays out against an unusual civic structure. The New York Times notes, “In Kootenai County, a magnet for conservative retirees from other states where Donald Trump won 70% of the vote in 2020, most public institutions and services are overseen by directly elected trustees.” That system turned school board and trustee races into front-line contests for activists who describe institutions as targets for rooting out a perceived “deep state.” The New York Times copy supplied even framed the effort as “GOP activists set out of root out the ‘deep state’ at home; an Idaho community college may never be the same.”

Tensions at North Idaho College spilled into public meetings. The New York Times records that “A December meeting was interrupted twice by fire alarms.” In January, Vincent James Foxx, identified by The New York Times as “a far-right antisemitic podcaster who lives in Kootenai County,” “took the microphone to offer the bloc of trustees his ‘100% support.’” Those vocal interventions coincided with a slate of trustees described in coverage as a “committee-backed bloc of trustees,” a configuration that local business leaders now say threatens the college’s operations.

Local business leaders and philanthropists have begun to push back. At the North Idaho College Board of Trustees meeting in Coeur d’Alene on Feb. 22, 2023, Greg Green, described as “a telecom entrepreneur and philanthropist,” spoke publicly and “vowed to fund challenges to the committee-backed bloc of trustees in the next election; ‘I had no clue how bad things were,’ Green said.” The same Feb. 22, 2023 meeting included Brent Regan, “the chairman of the Kootenai County Republicans,” and Todd Banducci, “a trustee for North Idaho College,” standing together in public view as the debate over trustee control intensified.

The stakes are concrete for students and the local economy. The New York Times spells out the potential consequences if accreditation is lost: it “would leave the school ineligible for federal financial aid and students’ future credits worthless if they transfer.” With trustees installed by activist campaigns and community donors preparing electoral challenges, North Idaho College sits at the center of a countywide struggle that Mother Jones summarizes as, “A decade post-Trump, locals decry efforts to purge dissenters from the party.” The February meeting, by contrast, was described as “civilized” by recent standards, but officials and civic leaders say the organizational fallout is ongoing.