The Bundy family is best known for being one of the most (in)famous illegal welfare recipients in recent history. They’re also suspected to have been bankrolled by fossil fuel money, used as the “y’all”-talking foot soldiers for big business’ interests in trying to privatize public lands. In May of last year, Ammon Bundy announced his intentions to run for governor of Idaho, filing paperwork to run for the Republican primary. In June, the Idaho Republican Party issued a statement saying that Bundy was not welcome.
Since that time, Bundy has been successfully expanding his “People’s Network” of right-wing extremists, and somehow Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin—the other Republican running—isn’t far right enough. On Thursday, a new plot twist! After social media reports that Bundy had cut some kind of endorsement deal with McGeachin, Bundy went to his Twitter account and posted a big, hilarious statement saying this was all false. Oh, and he is going to run as an independent.
In a post that was pulled down and then put back up, Bundy stated that he was pulling out of the Republican primary because “the Republican establishment in Idaho is full of filth and corruption and they refuse to put forth the party platform.” Saying that the news story that he and McGeachin had made a mutual endorsement deal with one another was “lazy” and “tabloid journalism,” Bundy proceeded to describe the current GOP political establishment being in a “corrupt and wicked state.”
He then went on to slam Idaho Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Parker for “wearing a wig and masturbating in public.” He hit out at Republican Sen. Mike Crapo and former Republican Gov. Butch Otter’s arrests for DUI, and state Rep. Greg Cheney and his history of domestic violence.
Bundy then pointed to investigations of state Sen. Fred Martin and whether or not he illegally entered a high school girls’ bathroom on two separate occasions.Bundy then threw some shade at the surprise early retirement of Ada County Sheriff Steve Bartlett, alleging he traded “promotion to his deputies for sexual favors.” Bundy rounded it all off by going back to a classic Republican moment of moral hypocrisy: When then-Sen. Larry Craig was busted soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. Bundy then announced his intentions to take back the Republican Party by running as an independent candidate.
The sources of the story that Bundy is calling fake news all reportedly came from inside the Bundy campaign.
KBOI Radio's Nate Shelman first broke the news Wednesday evening that Bundy would drop out of the primary. Multiple sources from inside Bundy's campaign told Shelman that Bundy would endorse McGeachin in the primary and that in turn, McGeachin would back Bundy in the general election if she lost in the primary. KTVB independently confirmed that with a source in Bundy's campaign.
Ammon’s filing for the Republican primary came just weeks before his trial for being arrested twice in one day for violating an Aug. 26, 2020 order that barred Bundy from the Capitol for a year. He would be found guilty of those charges. Keep up! In December 2021, Bundy tried to argue that his gubernatorial campaign stops where he urged Idahoans to register to vote should count towards the 1,621 hours of community service he owes the courts.
Published with permission from Daily Kos.
