The Rachel Report Issue #6

Dear Liberty-Lovers,

T-minus 22 days until primaries! Time flies when you’re…surrounded by organized chaos? Isn’t that how the saying goes? Just kidding. Times flies when you’re having fun and goodness, are we having fun! Meeting Idahoans in our district and around our state has been amazing. Last week I shared that word of our campaign reached Rexburg and this week we met a couple in east Idaho Falls who said: “We’ve been closely following your campaign!” That always leaves me speechless. We are taking ground every day.

My campaign manager always asks me: “what’s on your heart?” or “What fire is burning today?” before speaking at an event, meet and greet, or writing my weekly Rachel Report. This week before a meet and greet on Tuesday, she asked- and I responded “injustice.” On Wednesday before an interview with the Idaho Press, she asked- and I responded “injustice.” On Thursday before a luncheon, she asked and I responded, “injustice.” And today, before writing this email, she asked and again, I immediately thought “injustice.”

There are two things that I hate more than anything else in this world: bullies and injustice.

Ever since I was a kid, few things got me into more trouble than fighting bully’s and nothing riles me up faster than injustice. From small injustices such as teachers “grading on a curve (that drove me NUTS in college!),” to life-altering ones such as crime, fraud, and abuse of power… I’ve always hated when things are wrong, when people are being taken advantage of, and when people’s rights are infringed.

We have all been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in one way or another. Talking to people this week reminded me of some of the injustices that have occurred in our state as a result of fear and weak leadership. I spoke with a woman last week who was fired from her job in Nampa because she refused to wear a mask at work. That’s wrong. I talked to a man whose business was deemed “non-essential” in 2020 and because of that, his business is struggling to keep its doors open. That’s wrong. I met a man door knocking who was a Korean War veteran and told me about how difficult it was for elderly veterans to get good treatment for “non-life threatening” medical issues because they were deemed “high risk patients” the past two years. That’s wrong. I encountered a family who is now homeschooling all four of their children because they were coming home every day from school with headaches, dizziness, and nausea because of wearing masks. That’s wrong. Two weeks ago I met a man whose wife died alone in a hospital because they refused to let him in as a result of “COVID policy.” That. Is. Wrong.

The minute we begin serving “policy,” big corporations, or government mandates over people is the moment we have become tyrannical.

What was your legislator doing while all this was happening in our state? While our inalienable rights were trampled. While people lost their jobs. While people died alone. Mine did nothing. There were a handful of legislators working TIRELESSLY to protect Idahoans, but they were severely out-numbered.

It has been two years since this pandemic began, and we are still feeling the effects of how it was handled. Idaho has yet to recover. Our legislature had the power to protect Idahoans from losing their jobs, being deemed “non-essential,” being forced to wear masks, being prohibited from going to parks and churches…And they didn’t. That’s wrong.