BOISE, Idaho — The 2025 Idaho Legislative is officially done, but we wanted to hear from a couple of freshmen lawmakers about their first year, including one Republican and one Democrat.
I asked Representative John Shirts (R), “Is Idaho too Republican?" "No! I don’t think so," he replied.
Shirts of Weiser is a fifth-generation lifelong Republican and one of 25 new lawmakers at the Statehouse. Shirts was raised on the family’s working ranch in Washington County and says he’s pleased with what they accomplished this session. “I think we got the things we wanted to get done: tax relief, a lot of good law enforcement bills and for my district personally, a lot of Ag bills, things I worked on for farmers and ranchers that will impact generations.”
Freshman Democrat Monica Church of Boise puts it this way: "It was a tough year. On a whole, I’m not going to say it was the worst year on record. I’m going to say, for me, I feel like it was a success.”
I met Church near Cecil Andrus Park for a good reason. "We’re standing here because Cecil Andrus is also my grandfather," Church said.
Her other grandfather was long-time Senator and Presidential candidate Frank Church. You could say serving the public is in her blood. Church knows the challenges Democrats face in Idaho but says they do play an important role. "A Democrat's job in Idaho is really to show that other side, and hopefully we’ve done that.”
Both Shirts and Church believe listening to each other and keeping an open dialogue will benefit everyone. Shirts explains, “At the end of the day we’re Idahoans, but everyone comes from a different district perspective, representing a different district.”
