KUNA, Idaho — Voters in District 23 will see four candidates on the ballot for State Representative Seats A & B. We reached out to all of the candidates, but only heard back from the Republicans in the race.
- The Democrats on the ballot are Wendy Coome (23A) and Julissa Melendez Castellanos (23B).
- The Republicans on the ballot are Chris Bruce (23A) and Shawn Dygert (23B).
- District 23 stretches from Kuna to the Nevada border and includes parts of Ada, Canyon and Owyhee counties.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
District 23 has two House of Representatives seats open — 23A and 23B — I reached out to the democratic candidates for both races multiple times but did not hear back.
The republican candidate for Seat A — Chris Bruce — did get back to me.
"I just got involved because I think that if you really want to make change, you gotta have a seat at the table... So I'm currently City Council President in Kuna, and then I am a mortgage banker here in the valley," says Chris Bruce.
I asked Bruce what issues he would focus on if elected.
"The constitutional defense fund, that's important to me. Especially in our district with the federal encroachment on peoples' property rights, water rights, grazing rights. The privacy aspect for when you do issue credit. And then obviously school choice, I believe we'll get a school choice bill done. But you know, my thoughts on school choice don't mean that we demolish the public school system," says Bruce.
Bruce tells me in his role as Kuna City Council President, he makes a point of being accessible to his constituents.
"Everything that I've tried to do at the city is just be transparent and listen to the community to make sure that their voices are heard. They can always feel free to pick up the phone and call me and make sure that we align and even if we don't align on everything, I'm sure I'll still be able to help," says Bruce.
The Republican candidate for Seat B is Shawn Dygert — who just completed a 33-year career as an agriculture teacher at Kuna High School.
"Well, I'm a pretty conservative person and so obviously fiscal responsibility, a lot of independence — that's part of the reason I choose to live in Owyhee county because if you live in Owyhee county, you get to be highly independent," says Dygert.
I asked Dygert what issues he plans to address if elected.
"One of the things I am going to advocate for very strongly is agriculture, agriculture is a huge part of District 23... Obviously, I want education to be strong — particularly career technical education. That's one of those things that really has a strong return on investment for tax dollars because it puts people to work, in high paying, high-quality in high demand kind of jobs," says Dygert.
Dygert says after being immersed and living in Owyhee County, he's familiar with the issues impacting voters.
"In Owyhee County you deal with a lot of federal issues. A lot of the grazing issues and the BLM and the access. One of the big issues they talk about now is access to emergency services when so many people from out of county come into Owyhee county to recreate and we don't have the emergency services in the county to cover the population that shows up," says Dygert.
