Idaho 97 Year-End Message
As you may know, our name – The Idaho 97 Project – is a celebration of the vast majority of Idahoans and Americans who celebrate our peaceful democracy, who value political courage, community safety, and our freedom to have a voice in our government.
We were formed to celebrate our clear majority, but also to openly mock the “Three Percenters” anti-government militia movement. For many years we have known how dangerous this extremist group is in Idaho, but the Congressional January 6 Committee, which released its final report this week, confirms as much:
“Court filings and other evidence reveal that Three Percenters immediately began planning for violence after President Trump’s ‘be wild’ announcement.”
We encourage you to browse through the full report, or this excellent summary from Just Security, as we close out 2022 and prepare for 2023. We are entering a period of accountability and democracy building in this state and across the country, and your continued support for the Idaho 97 is critical to our movement.
Here’s what we’ve got on tap for 2023:
New Ways to Follow and Participate
We are now on:
Funding Opportunities
We are up against a well-funded and organized extremist landscape in Idaho. For the past few months we have been pursuing significant grant opportunities and we are currently talking to several possible funders. For our first two years of operation, we were 100% supported by you - our grassroots support across the state, but we believe we need significant seed money to further establish our presence across the state. We will keep you updated on our funding progress, but we’d love to hear from you if you have connections to pro-democracy funders or are interested in working with us to establish a substantial 3-5 year operating fund!
North Idaho College
Extremists in North Idaho continue to jeopardize North Idaho College – an institution that is critical to growth and progress across North Idaho. Though two rational, pro-education candidates were elected to the college board in November, extremists held the majority and in just the past month have:
Fired the board attorney and another college president (Ed News) and installed hand-picked replacements
Drew further scrutiny from college accreditation agencies (Twitter)
Cost North Idaho residents millions of dollars in unnecessary legal fees and other expenses
Meanwhile, also in Kootenai County, extremist Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is bringing her Q-Anon inspired racist, homophobic and antisemitic politics to keynoting the county GOP banquet Feb. 11 at the Coeur d’Alene Resort… watch for action alerts on this event in the new year.
Thanks
Finally, from Emily, Alicia and Nate at The Idaho 97 Project, we wish you a very happy holiday season, a pleasant New Years and a 2023 full of victories for us, the 97% who represent the backbone of our state. Peace, Emily, Alicia & Nate