May 5, 2026

The Rise of the Trans‑Conservative:
When Politicians Self‑Identify as “Right” While Voting Left

By: Honor Idaho President Greg Pruett

How can all of these people running for office be conservative?

It’s a question I, and many others, ask every single election cycle. There isn’t a Republican in Idaho running for office who doesn’t slap the “conservative” label on themselves.

It’s used so often that the word barely means anything anymore. If everyone across the entire Republican spectrum claims to be conservative, then someone is either lying or completely delusional about what being a conservative actually is.

Ultimately, Idaho voters have to decide for themselves who they believe is a real conservative, and who’s just playing one on campaign mailers and billboards.

In Idaho, calling yourself “conservative” is practically mandatory, especially in legislative races and every statewide contest. These pandering candidates use the word because they assume you’ll picture what most people think of when they hear it:

• Someone who takes their oath of office seriously and won’t trade principles for money, power, fame, or access.
• Someone who understands the proper role of government, which means government stays out of your way.
• Someone who works to limit spending and reduce how much of your tax dollars they take.
• Someone who believes in traditional American and family values.
• Someone willing to stand up to the radical left and defend our way of life.

This list isn’t exhaustive, and sure, you could fine‑tune the wording. But broadly speaking, this is what Idaho Republicans mean when they say “conservative.”

So what do you do when you see images like these?

You’ve got six candidates running for re‑election. So… are they conservative or not?

This is exactly where scorecards matter, because lawmakers, by and large, hate accountability. They’d much rather you trust their campaign slogans than look at their actual voting records.

According to multiple scorecard metrics, none of these six incumbents is conservative. In fact, most of them are closer to Democrats than to anything resembling a real conservative.

In the top image, Cook, Bingham, and Mickelsen all receive an F from the Idaho Freedom Foundation Index, widely considered the gold standard of scorecards and the group that has exposed fraudulent conservatives for over a decade. Mickelsen and Cook also score an F on the Idaho GOP Platform Scorecard, while Bingham manages a D‑. That scorecard measures how closely lawmakers vote with the Idaho GOP platform, the very platform they all claim to support.

Then there’s the new scorecard that really seems to have rattled these phonies: the “Votes with Dems” scorecard. It tracks how often a Republican votes with Democrats on non‑unanimous votes. Every session has a chunk of votes where both parties agree in lockstep; those don’t count here. This scorecard considers votes in which someone deviates from their party’s majority, and in this case, doing that over 50% of the time should make a voter concerned.

All three of these candidates vote with Democrats over 70% of the time. Real conservatives are down in the mid‑20% range.

Now look at the bottom image. You’ll see three more liberals masquerading as conservatives. And once again, their scorecards tell the truth, and the truth is not kind to them.

Raymond: IFF Score (F); Idaho GOP Platform Score (F); Votes with Dems (69.8%)
Furniss: IFF Score (D); Idaho GOP Platform Score (D); Votes with Dems (64.5%)
Burtenshaw: IFF Score (F); Idaho GOP Platform Score (F); Votes with Dems (72%)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, these same scorecards show multiple lawmakers with A ratings from the Idaho Freedom Foundation, upper‑B ratings on the GOP Platform scorecard, and very low percentages of votes cast with Democrats. In other words, the contrast is obvious and measurable.

So, who’s lying? Or has the word “conservative” become so watered down that it means nothing because everyone claims it?

Maybe the term RINO (Republican In Name Only) isn’t even accurate anymore. Maybe it’s time to call them “trans‑conservatives”, people who think they’re conservative, but only through self‑delusion. And now they’re trying to convince you to buy into that same delusion.

Either way, it’s election season, and that means you have to do your homework. Don’t believe a single flier in your mailbox, any digital ad that pops up on your screen, or any billboard or bus‑stop bench plastered with buzzwords.

Very few true conservatives exist in the Statehouse. And the trans‑conservatives are counting on you not paying attention long enough for them to slip back into office.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on HonorIdaho.com, and is republished here with the author’s permission.