May 11, 2026
If You’re Mad About the Scorecard, You’re Telling On Yourself
By: Stop Idaho RINOs
It’s been fun watching the reaction.
The “Votes With Dems” scorecard has been out there for a few weeks now, and the louder the pushback gets, the more the pushback itself becomes the story. Legislators are publishing counter-math. PACs are publishing fake investigations. Operatives are building entire websites accusing the scorecard of manufacturing numbers.
And mixed in with all of that, a whole other group has started showing up: Democrats and independents who want Republicans to know that being bipartisan is good and that we should focus on Idaho ideas instead of partisan voting records.
These are reasonable-sounding objections. They are also completely irrelevant.
The Idaho primary is closed. On purpose.
In Idaho, the Republican primary is closed. Only registered Republicans can vote in it. The election on May 19 is not a general election. It is not open to independents. It is not open to Democrats. It is the moment when registered Republicans, and only registered Republicans, decide which candidates carry the Republican label into November.
That is the entire reason a scorecard like this matters right now. It is information for the people who are about to make that decision. It is not addressed to independents. It is not addressed to Democrats. It is addressed to Republican voters, who are about to determine who represents the Republican Party in Idaho.
When someone who cannot vote in this primary tells Republicans how to evaluate Republican candidates, they are not making a neutral observation about civility. They are telling a club that they do not belong to how it should pick its members.
To the “bipartisanship is good” crowd
Let’s be honest about what bipartisanship means in Idaho.
There are roughly 15 Democrats in the entire Idaho House and Senate. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers and every statewide office. Idaho voters have made their preference clear in election after election: they want conservative governance.
In a state like this, “reaching across the aisle” is not statesmanship. It is Republicans with overwhelming numbers handing influence to a tiny minority that Idaho voters specifically rejected. There is no policy reason for it. There is no math reason for it. The Republican caucus has the votes to pass anything it actually wants to pass.
So when a Republican legislator votes with Democrats on a contested bill, it is not because Democratic support was needed. It is because that legislator agreed with the Democratic position over the Republican one. That is a choice. It is a choice voters are entitled to see and judge.
Bipartisanship is a virtue in a 50-50 legislature, where neither side can govern alone. Idaho is not that legislature. In Idaho, “bipartisanship” is a word legislators use to make their crossover votes sound like principle instead of preference.
The scorecard exists because Republican primary voters deserve to know the difference.
The pattern
Look at who is upset.
The legislators at the top of the scorecard. The PACs defending those legislators. The operatives building counter-sites and fake investigations. And a steady chorus of Democrats and independents explaining to Republicans that this kind of scorecard is divisive and unfair.
None of these people can vote in the Republican primary on May 19. But all of them are loud right now, and the volume tells you something.
The scorecard is making the right people uncomfortable. The legislators whose records will not survive scrutiny. The PACs whose business model is keeping those legislators in office. And the cross-party voters who would prefer Republicans pick the most moderate options available.
When that is the coalition pushing back, the scorecard is doing what it should.
The bottom line
Republican primary voters are about to make a decision. They deserve information. The scorecard publishes it. The methodology is one paragraph. The data is public.
If you can vote in the Republican primary on May 19, use it however you want. Agree with it, disagree with it, weigh it against everything else.
If you cannot vote in the Republican primary on May 19, you are welcome to your opinion. But your opinion is not the question this scorecard is trying to answer.
Republicans want Republicans to vote like Republicans. That is not extreme. That is not radical. That is not divisive.
That is the entire point of being a Republican.
