A Very Republican Gathering
From Brent Regan
The 2026 IDGOP Winter Meeting was high energy and low drama.
Twice a year, summer and winter, the 228 members of the Idaho Republican Party State Central Committee meet to conduct party business. The 2026 Winter Meeting was last weekend in Meridian Idaho. The Idaho Republican State Central Committee (SCC) is comprised of four representatives from each of the 44 counties, one representative from each of the 35 Legislative Districts, the ten Region Chairmen, and the Executive Officers.
On Friday the various committees met to prepare for the General Session on Saturday. The Executive Committee heard updates from each of the ten regions, the Treasurer’s report and received updates from Madam Chairman Moon on the various programs underway including the Republican National GROW program. The Financial Review committee gave their report finding that the party has excellent financial management.
The Resolutions Committee met to review the 25 submitted proposed resolutions and the Rules Committee reviewed the 12 proposed rules amendments. Each of these committees is comprised of two members from each of the ten regions plus a chairman, vice chairman and secretary.
Resolutions and rules amendments can be proposed by any SCC member. Each resolution or rule is considered separately and is voted on whether it will be forwarded to the General Assembly.
Eighteen resolutions and five rules made it through the committees for consideration by the full SCC.
Resolutions included; * Opposition to Men in Women’s Locker Rooms, * to Prohibit Sharia in Idaho Courts, * Honoring and Remembering Charlie Kirk, * Calling for Combining the May Election in Odd years into the November Election, * Cutting $1.1 Billion in Non-Constitutional Spending, * Calling for a Return of Constitutional Money, and * Condemning Multi Subject Legislation by the Idaho Legislature.
The rules included some clarification of language, revised limits on how many rule and resolution proposals each county can submit, and giving the ability for the Executive Committee to go into Executive Session to discuss sensitive matters.
The most significant proposed rule change addressed how vacancies of Precinct Committeemen (PC) seats occur. Under Idaho Code § 33-504, a school board trustee creates a vacancy in their position if they fail to attend four (4) consecutive regular board meetings without an excuse acceptable to the other board trustees. This language in Idaho law was adapted to apply to PCs. Now if a PC misses four regular meetings without an accepted excuse then they have resigned and the committee will nominate and vote on a replacement from that same precinct.
PCs are elected to be the liaison between the county central committee and the Republican voters in their precinct. To do that job, you need to show up for meetings. The Republicans in each precinct deserve to be represented and if a PC can’t do that then they should be replaced with one that will.
Rules and resolutions are easy to propose but difficult to get passed because they are voted on by three separate committees. Critics will take advantage of this fact by complaining about a rule or resolution that is being considered as if it were already adopted.
This time was no different. Claims were being made that if voters didn’t agree with everything in the Republican Platform they would be thrown out of the party. Fake news. It’s a fact that Democrats have stated they intend to vote and even run as Republicans and the Republican Party needs a way to deal with this issue. A committee was formed to study this problem and make a proposal at our next meeting.
You’ll be a lot happier and better informed if you judge Republicans by what happens and not what blathering critics say “may” happen.
It’s just common sense.