Idaho’s longest-serving Democratic lawmaker is retiring after the upcoming legislative session, opening a seat that represents Southwest Boise and the Bench.

Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, announced Wednesday that she will not seek reelection after her ninth term expires next year.

Chew, 65, said she’s retiring because she’s been a legislator four or five times longer than an average lawmaker — her last year will be her 18th — and an “over-the-top awesome” candidate has emerged to potentially fill her seat. Chew hopes to dedicate more time to community groups, like the Idaho Women’s Network, she told the Idaho Statesman by phone.

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The longest serving Democrat in Idaho’s legislature announced her retirement Wednesday, and endorsed a candidate to fill her position. After 18 years representing Idaho’s House District 17, Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, said she’ll be stepping down after the next session. Chew also announced she’s supporting Democrat Natalie MacLachlan for the position. She’s a middle school art and theater teacher.

“I’m so fortunate to have the endorsement of this woman who has served for so long,” said MacLachlan. “She’s done incredible in the legislature, and it’s been an honor to watch over the years, and it’s an even greater honor to try and follow in her footsteps.”

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The longest-serving Democrat in the Legislature will retire in 2024. Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, will step down after 18 years in the House. Chew, a licensed pharmacist, sits on four House committees: Health and Welfare; Commerce and Human Resources; Environment, Energy and Technology; and Ethics and House Policy.

In announcing her retirement Wednesday, Chew also endorsed a potential successor: fellow Democrat Natalie MacLachlan, a West Ada School District middle school teacher who ran for Legislature in 2022.

“Natalie is deeply connected to labor and as an educator will continue to engage and protect the next generation,” Chew said in a news release.

“It is such an honor to be endorsed to fill this seat and entrusted with the work Sue is so passionate about,” MacLachlan said in the release.

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Rep. Sue Chew, the longest serving Democrat in the Idaho Legislature, announced Wednesday that she will retire at the end of 2024, when her ninth term in office ends.

Chew, D-Boise, made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday and in press releases.

As part of her retirement announcement, Chew said she will endorse Democrat Natalie MacLachlan, who announced she will run for Chew’s seat in 2024. MacLachlan, a teacher who lives in Boise, also ran for a House seat in 2022.

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One of the areas I question if lessons were learned is vouchers. I hope the states that have implemented vouchers continue to produce data that demonstrates their lack of effectiveness in creating equity, academic success, and accountability. That would be coupled with a hope that the Idaho Legislature would consume, respect and use said data to inform future policy making. I don’t know if that will be the case. 

So while the wins for education might feel good and were absolutely necessary, they aren’t something to write home about. This is even evident when we take a broader look at the horrific efforts made in other areas: 

Squelching student voters from easy access to the ballot box, keeping migrant workers from the ability to legally drive, prohibiting cheer / dance / theater / burlesque / drag performances, censoring children’s books, allowing armed groups of people to march and intimidate citizens, the authorization to unholster and wave a loaded weapon around, and reinstating death by firing squad – because that was everyone’s big priority. 

Women have lost the right to their own bodily autonomy, safety, and healthcare. Two Idaho hospitals have closed their women’s health wings because it is too dangerous to practice healthcare in this state and carries too great a risk of being criminalized for saving women’s lives. Minors cannot go to a trusted adult and seek help after being raped by a relative and ask that adult to remove them from the dangerous situation and take them to get help in another state. 

Young people struggling with gender dysmorphia, depression, and suicidal ideation cannot receive medical treatment to save their lives, even with the consent of their guardian and a complete psych evaluation. Idaho is one of the leading states in death by suicide. It may quickly become worse. Young trans people will be lost. Women will be lost. Girls forced into birth or living out consequences of the worst experience in their lives, may be lost.

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We have more in common than society would like us to believe. Divisiveness is rampant. We cannot succumb to it by vilifying each other. There is room for all of us.

I was raised in a conservative Christian household and was heavily involved in my evangelical church. At the young age of 12, I found myself to be intensely pro-life and religious. I prayed for my friends and read the Bible on the school bus. My life changed one day. I think this is an important moment to share.

I finished an argument on the bus with a close friend about abortion. I got off at my stop and remember viscerally thinking to myself, “I will NEVER change their mind … and they will NEVER change mine!” In an instant, clarity washed over me. I asked myself “then what are you doing”? The answer was creating tension, division, even feelings of hatred for someone I loved. I was shaking, angry, and was not loving. Rather than seeking to be in relationships with others, I was seeking to be right. This was the great equalizer for me. If my convictions were so righteous to me, maybe theirs were righteous to them. How could I ask them to respect my beliefs if I could not respect theirs? That was the day I decided that my faith didn’t have to be so angry or sanctimonious. It does not diminish our own values to allow someone else to have theirs. My faith had room to love, and learn, and grow.

We don’t have to disagree on everything. We, women, deserve the same freedoms. We are entitled to the same access to healthcare as everyone else. We cannot presume to know what is right or best for anyone. Who are we to judge? We all need to place more trust in each other, because we matter. We each deserve respect as fellow human beings. We must care about each other the way we would like to be cared for. The same goes for the Legislature.

In Idaho, some are in the spotlight saying the lives of women matter less than the lives of the unborn. No one should look anyone in the face and tell them that they do not matter enough. The conversations about women’s bodies, family planning, contraception, and abortion don’t belong on the news, in the courthouse, statehouse, or in policy memos. These conversations belong between women and their families, and their doctors. In any instance that your health, safety, or life is in danger, I will defend you and do everything in my power to protect you.

We have an opportunity to lift each other up. Many people from every part of the political spectrum have told me where they stand, and overwhelmingly, agree that we matter. Extremist opinions about how we live are not acceptable. Allowing access to safe and legal abortion is critical for ectopic pregnancies and for the health of the mother. Faith and love in action includes making space for others. This is also what I learned that day on the bus.

The moral of this story is we can meet in the middle. Let’s make sure we’re not ostracizing others or isolating ourselves. Engaging and working together is best for all of us. Our communities need us and we need each other more now than ever before. Let’s meet in the middle. Women still have the right to choose, we have the right to choose each other and this must be done at the ballot box in November.

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An educator in her 30s is challenging a longtime legislator in his 70s for the District 22 House Seat A.

Democrat Natalie Maclachlan, 32, is a theater teacher who lives and works in southwest Ada County and is a first-time candidate for public office. Republican John Vander Woude, 73, lives near Nampa and is in his sixth term in the House. He also served a term in 2006 to 2008, lost his bid for reelection, and then returned to the Legislature two years later.

District 22 covers southwest Ada County from around Victory Road to the north to near Hubbard Road to the south. It’s bounded by Cole Road on the eastern side of the district.

Legislative priorities
As co-chairman of the Idaho Broadband Advisory Board, Vander Woude named bringing internet access across the state as a top focus should he be reelected. He said there are a number of opportunities to use federal funding to install this infrastructure.

“I see broadband basically very similar to roads, it’s going to be an access point for everybody to try and get internet service to all of Idaho,” he said.

Maclachlan, as a public school teacher, said fully funding education would be her top priority if elected. She said she would support increased pay for teachers and staff, more programs for students, and protecting art, trade, career and technical education classes from being eliminated. The exodus and shortage of employees in the field is particularly concerning to her.

The rhetoric regarding schools coming from some members of the Legislature over the past two years was what motivated her to register as a candidate.

“I’m an educator, a public school teacher, and so during the COVID pandemic, I was increasingly frustrated with the attacks on public education, freezing of funds when we were most in need of help … and so that’s what really compelled me to run.”

Both candidates also named property tax relief as a primary area of concern.

Vander Woude said that while it’s difficult for the state to fix, because it’s mostly overseen by cities and counties, it’s too large of an issue not to address. He said he’d like to look into the state taking on school bonds, which could then relieve that burden from property taxes.

The increased funding the state recently allocated to education could then go to build new schools, he said, and local districts wouldn’t need to rely on bonds to do so.

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Here we are in our collective daze, wearily picking up our armor, we must resist, we must go back into battle. Our sisters are packing their bags to leave, our mothers sit frozen and crying, our grandmothers are rolling over in their graves. We’ve never had to worry about this in our lifetime. We never had to worry about this for our children. There is a quiet across the nation, there’s a somberness on the streets and in the coffee shops. Today we grieve and gather our combined strength. We all know that women can ‘sync – up’, we will sync up like the world has never seen before. We have been gaslit at a federal level, our grandmothers fought to claim our God-given rights, today we are robbed of our birthright.

One of our mothers called in tears to apologize for her generation taking away our freedom, undoing the work of our grandmothers.

Two of us have mothers who have never crawled out from under the weight of teenage motherhood.

One of us had to stand before a judge and get permission to end an unviable and dangerous, early pregnancy allowing her to escape a horrifically violent relationship.

These stories are not unique. We are everywoman and we will never stop standing together demanding recognition of our humanity, our rights, our freedoms. We will never stop acknowledging our sisters of color who’ve been oppressed in this way for centuries before us and are disproportionately impacted by this decision. This is systemic, federal control and overreach. This is the government in our beds, bathrooms, doctors offices and inside our bodies. This is them grabbing us by the pussy.

We must stop dehumanizing women. We have inalienable rights. It is our birthright to be in control of our own bodies and to make our own decisions. Without women there are no babies, no Supreme Court Justices, no legislators, or fathers. We are the mothers of humanity. Be careful, oppressing the mothers of humanity. Now more than ever we will stand up, engage, and show up. We will not be complacent, we will not allow this kind of brute dominance to go unchecked and without resistance. We will fight and help our sisters. We will continue to make our choices and take care of ourselves, as we always have. You will not stop us, you are simply making us angry and our righteous anger will drive us.

This CHOICE flies in the face of the majority of Americans, it violates the rights and freedoms of all women and as candidates and leaders, it now drives our work. Once again, we are pulled away from the everyday issues that are knocking down our doors, in order to re-address this longstanding and fundamental right that is necessary and in the best interest of all people. We are being oppressed because we are powerful! Do not forget it. We are coming for your seats, your titles, your power. We are organizing and strategizing and we will not be stopped.

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