High school senior Shiva Rajbhandari won elected office in Boise, defeating an incumbent school board trustee backed by local extremists.
By Robert Mackey, The Intercept
The nationwide campaign to stifle discussions of race and gender in public schools through misinformation and bullying suffered a reversal in Idaho on Monday, when a high school senior vocally opposed to book bans and smears against LGBTQ+ youth took a seat on the Boise school board.
The student, Shiva Rajbhandari, was elected to the position by voters in Idaho’s capital last week, defeating an incumbent board member who had refused to reject an endorsement from a local extremist group that has harassed students and pushed to censor local libraries.
Rajbhandari, who turned 18 days before the election, was already well-known in the school district as a student organizer on climate, environmental, voting rights, and gun control issues. But in the closing days of the campaign, his opponent, Steve Schmidt, was endorsed by the far-right Idaho Liberty Dogs, which in response helped Rajbhandari win the endorsement of Boise’s leading newspaper, the Idaho Statesman.
Rajbhandari, a third-generation Idahoan whose father is from Nepal, was elected to a two-year term with 56 percent of the vote.
In an interview, Rajbhandari told The Intercept that although he had hoped people would vote for him rather than against his opponent — “My campaign was not against Steve Schmidt,” he said — he was nonetheless shocked that Schmidt did not immediately reject the far-right group’s endorsement. “I think that’s what the majority of voters took issue with,” Rajbhandari said.
Recent Posts
House Bill Would Let Marco Rubio Strip Passports Over Political Speech
Take Action Now Provision would let the Secretary of State deny or revoke passports over alleged “material support” as critics warn of thought…
Targeting Venezuela, Trump Escalates U.S. Campaign Of Aggression In Latin America
Take Action Now The US and Latin American right have long mobilized to remove challenges to their traditional privileges and control.By Jonathan…
GOP-Led Congressional Committee Votes To Block Trump From Rescheduling Marijuana
Take Action Now Can the Trump administration, or any administration, declare people guilty and treat them as criminals, absent the transparent legal…
Never Forget What?
Take Action Now Never forget meant never forgive. Never forget meant someone would pay. And with my Muslim name, my South Asian heritage, I knew who…