Josh Kohl vs the Coporate Candidate

Josh Kohl voted against HB 926 (2026), a bill designed to "To create additional financial tools and financing mechanisms that allow new growth to more expediently pay for itself", those financing mechanisms are known as taxes in normal people language.

Josh Kohl voted for H0135 (2025), the bill that requires lawful presence for getting welfare. The bill was signed into law by Governor Brad Little.

This is based on a variety of benchmarks. Every conservative benchmark we have found has Josh Kohl as one of the top conservative senators in the state, and the top freshman. See /scorecards for more details.

In 2025, Josh Kohl was the floor sponsor for HJM 5, a joint resolution opposing the Lava Ridge project. He was also the floor sponsor for HCR 8, a resolution requesting Attorney General Raul Labrador and Governor Brad Little work to stop the project.

On March 13th, Casey Swensen for Idaho made a Facebook post condemning Josh Kohl for voting against H0610.

H0511 was going to give a property tax exemption to properties associated with religious missionaries. On the surface this sounds nice; however, the exact wording is:

"or religious mission. For purposes of this subsection, "reliogious mission" means service performed for a religious organization, where the owner, beneficiary, partner, member, or shareholder is required to relocate from the homestead for the duration of the mission but intends to return to the homestead upon the completion of the mission"

Read H0610

Here is the problem: in Idaho, property tax is based on the cost of local services. If it costs X dollars for local services in an area, that X dollar amount is spread out among homeowners in that area. It is a zero-sum game. If some properties are not taxed, that simply means their share of the cost is shifted onto other households.

Missionary work is honorable, but Who gets to define religion? Would you like it if snowbirds who signed up to proselytize for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster got to force you to pay for their services while they vacation? This bill was deeply un-American, and Josh Kohl was wise enough to see through it. It is extremely unfortunate Casey Swensen would advocate for such a policy.

In the same March 13th post, Swensen argues for H0511, a bill that would increase homeowner taxes to increase funding for wildland firefighting. As a former wildland firefighter, Josh Kohl cares intensely about this issue. Voting against increased funding is not the same as voting to reduce existing funding. This is an important distinction.

Other detractors of Josh Kohl have also misrepresented his votes on other issues, to such a degree that the Attorney General issued a rare statement correcting them, calling them a "new low" in Idaho politics.

Open the post on X

Swensen should call out such behavior as unethical and ask for it to stop.

Swensen was endorsed by IACI (Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry). View endorsement post.

IACI's board of directors includes Luke Papez, of LS Power, the company behind the Lava Ridge Project.

When it comes time to make tough choices on which way to vote, Casey Swensen appears to be aligned with big-business interests, which is why we are referring to him as the "Coporate Candidate."