IDAHO — One Democratic candidate made a name for herself in Idaho politics during this election cycle.
Although her run for Lieutenant Governor against Scott Bedke was unsuccessful, Terri Pickens Manweiler says this is not the end of her career in politics.
Pickens Manweiler says she is disappointed about not winning but hopes she sparked a fire among Idahoans with similar values.
“Nobody knew who I was; one of the goals was to get my name out there,” she said. “We started 15 months ago for a reason because I don’t have name recognition in this state. I do now.”
— Terri Pickens Manweiler For Idaho (@TerriForIdaho) November 9, 2022
Bedke received 64% (375,451) of the votes, while Pickens Manweiler received 30% (178,010).
Although she didn’t see the exact outcome as she was hoping, she said she’s not done.
“One of the big things I was going to work on as Lieutenant Governor was restoring reproductive freedom in Idaho. I am still going to do that,” she said.
She says shes already started the process of preparing a ballot initiative to restore reproductive healthcare in Idaho.
“What we’re working on is putting a group of people together, a group of doctors together, putting legislators together, putting those people who have a stake in this at the table and we’re going to come up with a ballot initiative,” she said. “I've already started working with a company to draft legislation. The actual language to repeal the three really horrific abortion laws in the state and it is my intention that ballot initiative will be put to the people.”