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A lawyer who came to America decades ago as a Romanian refugee is challenging a Twin Falls representative who is critical of a growing government and questions if students with severe special needs belong in public schools.

Rep. Clint Hostetler, R-Twin Falls, will face Alexandra Caval in the May 19 primary for District 24 House Seat A.  The district encompasses rural Twin Falls, Gooding and Camas counties.

Hostetler, who moved to Idaho from Northern California less than five years ago, is seeking a second term. He was elected in 2024 with fellow hardline religious conservatives Sen. Josh Kohl and Rep. David Leavitt. Along with Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, the four Twin Falls Republicans are members of the”Gang of Eight,” which opposes new government spending and rejects federal money. The group tops the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Index.

“All of us made a commitment to the people that elected us,” Hostetler said. “The people that elected us wanted true conservatives to make the hard decisions.”

While Hostetler believes the Gang will survive the primaries — all eight face challengers in May — Caval said the 2024 election did not reflect a significant change among Magic Valley Republicans. Rather, it was partially due to deceptive tactics from the far-right Magic Valley Liberty Alliance.

“I think we’re trying to correct course from what happened in 2024,” Caval said.

This is Caval’s second Statehouse run. She ran against Zuiderveld in the primary two years ago but this time turned her attention from the Senate to the House.

Being a true conservative is tough, Hostetler said. Protecting individual liberties and fighting for fiscal responsibility requires hard decisions.

“We’re having to make these decisions that we can easily be painted as heartless, and we hate public education, and we hate students with special needs,” he said. “And it couldn’t be more false and disingenuous to say that.”

Government never grows in a vacuum, he said, and always comes at the cost of some sort of liberty or independence.

One of those tough decisions this legislative session was over a $5 million high-needs fund for special education. The bill passed, but first Hostetler raised concerns in committee about when special ed services should turn from education to health care.

“We have to ask ourselves, What is our education system for?” he told EdNews.

In testimony in March, the director of a nonprofit told members of the House Education Committee that one district is paying $67,000 to support one student with a traumatic brain injury. A behavioral analyst, responding to a question from Hostetler, told lawmakers that students with severe special needs might have educational goals to match colors, interact with other students or eat independently.

In an interview, Hostetler questioned if schools should serve as a “placeholder” for parents to drop off their kids with severe special needs.

“To me, that is not the system they belong in,” Hostetler said. “But it sounds harsh dealing with this, right? And I hate that.”

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires public schools to provide a “free appropriate public education” to eligible children with disabilities.

“It sounds harsh, and these are the harsh decisions we have to make because we need to preserve public education,” he said.

Hostetler owns a small business focused on marketing and graphic and web design. His wife homeschools their son. His family moved from Northern California about five years ago. He said the Lord put his family in Twin Falls.

Hostetler supports school choice. In his first week as a legislator in 2025, he sponsored a bill to create a $250 million private school tax credit.

He credits a platform of parental rights and family values for his victory two years ago. His supporters want “somebody that’s going to stand strong,” Hostetler said.

Hostetler this year supported a civics curriculum bill that requires students to study founding documents and ensures they exemplify patriotism.

“We’re in a cultural battle,” Hostetler said. “We’re seeing hate and distrust for our nation, and its roots in our government — and many times with the government, rightly so, I understand. But the fact of the matter is, a lot of these kids can’t name some basic facts about our nation.”

Hostetler believes that he and the other Gang of Eight members will win their elections and see the group grow.

“I believe that we’re going to actually see some other solid conservatives flip some seats and we may have to be looking at some applications and do some interviews as to who would be part of our coalition,” he said.

Idaho is at a crossroads, Hostetler said. The state can either take the path of blue states that overspend, or implement fiscal responsibility.

“I’m here to put the people first, the family first,” he said. “Not the corporations, not the agencies, not the systems. It’s about the individual here. We’re not a collectivist government.”

As a bankruptcy lawyer, Caval said she can see how decisions at the Statehouse trickle down and affect people in her district.

“My observations over the last two years is that life keeps getting more expensive, and the folks that we sent to the Statehouse are doing nothing about it,” she said.

She wants a representative who goes to Boise to work on issues that affect the Magic Valley.

“The person I’m running against has not done that, and so he’s getting a challenger,” Caval said.

Her first example of how Hostetler has failed to represent District 24 was his bill proposing a $250 million private school tax credit. She said that was ironic coming from a lawmaker who represents a rural district where most kids attend public school.

As a Republican, Caval said she generally does not favor subsidies. She said the state has a constitutional obligation to first fund a uniform system of free public schools, so she opposes private school tax credits.

“Until that is achieved, I don’t think we should be spending taxpayer dollars on private schools,” she said.

If elected, Caval said she would like to update the state’s school funding formula so local property owners don’t have to foot the bill for levies and bonds for school buildings. She wants to include more special education funding and disagrees with Hostetler on where special education students belong.

“I don’t share that belief that there are students that we shouldn’t be serving because of the nature of their disabilities,” Caval said. “I think we should serve all kids in public schools.”

Caval has a unique story that shaped her view of the country.

She was born in communist Romania and came to the U.S. during the Reagan administration through the College of Southern Idaho’s refugee program.

She said her father publicly protested the communist government in the streets of Bucharest and demanded religious freedom and basic human rights. That convinced the U.S. government to offer them visas, she said.

“I left behind a communist country and came to a land where, with education and hard work, you could become anything that you want to become,” Caval said.

With a new life in the land of opportunity, Caval studied at the University of Idaho. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics and, later, a law degree.

Her experience as a refugee has influenced her stance on immigration. Her family came to the U.S. legally, and she said she thinks the country should have strong borders.

“I don’t think you should be hopping the back fence to get in,” Caval said. “I think everybody should do it the legal way.”

As an observer of politics in the Magic Valley, Caval said there are two Republican factions: moderate and far right.

Two years ago there was one far-right legislator from Twin Falls, Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, but after the 2024 election, Caval said there are now four. Voters elected Hostetler along with Sen. Josh Kohl and Rep. David Leavitt.

Despite their wins, she said Twin Falls is still a strong, moderate bastion in Idaho.

“In terms of what’s happening in the Magic Valley this time around, I think we are attempting to course correct,” she said. “I don’t think their win is a reflection of a significant change in the makeup of the Republican Party within the Magic Valley.”