Sen. Brian Lenney, a Nampa Republican, announced Monday that he will challenge Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon in December for the top leadership position in the Idaho Senate.
If elected by his fellow Senate Republicans in December, Lenney wrote Monday on his personal X account that he would ensure that “good bills get a hearing and a vote, instead of getting stuffed in a drawer.”
Lenney during the final week of the 2026 legislative session “radiator capped” a bill that prohibits taxpayer funding for teachers’ unions after Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, held the bill in the Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee.
“We had a Republican chairman holding a popular bill hostage and fighting his own party’s agenda,” Lenney wrote. “Nobody in leadership lifted a finger. The Pro Tem has the power to fix that, and that power has to be used.”
Senate Republicans during caucus leadership elections in December 2024 elected Anthon, R-Declo, to serve as senate president pro tempore. Under the Idaho Constitution, the pro tem is second in the line of succession, after the lieutenant governor, and serves as the president of the Senate if the lieutenant governor is absent or unable to serve.
In the post on his personal X account, Lenney said he believes leadership should change often.
“When the same people hold the keys to the Senate year after year, the lobbyists, bureaucrats, and big-money PACs get too comfortable, and the people get ignored,” Lenney wrote. “Follow the money and the endorsements. It’s all right there. Two more years of chairmen holding good Republican bills hostage? No thanks.”
When EdNews emailed Lenney on Monday to verify the post on his personal X account, he replied, “Do you consider yourself a real reporter?”
Lenney did not respond to questions about an Oct. 30 repost on his personal X account where he wrote “Some cultures are better than others” in response to a video shared by an openly racist account with a background picture featuring the word, “Jewkraine.” Lenney’s handle on the social media site formerly known as Twitter is, “Western Civ Maximalist.”
Lenney is from Southern California, according to his campaign website, and moved to Idaho in 2010 because he wanted his kids to grow up “somewhere that still made sense.”
He was first elected to the Idaho Senate in 2022 and is now running against Democrat Letishia Silva on Tuesday.
