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A longtime Republican organizer, who has pushed back against what she sees as a hyper-controlling arm of her own party, is challenging Rep. Elaine Price, who is cozy with the groups her challenger opposes.
Christa Hazel, who has been active in mainstream Republican organizing in recent years in Coeur d’Alene, hopes to focus on solving Idaho issues like school funding.
Price, a local business owner in her second term, said she wants to be North Idaho’s voice in Boise. She has long been aligned with hardline groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation.
Incumbent: Elaine Price
- Occupation: Owner of Spartacus Coin Bullion Collectibles.
- History of elected service: Two House terms. First elected in 2022.
- Campaign website: elaine4cda.com
Price on the issues
Price decided to run for another term because she wants to address the unique problems North Idaho faces.
“I just feel it’s really important for North Idaho to have a voice in Boise,” Price said. “It feels like Southern Idaho, what they have going on is totally different than what North Idaho has going on.”
Those differences include the rapid growth in Coeur d’Alene, specifically among remote workers. One of Price’s biggest issues is protecting children from grooming and sexualization.
When asked for specific instances where Price has seen this happen in her district, she didn’t have any.
“I just know, I just really feel like we don’t allow our children to be children anymore,” Price said.
She argued society is trying to normalize things and make things acceptable for children at too young of an age.
“Well, grooming, you know, where it’s OK for a boy and a girl to kiss, it’s OK for two girls to kiss. It’s OK for an adult to kiss a child,” she said, when asked to provide specifics.
Price said it’s beyond sex ed, which she feels confident they’ve already legislated.
“I’m just talking about lifestyles that are different than what a parent teaches their child, and that could be a variety of things,” Price said.
She cited inappropriate books in libraries as one of her main concerns, which she said was already addressed under House Bill 710.
“It’s up to the parents to decide that, not society itself,” she said.
Price said she wants schools to get back to the basics.
“Letting teachers be teachers, not social workers, counselors, things like that,” she said. “And I think we’ve kind of strayed from what we expect of our teachers.”
Price said she’s not sure what the solution is and didn’t have programs in mind for cuts.
“I prefer no more policies, just kind of setting teachers back to the expectations that they’ve always had,” she said.
Teachers pushed back against laws they argue are overly regulatory, like the moment of silence bill passed this session. The bill requires a full minute of silence to start the school day, arguing the law is impractical and adds to the stack of requirements they must meet daily.
Price said she considers their perspective “unfortunate.”
“I find that sad, because I feel like we overstimulate kids now, we put them in front of computer screens,” Price said. “So that was the idea behind that was just to remove all that and just let them be kids for a moment.”
When it comes to the $100 million special education funding gap, between what districts spend and what they’re reimbursed by the state and federal government, Price said she has heard about the issue but needs to understand it more.
She’s frustrated by unfunded federal mandates and would prefer to see SPED solutions at the state level.
Price supported private school choice, including House Bill 93. She said she’s willing to expand the program “if that’s the will of the people.”
She has repeatedly sponsored attempts to repeal Idaho’s Blaine Amendment, a section in the state constitution that bars taxpayer funds from benefitting private religious schools.
Price supports a complete rewrite of the state’s school funding formula that is more than 30 years old.
“It needs replaced,” she said. “It’s just so ridiculous at this point that we just need to scrap it and start all over again.”
Price would like to reduce state requirements for schools to access funds but didn’t have opinions on much of the funding formula.
Price’s time at the KCRCC
In 2024, Price was the treasurer for the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee and signed off on checks that went to support her campaign through advertising and other avenues.
A complaint was filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.
Price said she “didn’t violate anything.”
She argued she didn’t know what the checks were for, just general categories like advertising. Price said she paid invoices as they came.
“There was no collaboration between me and the KCRCC,” she said.
Price is no longer the treasurer and said she doesn’t know what happened to the complaint.
According to records obtained by EdNews through a public records request, Price and the KCRCC were found in violation of Idaho’s sunshine laws regarding the incident. The KCRCC was fined $1,000.
“Since the PAC’s treasurer was also the recipient of the Expenditures, an irreconcilable conflict existed,” a September 2024 letter to the KCRCC from the secretary of state’s office reads. “That is, it is impossible for the PAC to make an independent expenditure that complies with Idaho Code Section 67-6602(11) with respect to its own treasurer’s campaign.”
The complaint also alleged a similar violation in Price’s role as the treasurer of the Idaho Freedom Caucus PAC. Price was fined $1,500.The Freedom Caucus was fined $1,000.
Fundraising – 2026 election cycle to date
Rep. Elaine Price
- Beginning cash balance: $7,237
- Total contributions: $13,469 (plus a $22,000 campaign loan)
- Total expenditures: $5,448
- Ending cash balance: $36,277
Christa Hazel
- Beginning cash balance: $0.00
- Total contributions: $26,848 (plus a $20,175 campaign loan)
- Total expenditures: $3,210
- Ending cash balance: $43,813
Source: Idaho Sunshine, as of April 29.
Hazel’s clash with the KCRCC
Hazel is running for the House seat to give residents a choice in who represents them in Boise.
“Voters are really looking for a choice, and right now it’s really tough to get people to want to run, and one of the reasons is because it’s so negative and divisive,” Hazel said.
Late last year, the county’s Republican Party reposted court documents from a dismissed 1992 shoplifting complaint that included Hazel’s Social Security number.
Hazel has long sparred with Brent Regan, chair of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, dating back to when she unseated him for the Coeur d’Alene School Board in 2013.
Then, starting in 2021, Hazel sparred with the KCRCC-backed board majority at North Idaho College, which led the school to nearly lose its accreditation. Hazel, an alumni of the school, helped found the nonprofit Save NIC. The group was a counter to the KCRCC-backed trustees.
Around the same time, she was among the first to support the North Idaho Republicans, a group opposing the Regan-led KCRCC. NIR has argued that the KCRCC has become controlling and more extreme under Regan’s leadership and has attempted multiple times to take over the county party by winning precinct committeeman seats.
Now that NIC has returned to full accreditation, Hazel has shifted her focus to the Statehouse.
Challenger: Christa Hazel
- Occupation: currently a local activist and volunteer, attorney, and ran Manus Investigations with her father.
- History of elected service: One term on the Coeur d’Alene School Board, elected 2013; one term as precinct committee member, elected 2016.
- Campaign website: christaforcda.com
Hazel chose to run against Price, in part, because of her support of Todd Banducci and the KCRCC’s backed slate of NIC trustees. She also argued Price supports bills brought by out-of-state actors over issues that aren’t Idaho problems but instead national culture war issues.
“There are a lot of legislators in Kootenai County who are worried about chemtrails,” Hazel said. “I believe they are speaking to a certain demographic and voter and I don’t begrudge them for that.”
But Hazel hopes to court voters worried about things that impact their daily lives, not just culture war issues, Hazel said.
“Families are busy. They’re trying to make ends meet, and they really want to trust that their government’s doing the right thing,” Hazel said.
Hazel on the issues
Education is one of her main focuses. She plans to champion a bill that would allow districts to run supplemental levies for four years, up from two currently.
“It’s necessary to provide the stability,” Hazel said. “And I think people are tired of being asked all the time to support the school system.”
Hazel said she supports school choice but is wary of the state’s new tax credit because it lacks accountability.
“I support school choice, but what I understand is most parents choose public school, and they deserve a voice that’s not being represented in Boise,” she said.
During her time on the school board, Hazel supported the formation of the Kootenai Technical Education Campus, a technical school shared between three area school districts. She also strongly supports charters, virtual options and the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance.
“There has to be accountability across the board,” Hazel said. “Otherwise, you’re forcing the public system to be accountable while not having the same standards for a voucher-type program.”
Hazel is concerned that budget cuts in recent years have gone too far.
“For a few years now, they’ve been trimming into bone, and now we’re talking about amputating significant things from Idaho,” Hazel said.
She cites higher education cuts that are impacting programs like NIC’s nursing school, which put expansion plans on hold. (I recast this first sentence.) Her daughter, Emma, attends NIC and is planning to become a surgical technician.
“It’s just unfortunate that opportunities for Idaho residents statewide and opportunities for medical facilities to solve their workforce issues are being impacted because of just the chaos that can go on in Boise,” Hazel said. “And often it is related to social issues.”
Hazel said she knows many of these social issues are important, but she often struggles to verify systemic, statewide problems.
For example, the flag and banner law that passed last year surrounding “Everyone is Welcome Here” signs in a West Ada classroom has left the state in a legal battle.
Hazel said she wants classrooms to be politically neutral, but argues they largely already were. Controversial bills lead to lawsuits and stoke unnecessary fear.
“There are times where these issues feel like a distraction from what really is important,” Hazel said. “Is a poster really the biggest thing going on when you have cuts to special ed? When you have kids that are in mental crisis.”
Hazel hopes to focus on fixing Idaho problems and allow local leaders the flexibility to solve their own regional problems too.
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