Hutchings announces bid for District 1A seat

Bonner County resident Spencer Hutchings has announced his plan to run for the District 1A seat in the Idaho House of Representatives as a Republican.

Hutchings owns Sheepdog Supplies, a gun store in Sagle, and Westmond Ranch, a small 58-acre farm. He was the treasurer for the Bonner County Republican Central Committee for several years.

Growing up in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite National Park, Hutchings sold his business and left California in 2012, moving to Idaho with his wife of 26 years. They felt Idaho was a much better fit for freedom-loving people such as themselves, he said.

Hutchings joined the United State Marine Corps right out of high school, where he worked as a turboprop mechanic on KC-130s. A self-taught computer networking specialist, Hutchings said he has owned a computer networking company. Hutchings also worked as a construction project manager for one of the largest hospital firms in the nation for 10 years, after which he decided to pursue what he considered a more ethical line of work, so he opened a gun store in California.

Hutchings volunteered for the NRA, running Friends of the NRA fundraisers that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fund firearms education and training for youth and women's programs.

“We are at a point in our republic when strong men must take a stand and sacrifice to do what is right for our nation,” he said. “I will work to push back against the liberal agenda of taxing hard working citizens into poverty. I will fight to end the illegal invasion of our state by those who would take advantage of our generous nature while robbing us and our children of the future we have worked so hard for.”

Hutchings said he aligns himself with the Idaho Freedom Caucus and holds fast to its agendas of expanding liberty and freedom in the state.

“I will do everything in my power to expel special interests that harm the average citizens from Idaho politics,” he said. “The average working man has been abandoned by most of the current representation. This is unacceptable. If our representatives do not work on behalf of the average working man ... what is their purpose? To enrich themselves. This is not what our nation is about, it's just plain theft. Working people are being robbed to line the pockets of swamp creatures and the people that fund them. It must stop. If you elect me, I will work for the average citizens to stop this. I know I can do this job for the people because I'm one of them.”