Anti-government activist Bundy issues Idaho campaign videos

By The Associated Press

Anti-government activist Ammon Bundy on Saturday came out with his first videos announcing his campaign to become governor of Idaho.

“I’m running for governor because I’m sick and tired of all of this political garbage just like you are,” Bundy said in a nearly three-minute video on his campaign website. “I’m tired of our freedoms being taken from us, and I’m tired of the corruption that is rampant in our state government.”

Bundy said he wants to defend Idaho from President “Joe Biden and those in the Deep State that control him” because they “are going to try to take away our gun rights, freedom of religion, parental rights, and more — and further violate the Constitution in unimaginable ways — even more than they’ve already done.”

Last month, Bundy filed documents with the Idaho Secretary of State's office to run as a Republican in the 2022 gubernatorial primary. Current Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin and four other Republicans — Jeff Cotton, Edward Humphreys, Lisa Marie and Cody Usabel — have also filed campaign documentation needed to run for governor.

In the video, Bundy touts his family's years-long battle with the federal government over the use of government land.

“We cannot afford to have state leadership that lets the federal government bully us, or walk all over us. And its an unfair fight, when the federal government unlawfully attacks the people — believe me, I know as my family and I experienced this first hand, when we were unlawfully attacked by federal officials at our family ranch in Nevada in 2014,” Bundy said. “But we did not back down, and thankfully, likeminded patriots across the country stood with us, as we fought back against federal tyranny to protect our land and our rights.”

Bundy's campaign website also has videos addressing what he says are misconceptions about him, reasons to vote for him and how he would have handled the COVID-19 crisis if he were governor.

Bundy garnered international attention when in 2016 he led a group of armed activists in the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest the federal control of public lands. He was eventually arrested and later acquitted of all federal charges in that case.

Bundy currently has two misdemeanor criminal trespassing cases pending against him in Idaho, and he is representing himself for both. The cases stem from events during a protest of coronavirus restrictions at the Idaho Statehouse last August. He has pleaded not guilty in one case and has not yet entered a plea in the second.