North Idaho senator yells ‘go back to where you came from’ at Native American candidate

At a small-town candidate forum this week, a North Idaho Republican senator left the event early after making a disparaging remark about the Native American heritage of a Democratic candidate, people in attendance said.

Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Viola, was one of six House and Senate candidates for District 6 who attended a moderated forum in Kendrick, a town southeast of Moscow. 

Roughly an hour into the discussion, candidates were asked whether they thought there was discrimination in the state. Rep. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, answered first, saying he thought there wasn’t any discrimination in Idaho, according to Julia Parker, Foreman’s Democratic opponent. 

After Mitchell spoke, Trish Carter-Goodheart, a Democratic House candidate who is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, responded that she thought racism and discrimination were real problems in the state, and referenced the history of white supremacist enclaves in North Idaho, according to a statement she released after the forum.

After she spoke, Foreman stood up and began to yell, saying: “I’m so sick and tired of this liberal bulls---! Why don’t you go back to where you came from?” according to Carter-Goodheart’s statement.

The Statesman was unable to obtain a recording of Tuesday’s forum. Two of the event’s organizers, Parker and Kendrick Mayor Rose Norris, corroborated Carter-Goodheart’s account via phone.

Carter-Goodheart is from Lapwai, on the Nez Perce Reservation. Indigenous Nez Perce people have lived in Central Idaho and the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. 

“People like Dan Foreman do not represent our diverse community, and I will continue to stand against the hatred and racism they spread,” Carter-Goodheart said in her statement. 

Parker, Foreman’s opponent, told the Statesman that after he left early, the remaining candidates finished their discussion of discrimination, presented their closing statements and ended the forum. Earlier in the evening, after Parker had criticized Foreman’s record as a senator, she said he told her she’d “better not” do it again. Asking if he meant to threaten her, she said he replied: “You heard me.”

 “He was clearly already agitated and making these kinds of aggressive statements,” she told the Statesman, noting that there was another candidate forum on Wednesday night that she reluctantly went to after the experience on Tuesday. “It really hurts democracy when somebody is threatening” at a political discussion, she said. 

Norris, the Kendrick mayor, said she hopes future forums will be more civil. “People should be able to have differences and come together at a table or in a room and not have to fear that their opinions or their thoughts are going to be belittled,” she told the Statesman.