Oneida County’s Bryan and Karen Kerr officiated festivities at last weekend’s Lincoln Day Dinner and fundraiser for the Oneida County Central Republican Committee. While there were some party officials who were not able to attend due to other commitments, most of the county’s GOP party representatives were on hand to hear from speakers Bryan Smith and Idaho’s Attorney General Raul Labrador.  

The evening also included a dinner catered by the Iron Door Smokehouse, and a silent and live auction featuring items donated by many supporters.  Ward’s Ace supplied a rifle for the auction, and Enoch Ward was present to complete the paperwork for the winner.

Before the featured speakers took the stage, two members of the county GOP were honored—longtime GOP figure Jane Ann Ward, and recent Central Committee Chair Larry Oja.

The Lincoln Day Dinner has made a return to the Malad Valley after a COVID hiatus, and has been a big success for the last several years.  In the past, speakers have included Dorothy Moon, Sterling Smith, local and state candidates, and many others.  It is a chance for the county’s interested Republican voters to speak with their counterparts from elsewhere in the state and share ideas and concerns.

State Senator Kelly Anthon, Representative Doug Pickett, County Commissioners Bill Lewis and Brian Jeppsen, Mayor Joan Hawkins, County precinct chairs, and scores of others were in attendance.  

An invocation was offered by Randy Willie, Chair of precinct 4, and the flag ceremony was conducted by Oneida’s Boy Scout Troop 1776.  

Before the featured speakers were introduced, Jane Ann Ward and Larry Oja—who have both served a number of positions within the county GOP establishment over the years—were honored from the podium.

Bryan Smith was introduced as the first speaker.  Chair Bryan Kerr noted that “Last year he came to Malad and helped explain the evils of Proposition 1.”   

Smith has served for many years in various capacities on the Bonneville County Central Committee, including as Chair and 2nd Chair.  He is currently been serving as the Bonneville County State Committeeman, which he has done since 2022.

Smith was born in Idaho, where his father was a baker, and his mother was a stay-at-home mom. According to his official bio, he was the first one in his family to go to college. “His parents instilled in him the values of hard work, savings, courage, and faith. These values are what drove him to take the first step and pursue a college degree.  He attended Rick’s College (now BYU-Idaho) in Rexburg, Idaho.”  He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1986 and then went on to law school. He received a Juris Doctor in 1989 with honors from the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific.

“I’m so glad I get to speak before Raul Labrador.  You can’t upstage a brown eyed labrador,” Smith joked.  The tenor of his speech was “Isn’t it a great time to be a Republican?”  Smith extolled the speed and dynamism of President Trump, and used it as a pivot to the question  “he said he’s trying to make America great again—what does that mean?” 

According to Smith during his speech, “Our country has not done a good job of following God.  We’ve kicked him out of schools.  We made abortion the law of the land for over 40 years.  BUT, we’re starting to see some changes take place.  How did it take place?  Donald Trump appointed justices who used their vote to change the law.”  

Smith continued on that theme, explaining that he believed “We need to be vigilant now, and God has given us a chance.  And he has given us the best chance we’ve been given in my lifetime.”  He encouraged each person to consider what they could do to help make America Great Again, and used the analogy of lifting a piano.  What can we do as individuals to make America great again? “We need to all lift where we stand,” Smith said. “If we all lift where we stand and we remember our covenant and lay a claim to the promise of the almighty that we can make America great.”  

The keynote speaker of the night was Raul Labrador, who currently serves as Idaho’s Attorney General.  Kerr overviewed Labrador’s political history, which includes being one of the founding members of the congressional “Freedom Caucus,” which is often seen as being the most direct precursor to the MAGA movement.

According to Kerr, “he breathed new life into a position that had gotten stale.  I’ve heard it said that he would stand up to Satan himself,” he joked, anticipating one of Labrador’s talking points.

Labrador began with a story about how he decided to become the AG, as a result of the pandemic and COVID in Idaho, and how he was at the mall and he was wearing a mask which he momentarily slipped off and was immediately photographed.  “They knew that if they could shame me, they could shame you,” he said, speaking to the audience.

“The only way I could make a difference was to run for office.  There was a change in Ada county where the commissioners went from D to R.  The first thing I did when they got elected was ask them to put me on the public health board where I could actually do something.  It was one of the most controversial things I’ve ever done.  Every doctor came out against me and said I wasn’t qualified.  The person I was replacing was a politician too, but they agreed with the mask mandate, etc, so that made them ‘qualified’ in the eyes of some.”

Labrador noted that “I was still frustrated because the state of Idaho was still shutting down schools, churches, etc.  Several AGs asked me to run for office as AG because ‘they can make a huge difference.’  I thought the job was just to be a government lawyer, but that wasn’t it.  In Congress, I had to get 434 other people to agree with my opinion.  When I was 1 of 1 I could wake up and decide what I wanted to do, and I saw my job was to protect the inalienable rights.”

Both Kerr and Labrador noted the strong percentage of Oneida voters who supported Trump (“the second-highest percentage in the state!”) and opposed ranked-choice voting.  “I want to thank you for what you did in this county.  85% of you voted against ranked-choice voting.  The state has passed a law that says you can’t mislead people, which I thought they were doing.  The courts did not agree with me and we lost that case.  The whole time that they were talking about the issue they were only talking about the closed and open primaries.  After I sued and I showed that it talked about two different subjects.  I was really proud even though I lost that fight that we changed the discussion.  The state of Idaho voted against it 70 percent to 30 percent.  All of us together were able to educate the public.”

Labrador then turned to discussing some of the changes he had been able to make in Idaho: “I thought maybe the job of the AG was a boring job.  But the last two years I’ve been able to make a huge difference in Idaho.”  He recounted his work at increasing the scope of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, legal opposition to Title 9 (athletic gender issues) concerns, abortion restrictions, Lava Ridge (solar farm project) opposition, and others.

He concluded his speech by recounting a fight he had undertaken as AG with the Satanic Temple, which is a secular political organization that uses legal provocation to force the litigation of separation of church and state issues, and had come out on top of the argument, leading the Idaho Statesman to note the “Labrador defeats Satan.”

Following the speeches, the night was turned over to awarding the silent auction bidders their prizes, and a live auction which saw energetic bidding from the audience.  

Oneida County continues to be a conservative stronghold in the state, and the Lincoln Day Dinner has been a showcase of that status over the last few years.