It’s not easy being a democrat in a sea of red, but Rep. Shirley Ringo is up to the challenge — she is set to run for Rep. Raul Labrador’s congressional seat in 2014.
Ringo, a long-time politician in the state legislature and Moscow resident, announced her plans to run for Labrador’s congressional seat last week.Ringo said spending 14 years in the state legislature has shaped her as a good fit for the role of U.S. representative.
“I think that I have established a record where people know that I will be a strong advocate for them,” Ringo said. “I think that if we examine Congressman Labrador’s voting record we would find some votes that have not been in the best interest of the people of Idaho.”
Ringo has known that her current term in the legislature was going to be her last and she was looking for a different way to serve Idahoans in the coming years.
“I was at a position where I had decided not to run again for the legislature and I was contemplating what my next public service move might be,” she said. “And then I received a call from the chair of the Democratic Party asking me to run for the 1st Congressional District and I accepted.”
Democratic Party Chairman of Idaho Larry Kenck said that choosing Ringo as the congressional candidate for the upcoming election was the right decision.
“We as a party had been talking to various potential candidates, people that we felt had the credentials and the ability to have a strong and effective campaign for the congressional seat,” Kenck said. “Among that group was Shirley Ringo, who I have known and respected from her many years in the legislature. She’ll make a great candidate.”
The challenges are clear for a democrat seeking public office in a primarily republican state, but Kenck said that the politics in Idaho have shifted in their favor in recent years.
“Statistics will point that we are an extremely red state, and past experience points to that, but I am seeing a huge resurge of people that have had enough,” Kenck said. “They want to see balance brought back, they want to see cooperation among politicians instead of bickering, politicians actually working together for the betterment of the constituents that put them in office. And that’s what our goal is.”
Ringo spent most of her professional life as a teacher and said that her experience as an educator would contribute to the fight of representing students in Washington D.C.
“I was a public school teacher for 38 years,” Ringo said. “I understand what is needed in education and I think I have a good notion for some of the mistakes that have been made over the years in regards to that. I think that there is really nothing higher on my priority list than giving people the opportunity to move on to higher education and making it affordable.”
Sue Hovey, a longtime friend of Ringo’s, said that Ringo is the most honest person she has ever known and that trait will shine through if she is elected into Congress.
“Her ideals are steadfast, she doesn’t equivocate. She doesn’t say one thing to one person and a different thing to another,” Hovey said. “And that’s why she has had a lot of success in her political career.”
Ringo’s campaign will resume when she fills all of the key leadership positions in her campaign staff, which she expects will be sometime in the next week.
The primary election is in May 2014 and as of now there are no other democrats in the run for the 1st Congressional District.
Hovey said that although the fight will be an ‘uphill battle,’ Ringo expects to take Labrador’s seat in the upcoming election.
“”It’s not an insurmountable effort. We feel that she can win and she fully intends to win,” Hovey said. “She’s never been involved in something that she didn’t put her whole heart into, including representing middle-class Idahoans.”
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]