Jennifer Ellis has lost friends and received threats in her fight to get the Idaho GOP out of the grips of an increasingly far-right ideology. But she’s no liberal – she’s a conservative rancher who knows her way around firearms and has been a behind the scene player in GOP politics for years. Now she’s trying to pull her party back from its increasing coziness with militias, anti-vaxxers and other far-right groups.
Her activism is part of a growing cohort of anti-extremism groups around the country that have increased as once-fringe views have started seeping into mainstream politics.
Ellis and other anti-extremist activists have an uphill battle in ruby red Idaho, but they’re fighting and winning some battles. And no battle could be bigger than the upcoming election.