BOISE — With only an unassuming teacher from Marsing on the ballot and the presumed front-runner who’s been campaigning for months relegated to write-in status — and joined there by a North Idaho disruptor described as an “antisemitic troll” — the Idaho Democratic Party is in an odd spot in this year’s race for governor.

Stephen Heidt, 61, an English as a Second Language teacher at Idaho’s state prisons, had no idea he’d be the only Democrat on the ballot for governor when he filed his candidacy on the Thursday before the deadline of Friday, March 11.

“On Monday, I had to go up north to Orofino and visit the prisons up there,” he said. Then his wife called, and said two top Democratic Party state officials had stopped by the house, “and they said, ‘Your husband was the only one that filed on the Democratic ticket.’ So I learned very third-hand.”

“I feel that if the campaign is run properly, that I could actually win the election,” he said.

Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad announced his candidacy for governor as a Democrat back in November, but when he filed to run on the final day of the filing period, the Idaho Secretary of State’s office rejected his filing — because records showed he was registered as a Republican. Rognstad said he thought he’d switched back months before, but in March, announced he’d wage a write-in campaign.

Soon after, David Reilly, a failed Post Falls school board candidate and recent transplant to Idaho notorious for his antisemitic, anti-gay and anti-women writings and social media postings and his white nationalist leanings, also filed as a Democratic write-in for governor. Reilly’s school board bid drew national attention, and the national news website The Daily Beast labeled him an “anti-Semitic troll.”

Reilly’s new write-in campaign followed news of a far-right plot in North Idaho to infiltrate and take over the Kootenai County Democratic Party, install Reilly as the new chairman, and shunt Democratic funds to far-right GOP candidates and causes.

In an “Info Wars” video posted on his campaign website, Reilly rails against “leftist-extremist Democrats” while calling current Idaho Republican officials “scumbags” who he claims are “on the take.”

Idaho Democratic Party Chair Lauren Necochea said the party disavows Reilly. “David J. Reilly, and the hateful beliefs he has espoused for years, have no place in our great state much less the Idaho Democratic Party,” she said in a March 28 statement, saying, “His words and actions contradict all the values we hold dear.”

Asked what all this means for Idaho Democrats in the governor’s race, Necochea said, “It means that things are still kind of wide open. We always want Democrats to have more choices. We welcome any legitimate Democrat who wants to run. Obviously, David Reilly does not fit that description, and we believe in keeping our primaries open, and letting the process play out, and letting the voters decide.”

“I think that contrasts to the Republican Party, where we’re seeing local party bosses either make donations or make endorsements in the Republican primary,” she said.

Regarding Rognstad’s write-in campaign, she said, “We consider this a contested primary, since he’s officially registered as a write-in, and so the party office is neutral. … We’re treating this the way we would treat it if he were on the ballot and not running as a write-in. … So he still has access to all of the same things that the other legitimate Democratic candidate does.”

That candidate, Heidt, is gearing up for something fairly unexpected: A real campaign. Michelle Vincent, chair of the Elmore County Democratic Party, has signed on to be his interim campaign manager until he gears up further after the primary. “He is fully committed to running a very strong campaign,” Vincent told the Idaho Press.

Some proof: Heidt gave his two weeks’ notice on his beloved job teaching in Idaho prisons, where he’s taught both ESL and GED classes for 14 years, and will soon be officially unemployed, though it’s still two years before his planned retirement date in August of 2024.

That’s because being a state employee posed legal conflicts with running for governor. “I’m not a career politician – in fact, I’m two years out of retiring myself,” he said.

As of April 29, Heidt will be out of a job – and free to speak his mind on politics.

“I love my job,” he said. But it was on the job that he was inspired to run for office, something he’s actually done three times before, though those were all Republican bids for Congress in Utah and Washington state three decades ago that didn’t go far.

Since then, his political journey led him to become an independent, then five years ago, at the urging of his staunchly Democratic dad, to register as a Democrat. “I didn’t really have any intention of running again,” he said. “Politics kind of turned me off.”

After doing a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission in Brazil in his youth, Heidt became fluent in Portuguese, and returned to travel and live in South America for several years. That’s where he met his wife, and his children all have dual Portuguese and American citizenship.

Since then, while teaching English as a Second Language, Heidt has learned Spanish from his students, and how to teach English to those who speak other languages as well.

At the prisons, Heidt employs teaching assistants who are inmates, and they work hard for a paltry wage of about 40 cents an hour. “They’re all grown men,” he said. “They have crimes that scan the board. Some of them are going to be there for a long time. Most of them are bilingual.” He’s had T.A.’s who speak everything from Spanish to Japanese to Korean.

He looks for inmates who speak two languages and have college degrees, because they’re best able to help teach English as a Second Language. Many quit the job after a week or so, but a handful have stuck around for the past five years.

“When they started sending offenders out of state again about two years ago, I lost half my T.A.’s,” he said.

He talks with the men about their work and about current events. He shares his thoughts about things that he believes just aren’t handled correctly.

“They said, ‘Aw, you ought to run for governor,’” Heidt said. “They kept on badgering me, and I said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll think about it.’”

“There are some things that are just kind of not being dealt with,” Heidt said, from adequate funding for education to prison sentences that don’t fit the crime, to Idahoans dying or going bankrupt for lack of health care, to fair and affordable housing.

“Offenders cost $100 a day to keep in the prison system,” he said. “I’ve never used marijuana, but people should be able to have the freedom of choice in using it, as long as it does not affect other people. The crime should be endangering the public.”

Heidt said he doesn’t favor legalizing marijuana, just decriminalizing it, so offenders would receive the equivalent of a speeding ticket and be fined.

“I side with the founding fathers,” he said. “I would rather see 10 guilty men go free than convict one innocent man.”

He’s a military veteran, having served four years in the Army National Guard and four years in the Army Reserves. He holds a political science degree from Brigham Young University, a second bachelor’s degree in history and a teaching certification from Eastern Washington University, and is POST certified as a correctional officer.

Vincent said, “He has had to keep a fairly low profile because of his work restrictions. Those will disappear at the end of the month when he separates from his employment.”

“I have worked with a lot of candidates, and it’s rare to find one who is running for all the right reasons and doesn’t have ulterior motives,” she said. “He is a man of integrity and understands the office of governor is a great honor that is beholden to all Idahoans regardless of political affiliation. He is going to be a fantastic candidate and I’m thrilled to be working with him. If he wins the general election in November he will be fully prepared to assume office and ready to get to work.”

Necochea said, “I know he’s taken the steps to put the pieces of the campaign into place.”

At Vincent’s suggestion, Heidt said he had no comment on Rognstad’s write-in candidacy. On Reilly, he said he agrees with Necochea’s statement. “I don’t take him as a serious candidate,” he said.

Heidt appears to be quietly but happily anticipating the campaign trail ahead, which will soon include a website, social media and traveling the state. Any time you file to run for office, he said, “You have to accept that however slim the chances are, there’s always a chance that you might win. In this case, by filing, I did win — I was the only person that filed.”