The night before his first barbecue competition, Phil McGrane was still welding a smoker he'd built from scratch.

"I had signed up for the competition as a way to get myself motivated. I remember going to Home Depot the next morning at 6 a.m. to buy welding wire in order to kind of finish this very raw, unfinished smoker for my first competition," McGrane said.

That scratch-built trailer is still the one McGrane loads up for competitions today.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane has held the office since 2021. Still, the barbecue bug bit him long before that, during his time with AmeriCorps building houses for Habitat for Humanity in Anniston, Alabama. The hobby deepened in law school at the University of Denver, when a summer clerkship at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in Washington, D.C., took him to his first major competition on Pennsylvania Avenue.

He walked the whole event and watched Myron Mixon, widely regarded as the winningest man in competitive barbecue, present a whole hog.

"I walked the streets and all the competitions, and I got information. I was like, I gotta do this," McGrane said.

His competition team, Phil and Lou BBQ, is named for his father-in-law, Lou, who helped him at that first event. McGrane, who competes in Kansas City style — sweet and savory — traveled to Unadilla, Georgia, in 2013 for a barbecue school at Mixon's property. The trip changed his trajectory. That same year, out of 750 teams competing in the Sam's Club National BBQ Tour, Phil and Lou BBQ finished 18th in the nation overall and third in pulled pork.

He has since woven his two identities together, including a rub recipe that won a ribbon at the American Royal World's Championship Barbecue Contest in Kansas City.

When McGrane first ran for office, he turned to the one thing he knew would bring neighbors and friends together — throwing on HIS “SECRETARY OF STEAK” APRON and hosting a backyard barbecue.

It worked, and the tradition stuck.

"Political events can often be stuffy. Whenever I do it, it's meant to be very family-friendly — bringing kids out, eating good food, listening to music," McGrane said.

Most people who know McGrane from the ballot don't picture a competitive pitmaster, but he said the contrast works in his favor.

"When people see me, they certainly don't want to think of a welder or a competitive pitmaster, but I've done it at a high level, and anybody who's ever had my food recognizes that," McGrane said.

The hardest part of competition barbecue is timing. At home, you can tell guests dinner is at 6:30 and serve at 7:30. On the competition floor, that kind of drift is disqualifying.

"Everything has a 10-minute window. 11 a.m. is chicken, 11:30 is ribs, noon is pork, 12:30 is brisket. You have to have your food ready to eat in its best form in that 10-minute window when it pops up. And you're doing three or four meats simultaneously that are very different," McGrane said.

His favorite meat is brisket, though he argues competition chicken is the most technically demanding. The level of care it requires would be too expensive to replicate at a restaurant.

"It was so tender that when it hit the ground, it just exploded. When something just truly melts in your mouth — the savory, sweet — it's amazing," McGrane said.

Fellow competitors show up each year to help cook for 400 guests at his annual Secretary of State fundraiser, manning smokers and lending equipment through the night.

"When you're starting a brisket or a pork shoulder at 11 p.m., and you're having to tend to it all night long, you get to know people. You build a strong sense of bond and community," McGrane said.

McGrane makes the case that Idaho belongs in any conversation about great beef. When he attended barbecue school in Georgia, he brought a Snake River Farms brisket from home. High-end Wagyu beef and cuts like brisket and tri-tip that top restaurant menus across the country trace back to Idaho cattle, he said, though most Idahoans don't know it.

"In Texas, they import Idaho beef for the best beef," McGrane said.

His go-to comfort food is a burger. He grilled one before every law school exam, including the ones that started at 8 a.m.

"There isn't a better time than hanging out, eating really good barbecue," McGrane said.