Idaho GOP backs senator who suggested Native American ‘go back to where you came from’
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Angela Palermo, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — The Idaho Republican Party says it stands behind a North Idaho state senator who leveled a disparaging remark at a Native American Democrat at a small-town candidate forum last week.
About an hour into the moderated forum, Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Viola, left the event early after telling Democratic House candidate Trish Carter-Goodheart, “Why don’t you go back to where you came from?” according to multiple accounts of those who attended.
At the Oct. 1 forum in Kendrick, a town southeast of Moscow, six House and Senate candidates for District 6 were asked whether they thought there was discrimination in the state. Carter-Goodheart, who is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, responded that she thought racism and discrimination were real problems in the state, and referenced the history of white supremacist enclaves in North Idaho, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
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After she spoke, Foreman stood up and began to yell, saying: “I’m so sick and tired of this liberal bulls—! Why don’t you go back to where you came from?” according to a statement Carter-Goodheart released after the forum.
The Idaho Statesman was unable to obtain a recording of the forum, but two of the event’s organizers corroborated her account by phone.
“Racist comments like this one that were directed at me have no place in our community,” Carter-Goodheart told the Statesman.
Carter-Goodheart is from Lapwai, on the Nez Perce Reservation. Indigenous Nez Perce people have lived in Central Idaho and the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. Foreman was born in Lake Forest, Illinois. The Nez Perce Tribe said in a news release Monday that it was “extremely disheartened” to hear about the exchange.
“Given our history and presence in the region, it is difficult to interpret the recent incident as anything other than an attempt to racially divide people while diminishing the value of some relative to others,” the tribe said. “The Nez Perce Tribe refuses to tolerate this kind of hateful and divisive politics and we ask other elected leaders in this region to stand with us in pushing back against such offensive behavior.”
Foreman called the accusation of racism “patently false” and a “left-wing hit job” in a Facebook post two days after the forum. He wrote that Idaho “does not practice systemic racism” and recounted his own version of what took place at the forum.
“I enlightened (Carter-Goodheart) to the fact I was born in America, and I am therefore a Native American,” Foreman said. “There was no racial slur in my statement.”
Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon said in a news release Monday that the state Republican party stands behind Foreman. Moon reposted Foreman’s version of events and accused the media of “running with this racism narrative.” Moon added that she did not believe Foreman was racist or that Idaho has a racism problem.
“This was a setup, pure and simple,” Moon said. “It is entirely scurrilous as to what the Democrats and media are doing to this man.”
In his four years in the Legislature, Foreman has become known for outbursts of anger. In 2018, he yelled at a group of University of Idaho students who sought to meet with him to discuss birth control and sex education, the Statesman previously reported. A few months earlier, he was caught on camera at the Latah County Fair yelling at a man to “go straight to hell.”
About a week before the forum, the Nez Perce Tribe gathered for a United Against Hate summit in Moscow with U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit, the Latah County Human Rights Task Force, the Moscow Human Rights Commission, the Department of Justice Community Relations Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The initiative, launched by the Department of Justice, seeks to improve efforts to combat hate crimes and incidents by building relationships at a local level, the news release said.
“Working with and getting to know our neighbors is the most effective way to actively address and prevent ignorance from gaining a foothold in this region,” the Nez Perce Tribe said. “Together we can make this region a home for everyone.”