The Coach vs. the Firefighter: Connor Cook challenges incumbent Barbara Ehardt in District 33 showdown

By: Sean Dolan

Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on April 15, 2026

Editor’s note: This story is part of a series of candidate profiles Idaho Education News will publish ahead of the May 19 primary election. We’re highlighting competitive races impacting education policy. Click here to see our Elections webpage featuring a list of all candidates and much more. Click here to see your voter information. Follow our elections blog for breaking news and insights.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — An Idaho Falls firefighter is challenging a House Education Committee member who believes schools should teach students to love our country.

Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, will face Republican Connor Cook in the May 19 primary election in District 33 House Seat A. She is seeking a fifth term.

In her four Republican primary elections, Ehardt has been challenged by a Republican just once. She faced her first and only Republican in 2022, when she beat Jeff Thompson with 57% of the vote.

Cook, a newcomer to politics, said he thinks Ehardt has stopped listening to her constituents. He said he would bring common sense to the Statehouse from a blue collar perspective. He’s worked as a paramedic and firefighter for 10 years and is a union member.

Ehardt has been vocal in her support of legislation that restricts the LGBTQ community. She sponsored the nation’s first law prohibiting transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports. She told EdNews that the transgender community started the culture war, not the Idaho Legislature.

Meanwhile, Cook said he thinks Idaho is becoming more authoritarian, with the toughest restrictions in the nation on which bathrooms transgender people can use. He said bills like that are a distraction from the state budget.

Ehardt didn’t have a primary challenger in 2024, so political action committees didn’t report any spending on her campaign. But this year is different.

The Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC, a group with out-of-state backers that support school choice, recently reported $25,165 to support Ehardt.

On campaign fundraising, Ehardt has raised $13,792 to Cook’s $11,075. But Ehardt started with a $24,657 war chest from previous election cycles.

The Idaho Legislature did not start the culture war against the transgender community, Ehardt told EdNews.

“I think it’s important to understand that the trans ideology was a cultural war perpetrated on all of us,” Ehardt said. “We didn’t start it.”

About 10 years ago, Ehardt said, no one was allowed to voice opposition to a “biological male feeling like they were a biological female.”

The “transgender ideology people” demanded that everyone affirm who they are and if someone disagreed, they were silenced, canceled, mocked or de-platformed.

“Your choice was affirmation or experience the backlash, and that’s not right,” she said.

So, Ehardt acted. She sponsored a piece of legislation in 2020 that would become the first-of-its-kind in the nation. The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act prohibits biological males from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. After Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law several other states followed suit, including Florida and Arkansas.

“I could see the direction we were going, and, ultimately, the Fairness in Women’s Sports created an entire cultural shift,” Ehardt said. “Up until that point, people were too afraid to talk about guys in girls bathrooms, about pronouns, about all these other things.”

Since then, the Legislature has passed a litany of laws aimed at the LGBTQ community, including: 

• A bill that established there are only two sexes, which can be observed at birth
• A bill that prohibits governments from compelling employees and students to use someone's preferred pronouns
• A bill that establishes criminal penalties for transgender people who use their preferred bathroom

"When people talk about cultural wars, they forget that those who started it were the trans ideology people," she said.

Ehardt is also passionate about what educators teach kids.

This session, she sponsored Senate Bill 1336 to overhaul Idaho’s civics curriculum. Little recently sign it into law.

On the final day of the legislative session, Ehardt delivered an impassioned speech in support of the bill, which declares that public schools should inspire a love of nation and exemplify patriotism.

She told her colleagues in the House that it’s impossible to teach someone to love our country by teaching propaganda that is “antithetical to how this country came about.”

“Too many students right now believe that socialism and communism are better options to the republic,” Ehardt told EdNews. “Why is that? Somewhere we are failing in teaching about the virtues of a republic.”

In an interview, she said the bill deals with the “heart of America” and our founding principles. She said educating students on historical documents would help them understand how to uphold and maintain the republic.

When asked if she thinks intentionally teaching students to love our country is an example of propaganda, she said absolutely not.

On other issues, Ehardt said she would pursue eliminating property taxes for primary residences, if re-elected, and would offset the loss of revenue by raising sales tax.

“It has been a humbling honor to serve the people of District 33 in the state of Idaho, and I hope to continue,” Ehardt said.

Cook says Idaho has moved away from common sense.

Legislation that targets which bathrooms transgender people can use and forces students to have a minute of silence are a distraction from the real issue: the state budget. And he believes the Legislature is taking away local control from counties, cities and school districts.

“People feel like the state of Idaho has just gone rogue and is doing whatever they want,” Cook said. “I think being out and about and talking to people, people are very excited for a grassroots down home, blue collar guy to take the leap for them.”

As a firefighter and paramedic in Idaho Falls for over 10 years, Cook said he sees the impacts of cuts to Medicaid, the Idaho State Police and public education. He said chasing tax cuts has compromised the state.

“We’re last or second to last in the country as far as spending (per student), and I feel like we’re celebrating a break even policy,” Cook said. “Teachers are kind of under siege as far as wages and benefits.”

As a member of the Idaho Falls firefighters union, Cook said he is concerned about the Legislature’s crackdown on teachers’ unions. Gov. Brad Little signed HB 516 into law last week, prohibiting taxpayer funding of teachers unions.

“The big question that I have to ask is, where’s the threat?” he said. “You can’t tell me that the teachers union is bankrupting the state.”

Cook said he plays hockey with school teachers and has been meeting educators over the past month. He said teachers are doing the best they can with what they have, and schools face challenges with recruitment and retention.

“They’re just trying to see our youth become educated,” he said. “They’re trying to see them become competitive.”

He said he fears the Legislature won’t stop at the teachers’ union. He said the “far far right” is going to come after any bargaining ability or labor rights in the state.

“I feel like they will inevitably come after firefighters,” he said.

Cook attended Idaho schools and graduated from the College of Southern Idaho. This is his maiden voyage into politics. He said he decided to run to stand up for regular people in Idaho Falls.

His top three priorities are education, infrastructure and public safety.

While on the job, he said he’s seen the same people get stuck with the same problems when they lose Medicaid. And he sees more narcotics in his community when state troopers are stretched thin.

Cook describes himself as a traditional, common sense Republican. He said voting on party lines has gotten the state into a mess.

“The good thing about me is I am my own man,” Cook said. “I am not bought and paid for by anybody. I’m not chasing a Freedom Foundation score. I’m not chasing anything like that. What I’m chasing is bringing Idaho back to Idaho.”

As the election nears, Cook said his campaign will have local cops, firefighters and teachers knocking on doors in his district.

“I would have never imagined I was going to have this much momentum and have this much support, but I think it just shows how hungry people are here for a change,” Cook said.