District 28: School choice takes center stage in three-way rematch

By: Sean Dolan

Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on March 23, 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.

POCATELLO, Idaho — The same three candidates who ran in 2024 will face off again in May for District 28 House Seat A.

All three have different personal experiences that have shaped their opinions on school choice.

One attended a rural Idaho school with limited resources, another attended segregated schools in Georgia, and one is a transplant who sought out Idaho’s conservative values.

Rep. Rick Cheatum, R-Pocatello, is seeking a third term. He faces a three-way rematch with James Lamborn and Mike Saville. The victor will face Democrat Kim Jackman in November.

Cheatum won the 2024 primary with 40% of the vote, Lamborn received 33.2% and Saville received 26.8%.

The race had a massive spending discrepancy from their respective campaigns and from political action committees.

Saville’s campaign spent $4,007 with no influence from PACs. Lamborn’s campaign spent $9,354 and a PAC that combats political extremism, called Defend and Protect Idaho, spent $3,490 to oppose Lamborn.

PACs were more interested in Cheatum. Two spent a combined $73,416 to oppose him, and several PACs spent a combined $26,167 to support him. Cheatum’s campaign spent $36,020. Total spending reached $135,603.

It’s too early to tell how much money PACs will pour into the rematch this spring.

Every term is a learning experience, Cheatum said, and he thinks he can become more valuable to his district with a third.

“I’d like to give it another shot,” he said.

The retired businessman has a special interest in rural schools. He was raised in a town of 2,000 and noticed a discrepancy in education when he went to college.

“It didn’t take long to realize that as a rural student, I didn’t get an equal education to those kids who lived in the metropolitan areas,” he said.

The deficiency he’s seen in rural school funding is part of why he last year opposed House Bill 93, the bill that created the $50 million Parental Choice Tax Credit. He said he’s not sure if the tax credit will take resources away from public schools, but he knows schools have a lot of needs. He said the tax credit is a redistribution of wealth.

“I think there’s an issue with it, yes, when we have so many needs across this state, not only in rural areas, but you know, we’ve cut highway transportation funding this year very dramatically,” Cheatum said.

His opposition to school choice bills put a target on his back in the 2024 primary.

The Idaho Federation for Children PAC spent $63,546 to oppose Cheatum two years ago. Make Liberty Win, a Virginia-based national PAC, spent $9,870 against him.

While the Idaho Federation for Children sounds like an in-state group, nearly all of its 2024 funding, $574,000, came from Alabama-based national super PAC AFC Victory Fund. Billionaire Jeff Yass, who supports private school vouchers, gave the super PAC $8.7 million in 2023 and 2024.

“It’s been really hard,” Cheatum said. “I certainly can’t match the donations.”

On other education issues, Cheatum said he supports career and technical education and the Idaho Launch grant program, which helps cover college tuition for in-demand careers.

“We need people to work as plumbers and carpenters and nurses and things that don’t necessarily take a four-year degree,” he said. “And I think that’s where we’ve kind of ignored our workforce in this state.”

Cheatum said he doesn’t go negative when he campaigns and prefers to talk about his own accomplishments. He said his philosophy comes from Braver Angels, a nonprofit that promotes civil discourse. 

Lamborn declined a phone interview with EdNews through his campaign’s press contact, Bjorn Handeen of Las Vegas-based political consulting firm RMC Strategy. Handeen asked EdNews for written questions and Lamborn responded via email Friday.

According to its website, RMC has worked with multiple candidates in Idaho, including Scott Herndon, Sen. Tammy Nichols, Rep. Lucas Cayler, Rep. Cornell Rasor, Sen. Brandon Shippy, Sen. Codi Galloway and Rep. Elaine Price. The American Federation for Children is also a client.

In his email, Lamborn said he brings real-world experience from the private sector, where he has managed operations and worked with budgets.  He’s also active in his church. In a follow-up message, Handeen said Lamborn is a self-employed day trader and investor who manages his own portfolio.

He’s a transplant from Washington State who moved to American Falls after the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, according to his website. These events “revealed that our home state had become increasingly hostile toward those who shared our conservative values and Christian faith,” he wrote on his website.

But after living in American Falls for a few years, he wrote on his website, he noticed the area’s elected officials do not represent the conservative values of its residents.

Cheatum is a “counterfeit Republican” and a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Lamborn wrote on his website. District 28 deserves a constitutional, Christian, unapologetically conservative Republican who will fight for lower taxes and a strong, safer future for our children, his website states.

On the issues page on his website, Lamborn has sections on school choice and parental rights.

“It is now time that we as free Idahoans, virtuous conservatives, and autonomous adults correct our prior oversight … and take back, with all righteous authority bestowed unto us by nature and nature’s God, total subjugation over that which belongs to us solely: the type and amount of education to which we allow our children’s adherence,” the website reads.

Lamborn’s written response to EdNews was more moderate on school choice.

“I support giving parents more flexibility and options in their children’s education, including tools like the Parental Choice Tax Credit,” Lamborn wrote in an email. “At the same time, I believe any program should be implemented carefully, with accountability and a clear understanding of long-term costs.”

On career training and Idaho Launch, Lamborn wrote in email that he supports Idaho’s workforce. However, Idaho Launch is a large program and needs careful oversight.

“I believe we should continue to evaluate Idaho Launch to ensure it is targeted, effective, and aligned with real workforce needs before considering any expansion,” he wrote.

Lamborn believes it is important for everyday citizens to step forward and serve.

“I want to help ensure that state government remains focused on its core responsibilities, supports families, and uses taxpayer dollars wisely,” Lamborn wrote in an email.

Saville says he’s not a “party guy.”

He ran for the Idaho Legislature as a Democrat in 2016, 2018 and 2020, then as an independent in 2022 and a Republican in 2024.

“I’m for the country first, not for the party,” Saville told EdNews. “This party that’s in Idaho is a syndicate.”

Saville, 81, served his country for six years in the U.S. Air Force from 1962 to 1968 and later worked for IBM for 32 years.

He said he contracted polio as a child, which has shaped his views on the importance of vaccines. He later attended segregated schools in Georgia in the 1950s, which he did not like. He said he was almost kicked off a bus for sitting next to a Black woman.

“All those things from that experience, you know, as far as racial discrimination, I just hated that. I mean, I didn’t understand it, but you had to go along with the program,” Saville said.

He said those experiences in the South are part of why he opposes Idaho’s $50 million private school tax credit program. He is for public education.

“As far as I’m concerned, this privatizing education is a back door to segregation, and I experienced that in Georgia,” Saville said.

Coming from a military family, Saville said he’s not a fan of President Donald Trump. Around the time Saville was serving in the military, Trump received a military exemption from the war in Vietnam.

“Mr. Trump, in this household, he’s known as ‘bone spur,'” Saville said.

Saville said he’s running because he wants to change the direction of the state. He doesn’t like what’s happened to Idaho over the last 40 years. He specifically mentioned the hardline conservative Gang of Eight and said that group is wrong.

“I am a different kind of person, I guess, but I try to do things as best I can,” Saville said.

According to Idaho’s election database, Saville has run in nine elections. The only races he’s won were uncontested Democratic primaries.

“I might never get elected, but I’m gonna give it a shot,” he said.

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