GOP challengers make gains but lose bid to oust hard right in North Idaho

A rebel Republican bloc aiming to curb far-right extremism in North Idaho made significant gains Tuesday, flipping dozens of local seats, but fell short of the votes needed to change the hard-line GOP leadership in an area with historic ties to the far right.

The primary-election showdown in Kootenai County, a mountainous region near the Canadian border, drew national attention as a rare example of self-described “traditional” Republicans organizing against the party’s hard-right swing of recent years. Ultimately, however, a majority of members of the county GOP committee kept their jobs.