Blueprint for an Even Better Idaho

Idaho's small businesses are the engine of our economy, and Tommy Ahlquist knows that firsthand — as an entrepreneur who built multiple businesses, signed countless paychecks, and personally navigated the regulatory obstacles that government puts in the way of job creators. His Blueprint calls for reducing burdensome regulations, reforming Idaho's tax code to stimulate investment, and creating a state government that views small businesses as partners, not revenue sources to be taxed and regulated into submission.

Key priorities: Eliminate excessive state regulations; reform the business tax environment; create a Small Business Advisory Council; streamline permitting processes for startups and expansions.

Tommy believes that every Idaho child deserves an education that prepares them for a successful future. His approach rejects the one-size-fits-all model of federal education mandates in favor of locally driven solutions built around what Idaho employers actually need. The Blueprint calls for creating formal partnerships between Idaho schools and local businesses so that curriculum and training programs align directly with available jobs in our communities.

Key priorities: School-business partnership programs in every region; expanded vocational and technical training pathways; performance-based accountability for schools; opposition to federal overreach in Idaho education.

As a physician who spent years in the emergency room, Tommy Ahlquist understands healthcare policy differently than most politicians — he's lived it. His Blueprint calls for repealing and replacing Obamacare with patient-centered, market-driven alternatives that expand access without destroying choice. Tommy opposes government-run healthcare and believes that competition, transparency, and personal responsibility are the foundations of a functional healthcare system.

Key priorities: Repeal Obamacare mandates; expand healthcare competition across state lines; address the opioid crisis with a comprehensive prevention, treatment, and law enforcement approach; reduce regulatory barriers for healthcare providers.

Tommy Ahlquist campaigned on a clear commitment to fiscal discipline: find $100 million in wasteful government spending and return it to Idaho taxpayers. His team identified specific, achievable savings — starting with moving state employee health insurance to a self-funded model, as 29 other states have already done. The Blueprint was clear: cutting waste does not mean cutting services; it means running government with the same accountability and efficiency that Tommy applied to his own businesses.

Key priorities: Cut $100 million in wasteful spending; self-insure state employee health plan; eliminate duplicative programs; oppose any new broad-based tax increases; enact a Taxpayer Protection Act.

Career politicians have occupied Idaho's statehouse for too long, and Tommy Ahlquist ran as the candidate who would change that — starting with himself. His Blueprint calls for meaningful term limits on state legislators and executives, combined with sweeping ethics reforms that close loopholes, increase transparency, and hold elected officials accountable to voters rather than special interests.

Key priorities: Constitutional term limits for state legislators and executives; comprehensive ethics disclosure requirements; ban on legislators and their families lobbying the legislature for a set period after leaving office; independent ethics oversight.

Idaho's public lands are a birthright of every Idahoan — not the property of federal bureaucrats in Washington. Tommy Ahlquist's Blueprint calls for aggressive defense of state and local management of public lands, protection of Idaho's water rights, and ensuring that Idahoans maintain access to the forests, rivers, and mountains that define our state's identity.

Key priorities: Fight federal overreach on land management; protect Idaho water sovereignty; support sustainable agriculture and resource industries; maintain and expand recreational access to public lands; defend mining, timber, and grazing rights.