Paulette Jordan enters governor's race

Idaho Rep. Paulette Jordan hopes to become the first woman to serve as Idaho governor and the first Native American woman to serve as governor of any state.

Jordan, a Democrat from Plummer, announced her candidacy Thursday in Moscow.

The 38-year-old is a native of Idaho and an enrolled member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho.

Jordan’s message is “justice for all,” said an announcement of her candidacy sent to media.

“As a society, we must move beyond labels which separate us and redis-cover the human-ity which unites us,” Jordan said. “Dis-crim-ination damages lives, it harms families, and it alienates Idahoans. We want to keep our Idaho communities intact because Idaho’s future belongs to all of us.”

Jordan is serving her second term in the Idaho House of Representatives. She is a member of the Idaho House Resources and Conservation Committee, State Affairs Committee, and the Energy, Environment & Technology Committee. Jordan is also an appointed Idaho Representative to the Energy and Environment Committee of the Council of State Governments for the Western Region.?

“I grew up in a farming family and my grandparents showed me that cultivating the land was a continuation of our ancestral traditions of caring for homelands,” Jordan said, in a press release. “Coeur d’Alene peoples have cared for Idaho homelands since time immemorial and Idahoans today practice the same combination of self-sufficiency and cooperation that my grandparents did. This reminds me of how connected we are to one another, it reminds me that Idaho is my family.”

Jordan attended the University of Washington, and she completed specialized certificates at the University of Idaho and at the Harvard John F. Kennedy school of government.

“When I asked myself how I could serve Idaho even better, the governor’s office was my answer,” she said.

Jordan’s public service extends to tribal and governmental groups across the nation. She plans to draw from her experience as a minority party member to inform her leadership as governor.

“The majority party can be insular and keeps their circle small, because they do not need to cooperate to advance their goals. But members of the minority party must engage colleagues across the aisle, and develop meaningful comprehension of policies and positions held by others, so that the shared work of governing can succeed,” she said. “In my family, our circle can always get bigger, and that’s what I see for Idaho. A bigger circle is what achieving justice for all looks like.”