Unlimited Party Money, Same Primary Endorsements

On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court removed the last federal limit on how much a political party can spend in direct coordination with its own candidate's campaign. Idaho's Republican Party already has the tool that ruling protects: a rule letting a party committee formally endorse - and spend money for - a chosen candidate before Republican primary voters decide anything themselves. Here is what changed, what didn't, and the one thing that can put a limit back on it.

What the Supreme Court Decided

Federal campaign law has long drawn a line between two kinds of political spending. An "independent expenditure" - money a party or PAC spends on ads or mailers without coordinating with the candidate - has been unlimited since Citizens United v. FEC (2010). A "coordinated expenditure" - money a party spends working directly with its own candidate's campaign - was capped. In the 2026 cycle those federal caps ran from $65,300 up to $4 million depending on the race.

In National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, No. 24-621, the Court struck down that cap, 6-3, overturning the reasoning it had used to uphold the same limits in 2001. Justice Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion; Justice Kagan wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson.

One clarification matters: this ruling applies to the Federal Election Campaign Act, which governs candidates for the U.S. House and Senate. It does not rewrite Idaho's own state campaign finance code, and it does not by itself change how Idaho's state legislative or county primaries are financed.

Idaho Already Runs the Same System

Idaho's campaign finance code draws the identical line the Supreme Court just erased at the federal level. A county or state party central committee's direct contribution to a state legislative candidate - money coordinated with that candidate's own campaign - is capped at $2,000 per election under Idaho Code §67-6610A. An "independent expenditure" - spent without the candidate's cooperation or consent - carries no dollar limit at all under Idaho Code §67-6602.

The Idaho Republican Party's own rules authorize exactly this kind of spending in a primary. Article IX of the Rules of the Idaho Republican Party (amended June 20, 2026) lets a County Central Committee, a Legislative District Central Committee, or the State Central Committee formally "endorse Republican candidates for any position being voted on...in the primary and general election," by majority vote of members present. That is the rule the KCRCC's "Rated & Vetted" card operates under: Kootenai County's 74 precinct committeemen vote to pick winners, and the party then spends money telling more than 100,000 registered Republicans who those winners are - before the primary electorate decides anything itself. See How It's Rigged for the full documented record of that process.

That spending is already effectively unlimited locally, because it runs as independent expenditure, not a capped coordinated contribution. The KCRCC has donated $17,000+ to the Kootenai Freedom Caucus PAC to promote its own precinct committeeman slate, and the 2026 KCRCC voter guide was produced and mailed under the Idaho Republican Party's own PAC - official party funds spent campaigning in an internal party race. See Brent Regan: The Chairman for the sourced record.

This is the point of connection to the Supreme Court's ruling. It does not touch Idaho's $2,000 coordinated-contribution cap directly. But it removes the last federal guardrail on party-coordinated money nationally, on reasoning - that limiting party money "distorts the political system" and weakens parties - identical to the reasoning that already justifies unlimited independent spending by a small group of party insiders picking Kootenai County's primary winners. National party committees can now coordinate without limit on Idaho's federal races, and that same national party apparatus increasingly funds and directs the state and county party structures that already control every primary endorsement documented on this site.

Idaho Republican Party leadership drew the same connection within a day of the ruling. Bryan Smith - Idaho's Republican National Committeeman and the IFF's Vice Chair, serving directly under IFF Chair and KCRCC Chairman Brent Regan - sent Idaho Republicans a newsletter walking through the decision.

Smith illustrated the point with a hypothetical Republican primary between Lieutenant Governor Scott Bedke and Attorney General Raul Labrador, writing that a party-coordinated, endorsed candidate "could create a formidable advantage in a contested Republican primary." He was describing a possible future for a statewide race. The mechanism he described - a primary endorsement plus unlimited coordinated party money - is the one Kootenai County's KCRCC already runs today.

How This Gets Fixed

Only one thing changes Article IX: a vote of the people who sit on the committees that adopted it. That path runs through your own precinct, not Washington.

1. 1

   Run for Precinct Committeeman

   74 PC seats in Kootenai County, one per precinct, elected by Republican primary voters in your own neighborhood. Under Article IV of the state party rules, voting members of the County Central Committee are its elected Precinct Committeemen, plus a handful of officers the PCs themselves elect. PCs are the only people with a direct vote on KCRCC business - including whether to make an endorsement at all.

   See What Can I Do? for how to register, affiliate as Republican, and get ready to run.

2. 2

   Win, and put a rule change on the table

   A rule change doesn't reach the state party's Rules Committee on its own. Article I of the state party rules requires a proposed rule to first be "considered and approved by a County, District, Regional, or State Executive Committee" before the Rules Committee will even hear it. A KCRCC resolution - passed by its own precinct committeemen - is one of the ways a change to Article IX gets formally introduced.

3. 3

   Get elected as a delegate

   County conventions send delegates to the Idaho GOP State Convention and elect the county officers who sit on the State Central Committee. Delegate selection is not automatic: in 2026, KCRCC's own chairman placed loyalists at the top of the delegate list without disclosing the selection method. See Brent Regan: The Chairman for the documented record.

4. 4

   The Rules Committee, then the full State Central Committee, votes

   The state party's standing Rules Committee reviews any proposed change to Article IX before it goes to a vote of the full State Central Committee. That committee is currently chaired by Brent Regan - the same chairman this site documents. Changing who sits on the County Central Committee, and who it sends up the chain, is what changes who sits on that committee next.

None of this requires changing federal law or waiting on another Supreme Court ruling. It requires enough Kootenai County Republicans willing to run for Precinct Committeeman, show up, and vote - the same 74 seats that already control every endorsement documented on this site. See What Can I Do? to get ready for the next primary.