About Josh
My family moved to Arco, Idaho when I was 9. My father worked in nuclear research as a mechanical engineer at INL. Prior to INL he worked at the Savanah nuclear facility in South Carolina and prior to his career as an engineer my father worked running a wheat farm in Bozeman, MT while attending college. In 1998, when I was 16, my family purchased a small farm near Princeton, Idaho, which my father farmed from 2006 until his death in 2025. I attended the University of Idaho and graduated sum cum laude in 2004 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. My wife, Jessica, and I married in 2003 and moved to Longview, WA in 2005 where I worked at a Weyerhaeuser pulp mill (now owned by Nippon Dynawave). While in Longview we had 4 children and my wife finished a bachelors in Nursing. We returned to Idaho in 2018 when I got a job with Clearwater Paper in Lewiston, Idaho. Our 4 children are Elizabeth (17), Arianna (14), Matthew (11) and Benjamin (9). In 2025 I completed an MBA from WSU in Pullman.
About Jessica
Jessica comes from a family of farmers in Illinois in the 1800’s that bought a big ranch in Nebraska in the 1930’s. In the 1950’s her great grandparents purchased a ranch in Arco, Idaho that stayed in the family, operated by her father and her and family until 2006.
Josh’s Working Career
I have worked in traditional heavy industry my entire career, nearly 21 years now. All in pulp and paper mills, except for an internship with Potlatch as a sawmill engineering in 2004 and 2005. I have filled various roles including engineer, maintenance planner, maintenance supervisor, maintenance coordinator, operations supervisor and currently operations assistant superintendent.
Josh’s Beliefs and Philosophy
I have voted Republican my entire adult life. The purpose of government is to serve the people. Our rights as citizens come from our creator. I have attended church faithfully my entire adult life. I spent 11 years as a volunteer in a juvenile detention facility. I am fiscally conservative. I believe our countries fiscal path is unsustainable and that changes must be made very quickly or our nation risks social, economic and political upheaval. I am socially conservative. Marriage is between men and women. Abortion is reprehensible.
About This Election
I admit to having no prior experience as an elected official. Currently I am running for office while holding down a high pressure, 50 hour-a-week job and raising a family. I recognize this election as a unique opportunity. It is time for a fresh perspective in Washington. It is time for a non-career politician to serve. We need someone who is still grounded in the struggles of everyday citizens. I intend to go to Washington to fight the regulations that vex the common man. I will fight to represent and defend the needs of the citizens of Idaho for everyday livability and limited government. Our state needs a fresh face in DC with a new perspective, someone who is still in touch with the daily life of the middle class, someone who is not a career politician. My rural background and my industrial background means that I am far more comfortable interacting with the daily lives of everyday Idahoans than I am with an office environment. I have extensive professional experience making painful, high stake decisions. Pulp mills are extremely difficult to staff and operate. Work hours are very long, routinely 16+ hour days, and operating and maintenance costs are very high and controversial decisions must be made after long days on industrial machinery that is very dangerous. Downtime cost's routinely run $50,000 to $250,000 per day, resulting in very high pressure environments. I intend to bring this leadership and decision making experience to the US Senate. I also have experience interacting with the federal regulatory bureaucracy and I have a strong desire to see the systems governing our nation changed to make the lives of every day citizens easier. If elected I will be the only member of the senate, and perhaps all of congress, with 20 years heavy industrial experience. I will be there to help the citizens of Idaho rebuild our great nation. We need a complete rejuvenation of our production capacity from harvesting and mining through refining and processing to the finished products. Very few members of congress can feel at home at a farm, mine, smelter, rolling mill, sawmill, steel mill or machine shop.
Join Josh in building a bright future for Idaho.
