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Chandler Hadraba, the Republican candidate for State Representative in Idaho, is dead serious about wanting to make Bigfoot the state animal.
For the record, the current state animal of Idaho is, well, there isn’t one.
Idaho has a state amphibian (the Idaho Giant Salamander), a state bird (the Mountain Bluebird), a state fish (the Cutthroat Trout), a state horse (the Appaloosa), a state insect (the Monarch Butterfly), a state raptor (the Peregrine Falcon), and a state dinosaur (Oryctodromeus cubicularis), according to the Idaho Secretary of State’s website, but no official state animal.
Chandler Hadraba is running against the incumbent, Democrat Sonia Galavis, for the office of Idaho District 16 State Representative.
Galavis says her biggest focus as State Representative will be “protecting our public schools, making sure the profession has what it needs, making sure we’re addressing the pipeline for teachers and administrators, and really safeguarding the funds that are needed to run public schools and safeguard against vouchers.”
Hadraba, on the other hand, says he wants to promote judicial reform, provide more support for unplanned pregnancies, and … Bigfoot.
“I really want to make Idaho number one for Bigfoot tourism. I think this is a creative way to have our rural communities and remote areas benefit more from tourism in such a great state,” said Hadraba.
He also wants to make Bigfoot Idaho’s state animal and offer Bigfoot hunting tags.
Bigfoot sightings in the state of Idaho are not uncommon. Neither are lake creatures like the Loch Ness Monster.
Nor is the concept of a politician trying to capitalize on Bigfoot financially.
In 2021, Justin Humphrey, a state representative in Oklahoma introduced a bill in the Oklahoma state House that would institute a official Bigfoot hunting season in the Sooner State.
The thing is, it was the state of Washington that made news earlier this year when the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office received an inquiry from a hunter visiting from out of town who wanted to know the legality of shooting Bigfoot if he were to stumble upon it.