Five members of Idaho’s notorious “Gang of Eight” lost their own Republican primary elections on May 20, 2026 — defeated not by Democrats, but by fellow Republicans who decided their extreme positions had gone too far.
The Results: Not Even Close
Senators Josh Kohl and Glenneda Zuiderveld, along with Representatives Lucas Cayler of Caldwell, David Leavitt, and Faye Thompson of McCall, all fell to Republican challengers in Tuesday’s primary. The margins tell the story clearly. Zuiderveld lost 40% to 60% — a 20-point gap. Thompson lost 41% to 59%. Kohl lost 42% to 58%. Leavitt lost 45% to 55%. Cayler came closest, losing 47% to 53%, but still lost by more than 200 votes. Even in their own partisan strongholds, the Gang of Eight’s brand of scorched-earth conservatism couldn’t survive a direct vote from the party faithful.
Tuesday’s results weren’t limited to five people. A total of nine Republican incumbents lost their primaries statewide — one of the largest incumbent purges in recent Idaho history. The scale of the rejection sent an unmistakable message about the direction voters want their party to take.
Who Are the ‘Gang of Eight’?
The “Gang of Eight” earned their nickname by forming a far-right bloc within Idaho’s already-conservative Republican caucus. The group vowed to aggressively slash state spending — pushing for major cuts to education funding, public health programs, and other state services that many Idahoans depend on. Their approach was confrontational by design: they used their cohesion as a bloc to push the Republican-controlled legislature further right than leadership and more mainstream Republicans were comfortable going.
The tension had been building for years. More mainstream Idaho Republicans — many of them also deeply conservative by national standards — viewed the Gang’s tactics as creating political chaos without delivering results. Rather than advancing a conservative governing agenda, critics within the party argued the bloc was primarily interested in disruption and publicity rather than passing workable legislation. State services were caught in the crossfire, and constituents noticed.
What Voters Said at the Ballot Box
The primary results are a direct referendum from Republican voters on the Gang of Eight’s approach. In a closed primary state where only registered Republicans can vote in Republican primaries, the people who chose to replace these incumbents were conservative voters — not moderates, not Democrats, not independents. The candidates who beat them were not liberals running on a softer platform. They were Republicans who argued that their party could be conservative without being destructive.
For the five Gang of Eight members who lost, the message from their own base was unmistakable: cutting everything in sight isn’t a governing philosophy. Idaho voters have spoken — and they want results, not just ideological warfare inside their own party.
Who Survived — and What Comes Next
Three other Gang of Eight members — Sen. Christy Zito and Reps. Clint Hostetler and Kent Marmon — survived their primaries. But the loss of five members fundamentally guts the bloc’s ability to operate as a unified force in the statehouse. A group of eight that loses five is no longer a reliable voting bloc. The far-right faction that has shaped Idaho Republican politics for years just lost the numbers it needs to wield outsized influence over the caucus.
The outcome in Idaho will be watched closely by political strategists across the country as a data point on whether the far-right within the Republican Party has reached the limits of what even conservative voters will accept. Tuesday’s results suggest that answer, at least in Idaho, is yes.
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