Summary of the Ammon Bundy for Governor Campaign

Summary of the Ammon Bundy for Governor Campaign

We started planning the campaign in the middle of 2020 and began to organize the first part of 2021. In May of 2021 we filed the necessary paperwork and immediately were attacked by the Republican Party establishment. It was very telling that they seemed to be so worried about us. On June 19th we had the Big Announcement, where I published the Keep Idaho IDAHO plan and began to travel the state to promote it. Since that June, we have held over 223 Town-Halls, Meet N Greets and public events. We put over 33,500 miles on the campaign RV and never once spent an Idaho night in a hotel room. Lots of nights in the RV though. We traveled the state 6 times reaching almost every county in Idaho each round, with a few additional visits up north and out east. It has been my pleasure to talk to thousands of Idahoans in every part of the state.

I have to give Wendy so much credit as she set up and took down all the gear for each Town-Hall for over a year and a half. Many others helped in certain areas as well: Tom & Rebeca, Bob & Kathy, Shane & Khara, Alicia and others, including a child or two of my own that always traveled with us. I can say for certain that Idaho is a most beautiful state with unbelievable diversified landscapes of rivers, mountains, farms and valleys. We are blessed to live here and now more than ever I want to Keep Idaho IDAHO. 

There was also so much going on that the campaign staff was not part of organizing. Booths at county fairs, parades, passing out flyers and door hangers and, of course, the infamous flag waving at a busy intersection. Most of this was done by volunteers with their efforts. It was simply astounding!  The effort that so many people put in on their own made it look like we had millions of IACI dollars paying people everywhere to campaign for us. But, it was mostly done by Idahoans on their own time. I think they call that a grassroots campaign!

In the end, the campaign was not successful in obtaining the governor’s office, but we did educate and expand the truth about what is happening to Idaho. Our once little echo-chamber of about 5,000 people has now grown to over 100,000. Idaho will be affected by a better knowledge of the truth for generations because of this campaign. And I pray the truth will grow, expand and eventually set us free from the Idaho establishment that is destroying our land and the fruits of our labor.

Throughout the campaign we could see the great challenges all Idahoans face when it comes to stopping Idaho’s slide into leftist liberalism. But, every time we polled, over 40% of Idahoans either did not know or illogically believed that the Idaho establishment was somehow conservative and liberty minded. Thousands of people came to our Town-Halls, but most Idahoans never heard the truth about what is going on in the offices of the Idaho government. They never gave the truth a chance, and once again went to the voting booth and voted either the "R" or the "D", not knowing anything about the people they voted for. This has been the plight of Idaho politics for the last 40 years. We worked diligently to break this pattern, but in the end, we were not successful. 

Nonetheless, the overall support for this campaign was amazing. We had over 2,088 orders from the online store. Most were t-shirts or some type of gear. Think of all the Bundy for Governor paraphernalia out there! I hope people keep wearing them even though the campaign is over. The bumper stickers, signs, t-shirts and other gear mean more than just supporting a candidate; they stand for preserving our way of life, our families, our communities and even our liberty! 

Besides the online store, we had 6,076 donations to the campaign to date, totaling nearly $750,000 in contributions. That may not be a lot to an establishment candidate, but each dime was spent with precision and efficiency. The last days of the campaign we pushed the videos on nearly every social media platform we could afford, with a budget of $10,000 a day. Our hope was to reach the many Idahoans that had not made it to our events. We desired to give them a choice by showing them a bit of hard-hitting truth and hoping that they would search more out for themselves. 

Our efforts certainly were effective but we simply did not have enough money to start earlier or to reach all Idahoans, multiple times, as needed. I will say this though: we sure gained massive momentum towards the end and it was exciting to be part of this. Every venue we met in was full with people standing in the back. Contributions increased and our volunteer base reached nearly 700 people. Signs covered the state and even the biased corporate media could not deny the effectiveness of our campaign. It was making the establishment nervous and that was more fun to see than anything! 

However, like every football game, after all is said and done, one team wins and the other goes home with a loss. A good friend of mine sent me this meme. I think it is fitting when talking about this election.

Sometimes it seems like truth never wins. I believe it will in the end, but what about now? What about our children, what about our homes, our bank accounts? What about inflation or the gas prices?  What about having power over our own lives? This thing we call "government" always seems to win, always seems to grow and expand.  In order to grow, it has to eat our lives away and the future of our children. It will never stop growing until we stop it. That is what the Ammon Bundy for Governor campaign was all about! 

So, I end with a big thank you! THANK YOU for all your support and love! Thank you for your willingness to consider truth! Thank you for opening your mouth and not being afraid to talk to people about what is going on! I am very grateful for such good friends! 

Now for me, I'm tired! I'm going to take a long rest now and see what is left to do when I wake up. 

With Love, 

Ammon Bundy