Political ad features gun, COVID-denier

The props all came out for a new political advertisement this week that really does capture the absolutely bonkers nature of the race to the White House.

The two-minute video, titled ‘We the people of Idaho reaffirm our commitment to freedom’, features several Republican members of the Idaho legislature. But the star of the video is Republican Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin.

McGeachin, 57, is sitting in the front seat of a green van with an American flag dangling from the room.

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She holds a bible in her hand but soon reaches into her lap for a firearm, which she produces alongside a beaming smile.

“We recognise that all of us are by nature free and equal and have certain inalienable rights,” she says. “Among which are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property and pursuing happiness and securing safety.”

Others in the video — which appears at times to have been recorded on mobile phone cameras — suggest the pandemic may not be real.

“The fact that a pandemic may or may not be occurring changes nothing about the meaning or intent of state’s constitution and the preservation of our inalienable rights,” Republican-elect Karey Hanks says in the video.

Idaho, a largely-rural state in the US northwest, is Donald Trump heartland and has been a Red state since the 1950s.

But Governor Brad Little, also a Republican, has made enemies by introducing stay-at-home orders to fight the pandemic.

“I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do for the people of Idaho,” Little said in April. “I am incredibly sympathetic. I can’t open up some of those businesses that have the opportunity for community spread until we get further down the road.”

But McGeachin is among vocal critics of the unpopular plan.

“I am disappointed that the governor believes our state needs to impose more restrictions on our already struggling businesses and limit the choice of individuals regarding their gatherings,” she wrote on Facebook.

“Respecting individual liberty and property rights must remain the foundation of all policy decisions in our state,” she wrote.

The video, which has been viewed more than 100,000 times since it was posted to YouTube on October 27, was created by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, an organisation that describes itself online as a “libertarian think tank”.