Hawkins Pulls Out Of Congress Race Ucon Senator Says He Doesn’t Want To Move His Family To D.C.

State Sen. Stan Hawkins said Friday that the likelihood he would win convinced him not to officially enter the race for the Republican congressional nomination in Idaho’s conservative 2nd District.

“Winning would require me to take my 12- and 14-year-old sons away from hunting, fishing, horses and ATVs, away from their small-town school and drop them instead into a concrete jungle,” the Ucon farmer said in announcing he instead would seek a fifth term in the Idaho Senate.

Hawkins made a hard line against abortion the early litmus test of other Republicans considering the race to succeed GOP U.S. Rep. Michael Crapo, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

He said Friday that while he was not endorsing any particular candidate, he would “do whatever I can to ensure our district continues to have a congressman who is both conservative and pro-life.”

State Rep. Mark Stubbs immediately took that as a boost for his campaign. The Twin Falls lawyer has more readily embraced the anti-abortion platform of such groups as the Idaho Christian Coalition, the Idaho Family Forum and Right to Life of Idaho than his strongest opponent, Idaho House Speaker Michael Simpson of Blackfoot.

“(Stan Hawkins’) withdrawal from the congressional race allows us to reach even more voters with our conservative message of restoring traditional moral and family values to government and continuing the fight begun by Congressman Crapo for states’ rights,” Stubbs said.

Hawkins rejected claims that he used the abortion debate that dominated the Legislature this year to further his congressional hopes.

“In fact, the opposite is true,” he said. “Had I not made abortion the defining issue of the 2nd District congressional primary, the speaker of the House would have buried pro-life legislation this year as he has done since 1990.”

Simpson has only been speaker since 1993, but until this year leaders of the overwhelmingly Republican Legislature were united in their opposition to reviving the abortion debate in the wake of the divisive 1990 session. That year lawmakers passed what would have been the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, only to see it vetoed by then-Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus.