JULIANNE YOUNG HAS A
PROVEN
RECORD
In 2020, as COVID-19 became prevalent, many leftist groups threatened to sue Idaho schools and businesses for remaining open to the public, adding substantial strain to an economy already struggling to provide necessary basic services. Many businesses began calling for the passage of liability immunity legislation to protect them from COVID-19 related actions. At the same time, many feared that the granting of legal immunity for all COVID-19 related actions would lead to abuses and a break-down in accountability, adding insult to injury. The governor called a special session to address the issue. Citizens flooded the capitol, and the legislature found itself in the crosshairs of a very heated political debate.
In a very tense environment, I successfully negotiated The Idaho Liability Immunity Act, which effectively resolved the most significant concerns of the opposing parties by providing limited immunity, specifically against lawsuits related to the transmission of COVID-19. This garnered broad support among the people who agreed that no one should be liable for the transmission of a virus no one can see or control. It also provided relief to businesses and schools, allowing them the legal protection they needed to continue providing services.
In 2018 a liberal federal judge imposed on Idaho a policy of issuing birth certificates with amended sex upon request. In 2020, I sponsored House Bill 509, requiring that Idaho certificates of birth accurately reflect facts and providing a legal definition of biological sex. Contrary to leftist press reporting, this legislation has not been ruled unconstitutional. Rather, an activist judge has enjoined its enforcement without reviewing or ruling on the law. While not currently enforced, the success and subsequent signing into law by Idaho’s governor of H509 provides an important foundation for future arguments. The legal battle to effectively maintain accuracy in public records and honor biological differences between males and females continues.
Idaho’s constitutional carry provisions lacked clarity after years of subtle additions, leaving confusing exceptions based on age and location within or without city limits. H206 and H516 removed these exceptions, uniformly protecting the 2nd Amendment rights of all legal adults everywhere in the state of Idaho.
Previously, information regarding one’s biological parents has been withheld from individuals who were put up for adoption, even after the individual became a legal adult. I reached across the aisle to work with John McCrostie (D – Mountain Home), who was himself an adoptee, to make legal records available to adult persons requesting them. This legislation ensures that all future Idaho adoptees will have access to the personal birth records which have previously been sealed.
In partnership with women’s basketball coach and fellow legislator Barbara Ehardt (R – Idaho Falls), this legislation requires that individuals compete in sports according to the biological sex on their birth certificate, ensuring fairness regarding biological competitive advantages.
I co-sponsored this legislation, which made the performance of an elective abortion in the state of Idaho a criminal action, effective 30 days after a Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. I’m honored to see this legislation now in force protecting the sanctity of life.
This legislation absolved school district of obligations to pay on financial contracts with K-12 database providers if those providers were notified of pornographic material on their database and the failed to adequately address the problem. By this law, school districts are empowered to keep educational content in online databases age-appropriate for children.
This legislation implemented Idaho’s first ever state-wide audit to verify accuracy of electronic ballot machine results. This randomized audit is now required to be conducted by the Idaho Secretary of State each election cycle.
This legislation gained broad support and appropriately limited offensive practices in education, including the use of intimidation or indoctrination to compel students to affirm discriminatory, race-based narratives like Critical Race Theory.
Political subdivisions in Idaho, such as cities or school districts, are regulated under state law when they enter into a contract with a construction manager who will oversee the design and the build of their project. Prior state law was ambiguous and lacking on a number of counts. This law clarified and improved the state requirements, ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely.
Idaho was one of a handful of states that originally incorporated language directly from the Roe v. Wade ruling into our state law. This language listed reasons that abortion is justified, including reasons as subjective as that the baby might be unwanted or cause stress. H521 removed this language from state law in anticipation of a time (now arrived) when the Idaho legislature could enact law much more reflective of the pro-life, pro-family values of Idahoans.
H0177 Allowing School Districts to hire retired police officers to provide security.
H0061 Providing out-of-state providers with a license in good standing in their own state the ability to get an expedited credential to serve Idahoans.
H0071 Prohibiting the performance of harmful and unnecessary sex-rejection procedures on minors.
H0498 Requiring online websites marketing pornography to verify age and making them liable for providing pornography to minors.
H0575 Establishing a criminal penalty for those who use AI (artificial intelligence) to produce “deep fake” pornographic images of recognizable people and then distribute them without consent or use them to threaten, harass, or commit extortion.
H0668 Ensuring that Idaho taxpayer dollars are not used to fund medically harmful, unnecessary procedures that destroy otherwise healthy sexual development and function for the purpose of “transitioning.”
H0489 Ensuring that Idaho patients are never again left alone in their most difficult hours; stipulating that a patient’s immediate family members are automatically (subject to the patient’s will) considered essential caregivers with in-person visitation rights.
H0421 Ground-breaking legislation, providing a biology-based definition of “male” and “female” for all Idaho laws and agency rules or procedures, making possible the continued legal protection of privacy, dignity, and safety through sex-specific restrooms, sports teams, changing rooms, etc.
S1352 Protecting Idaho counselors in their right to practice consistent with their sincerely held moral, ethical, and religious principles. This legislation will help families more easily identify counselors that support their values and protects counselors against being pressured to support goals like assisted suicide, non-monogamous sexual relationships, gender transitions, etc.
S1293 Ends the unjust and outdated practice of unilateral, forced annexation with no notice, no hearings, and no consent and removing the practice of “implied consent.”
S1329 Ensuring that parents and custodial guardians retain primary custody in medical decision making for their minor children and have access to their medical records.
HCR022 Outlining fundamental principles related to water rights, calling on the State of Idaho to proactively manage water resources for the purpose of maximizing our available supply, rather than relying exclusively on reactive management strategies like curtailment after sending water down-river and out-of-state.
H0047 Providing that individuals adopted prior to the passage of the Adoptee Transparency Act of 2022 may also access their personal birth records as adults.
Record of Support for…
I graduated at the top of my class and chose to earn a bachelor’s degree in education because I love children and I love teaching. I kept my teaching certificate for many years and have spent more than two decades working directly with students as a private educator. Education isn’t just an institution to me—it’s a passion!
I believe students do best when parents and teachers work together and are given the flexibility to meet real, individual needs. I have deep respect for Idaho’s public school teachers and staff, who work hard every day—often with limited resources—to help our children succeed. I have consistently supported legislation that benefits teachers and improves education, and when issues have affected our schools, I have made it a priority to listen to and engage with our local education community.
Great education doesn’t come from constantly adding new programs or top-down mandates. It comes from supporting educators, engaging parents, and keeping the focus on students rather than bureaucracy. Idaho has increased its investment in education over the years, and I have supported those investments. But experience also shows that money alone isn’t enough—how we educate matters just as much as how much we spend.
That’s why we need innovation and flexibility in education. In today’s rapidly changing world, parents must be able to choose educational options that work best for their children, and classrooms should remain focused on learning—not divisive politics or age-inappropriate content. Our shared goal is simple: strong schools that put the real needs of children first and support for the educators who dedicate their lives to serving them.
My husband and I both come from strong agricultural roots. Some of my favorite memories growing up are of feeding cows early in the morning with my Grandpa Shumway or picking cherries and playing in the soft, black soil at my Grandpa Hill’s farm in LeGrande, Oregon. I was raised with the values of hard work, responsibility, and stewardship that define Idaho agriculture and my husband and I have deliberately passed these values on to our children. Today, our family has a hobby farm and a large greenhouse. Our children have grown up milking cows, moving pipe, weeding gardens, and working potato harvest. Agriculture isn’t just part of our past—it’s a way of life.
Those roots guide my work in the legislature. I have focused on listening to farmers and ranchers and working collaboratively on the issues that matter most, especially water. When water curtailment became a concern in 2023, I organized a resolution signed by most of our east Idaho legislators expressing those concerns to the Governor and then I worked with legislators from across Idaho to help them better understand the challenges facing our region. Since then, I’ve spent hours with water experts and colleagues advocating for water policy that maximizes our available resources. That effort led to a bipartisan resolution in 2024 that brought together legislators from different parts of the state around a shared understanding of the problem. There is still a great deal of work to be done on this issue, but the good news is that there are available solutions that benefit the entire state. Our challenge is to unify people around those solutions.
My commitment to agriculture is clearly reflected in my record. I have repeatedly earned a 100% rating from Farm Bureau for that rating and received the “Ag All-Star” Award as well as the “Friend of Agriculture” Award every term. Many of my strongest supporters and local farmers.
It has been an honor to work with Idaho’s farming and ranching community. I remain committed and well-prepared to protect the resources that have allowed us to turn Idaho’s deserts into thriving communities.
Healthcare is deeply personal to me and my family. My father practiced as a family physician in the Blackfoot area for decades, and I worked at his clinic during my high school years. My husband currently works at State Hospital South providing mental health care. My oldest son is a nurse practitioner, my youngest brother is a nurse anesthetist, one sister-in-law teaches and practices OB-GYN medicine, and another delivers babies as a midwife at a local hospital. Caring for those with challenging health issues isn’t an abstract issue in our family—it’s what we do.
Because of that, I am committed to making thoughtful, responsible decisions that support both patients and healthcare professionals. As Idaho has navigated difficult and sensitive healthcare debates, I have worked to listen carefully to medical providers and address real-world concerns. One recent example is legislation passed in 2025 that helped resolve concerns around liability raised by local OB doctors—work I initiated and saw to fruition even while not holding office.
During my term of office, I worked tirelessly to prevent top-down, blanket healthcare mandates, expand access to mental health care via telehealth, and to protect mental health professionals from top-down pressure to provide care in pursuit of goals that violate their conscience. In addition, ensuring family involvement in patient care has been a top priority. I successfully passed legislation ensuring that Idaho patients will never again be isolated from loved ones or denied family advocacy during critical moments, and I successfully supported efforts to ensure that parents are protected in their ability to make medical and health care decisions for their minor children.
My father built his medical practice around treating people as individuals, and that lesson has stayed with me. Government decisions in healthcare have real consequences for real families. The impacts of these decisions on every-day Idahoans will always be top-of-mind for me.
I am deeply grateful for the sacrifices of the first responders that safeguard our families and communities. Law enforcement and emergency services are core responsibilities of government.
During my time in the legislature I have worked hard to ensure that those on the frontlines during times of trouble are supported and have the tools they need. I have consistently voted to provide our first responders with critical access to counseling support and to protect the strength and security of state retirement benefits unique to first responders.
When a local Idaho Crimes Against Children (ICAC) officer shared his concern that artificial intelligence was creating new issues in the courts that were making it difficult to prosecute the criminal cases he was investigating, I connected him with state experts and organized meetings to ensure that Idaho was prepared to tackle these new challenges successfully.
When tough issues have come up involving natural tension between law enforcement authority and fundamental rights, I have fully engaged with our local law enforcement officers, worked diligently to understand their concerns and constraints, and found principled solutions that supported our men in blue.