On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day posted profiles of Chuck Winder, who in 2012, joined the ranks of Republicans who were talking about rape during a discussion about a mandatory ultrasound anti-abortion bill, when he intimated that a married woman could not be “truly raped”. When he was criticized for his comments, he defended them by saying that he just meant women should be “tested” to prove if they were actually raped or not.
Winder has still has other issues with women, including supporting a bill so their employers could deny them contraceptive coverage on their insurance plans. Winder also has the staggering hypocrisy to demand federal marijuana laws should allow the states to override state law and continue to make the drug illegal, and then simultaneously push for legislation to nullify the Affordable Care Act on “states’ rights”, and supports the highly unconstitutional idea that states should be able to sue the federal government to annex federal lands. In 2016, he co-sponsored a bill to make the Bible as a reference tool in all public school courses. (Because when it's time to discuss evolution, you want to be able to cite a man being made of clay and a woman being made out of one of his ribs, for sciences' sake.)
Chuck Winder’s latest attacks on public education were in 2017 and were a move to pass legislation to remove the discussion of climate change from school classes, because heaven forbid the children learn that his party has been denying it’s happening and causing a global crisis for decades.(Spoiler Alert: He failed.)
He has remained a fixture in Idaho politics, not unlike an old leaky toilet that needs replacing. He accomplished virtually nothing while leading the Idaho State Senate in the past session in the state legislature, and his satisfaction with the status quo where everything is broken is why the GOP have yet again named him to lead them. Why do things like legislate to save lives from an approaching pandemic when you can ban transgender youth from participating in sports in public schools? Maybe the state would be better off in this crisis by banning abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected! (It won’t.) Or, y’know, limiting what power the Governor of Idaho has to declare a state of emergency to stop the spread of disease during a pandmemic! Or to stop public school teachers from teaching critical race theory! (Which they weren’t teaching, anyway.) Or to make sure school libraries never have a book mention anything sexual, ever (especially the gay stuff). Or to try to make sure trans youth in Idaho can’t get gender affirming care! He’s got priorities! (Terrible ones.)
Chuck Winder survived a bout with Covid-19 in January of 2022, and is not up for re-election until November of 2024, when he will be 79 years old.