Chad Christensen

Chad Christensen scored 98.6% lifetime on the IFF Freedom Index across his two House terms — the IFF position itself in legislative form. The biographical record sitting underneath that score includes documented Oath Keepers membership per AP and Post Register, a defamation suit he filed against a Republican strategist and critic that collapsed at summary judgment, and a sitting-legislator restaurant boycott his hometown editorial board called an abuse of office. The full court-record archive lives at chadchristensen.org. He is now running again in 2026 for House D35A.

Inside this dossier:

98.6% lifetime IFF Freedom Index across his 2018–2022 House tenure. 2021 cycle voting record measured at 100%. The IFF position in legislator form.
Documented Oath Keepers member per AP and Post Register. The on-the-record affiliation predates his House tenure and was carried into his time in the chamber.
The 2019 Bacon restaurant boycott Post Register editorial called an abuse of office. Three Percenters affiliates open-carried into the downtown Boise restaurant; the owner asked them to consider customer comfort; Christensen used his legislator platform to call for a public boycott.
Defamation suit filed and lost. Bonneville County CV10-21-1197 against Republican strategist and critic Gregory Graf collapsed at summary judgment; the counterclaim documents are the prototype IFF-playbook receipt.
Pre-legislative record on file. Per his own sworn deposition (CV10-21-1197): terminated from Idaho State Probation and Parole for conduct toward fugitives the department deemed too aggressive; subsequently rejected by Blackfoot PD after the department reviewed his probation-and-parole personnel file. The deep file lives at chadchristensen.org.
Under oath, asked to name women he had relationships with during the same period he ran on family values, he could remember two and estimated four or five others he could not. From his own sworn deposition. The “family-values” framing meets the recordkeeping.
The October 2020 covert recording was set up inside Christensen’s State Farm office. His supervisor at State Farm Insurance, Emmalee Robinson, recorded a private call with the Republican strategist and critic the network would later pursue; Christensen helped install the recording app, his voice is on the recording coaching her, and Pruett published from the tape three days later.

Who he is

Chad Christensen represented Idaho House District 32, Seat B as a Republican from December 1, 2018 through November 30, 2022. Per Wikipedia’s biographical record, he was born in 1973 in Idaho Falls. Twelve years in the U.S. Army. Prior law-enforcement work. Associate degree in criminal justice from Ricks College. B.S. political science from Idaho State University.

The deep file on Christensen lives at chadchristensen.org. Pre-legislative criminal record. His own sworn deposition testimony about his conduct in office. The full court record. Read it there. This page is the network-position summary and points to the primary record.

The IFF score

A 98.6 percent lifetime Freedom Index score means he voted the IFF position on virtually every contested bill. The Idaho Freedom Foundation writes model legislation, scores it, and uses the scores to run primary challenges against Republican legislators who break ranks. At 98.6 percent, Christensen was the IFF position.

Chad Christensen’s lifetime Idaho Freedom Foundation Freedom Index score is 98.6%. His 2021 cycle voting record measured at 100%.

— Idaho Freedom Foundation Freedom Index, 2018-2022 (Christensen’s tenure)

The Bacon restaurant boycott — February 2019

In late February 2019, Christensen and a group of Three Percenters affiliates open-carried handguns into Bacon, a downtown Boise restaurant. Per Idaho Press / Eye on Boise, Bacon owner John Berryhill walked over to the group and said the open carry was making customers and staff uncomfortable. Berryhill closed a curtain around their booth.

Christensen, a sitting state legislator, went to Facebook and called for a boycott of the restaurant. He posted that Bacon was “NOT gun friendly” and wrote: “I won’t be stepping foot in that place again. Pass this around patriots.”

Per Berryhill’s response, covered by Idaho State Journal, Post Register, and Idaho News 6, Christensen never spoke during the actual encounter. Berryhill called Christensen’s account a “smear” campaign. He said he was not against guns or concealed carry. He had concerns about open carry “in populated areas like cities w/restaurants, bars, libraries, parks etc. where families w/children are.”

The Post Register’s editorial board put it plainly:

Magic Valley syndicated the same editorial. A sitting Idaho legislator used the platform of his elected office to call for a public boycott of an Idaho small business. The owner had asked his open-carry group to consider customers’ comfort. That episode set the tone for Christensen’s whole tenure.

The BSU bathroom defund campaign — October 2019

Per Idaho Education News (Kevin Richert, October 7, 2019) and Idaho Press, Christensen posted a photo of a gender-neutral restroom at Boise State University on his campaign Facebook page and launched a defunding campaign against the state’s largest university. His verbatim post:

Reached by phone for comment, Christensen told Idaho EdNews:

The fight produced the #padsformadchad hashtag on Twitter. Per Idaho EdNews, opponents mailed tampons and pads directly to Christensen. He then announced he would donate the BSU restroom’s stocked feminine-hygiene products to area shelters. The episode is what the IFF legislator-recruitment template is built to produce: a culture-war micro-grievance the IFF amplifier network can run for fundraising and audience growth.

Oath Keepers membership

Per the September 7, 2022 Post Register / Associated Press reporting (Durkin & Kunzelman), Christensen was listed as a member of the Oath Keepers. Federal prosecutors charged the militia’s leadership with seditious conspiracy over the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. Founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy on November 29, 2022 and sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.

A sitting Idaho state legislator with a 98.6% IFF Index score and a documented Oath Keepers membership is the IFF instrument profile in unusually clean form.

Law-enforcement record vs. campaign claim

Christensen campaigns as “former law enforcement.” The sworn-deposition record is more specific. He was never a sworn peace officer. He worked on the corrections-and-supervision side of the system — Jefferson County Probation roughly 2001–2003, then Idaho State Probation and Parole roughly 2003–2007 in the Fugitive Recovery Unit. He was terminated from the state job. The verbatim sworn-deposition language, on the record:

The conduct the department deemed too aggressive included, per the same testimony, filling fugitives’ voicemail boxes with messages and a rap song with threatening lyrics. One fugitive filed a life-threat complaint. That complaint triggered the investigation that ended his employment at Idaho State Probation and Parole.

He then applied to the Blackfoot Police Department. Blackfoot PD reviewed his probation-and-parole personnel file and rejected him. Verbatim from the same deposition:

He then worked for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on welfare-fraud investigations from roughly 2007 through 2011. Per his deposition, he received written discipline for leaving a state vehicle running and unattended; he resigned during that disciplinary period. Two state-government positions ended unfavorably — one in termination, one in resignation under written discipline — across approximately a decade.

The full record is at the chadchristensen.org law-enforcement page with the underlying deposition pages linked.

The campaign frame is “former law enforcement.” The accurate frame, per his own sworn testimony, is two state-government corrections-and-investigations positions that ended with a termination and a resignation under discipline, plus a Blackfoot PD rejection that turned on what the department saw in his personnel file.

Under oath: the women he could not name

Christensen runs on a family-values platform. His own sworn deposition is the comparison data. Asked under oath, in CV10-21-1197, to identify women he had had sexual relationships with during the period covering his time in office:

The relationships he did identify in deposition cover the same period. First wife Lisa E., December 1996 through March 2005. Girlfriend Heidi D., June 2005 through August 2010, with a son born in 2007 and a child-support case filed in 2012. Girlfriend Melanie F., 2012–2014. Second wife Stephanie R., July 2016 through January 2020. Melissa, June 2020. About the Melissa relationship, Christensen testified under oath: “Because I found out she wasn’t actually divorced yet. So I stopped it.”

The full deposition treatment is at the chadchristensen.org under-oath page.

A legislator who runs on family values, asked under oath in his own civil case to name the women he had relationships with during the same period he was casting those campaign votes, could remember two and estimated four or five others he could not. The platform and the testimony are the same record.

The Emmalee Robinson recording — the office, the coaching, the publication

The covert recording at the center of CV10-21-1197 was not produced by a journalist or a hostile source. It was produced inside Christensen’s then-employer’s office, by his supervisor, with Christensen’s documented assistance.

October 20, 2020. Emmalee Robinson — Christensen’s State Farm Insurance supervisor in Idaho Falls — arranged a private phone call with Idaho journalist Gregory Graf and recorded the call without consent. Per the case-record archive at chadchristensen.org, Christensen helped Robinson install the recording application on the call. His voice is audible in the first minute of the recording, coaching her through the setup.

October 21, 2020. Robinson forwarded the recording to Greg Pruett.

October 23, 2020. Robinson emailed the recording to Graf’s employer’s associate general counsel.

November 1, 2020. Pruett texted about legal-defense arrangements.

The recording then became the substrate for an article series by Pruett and Dustin Hurst published on Keep Idaho Free. The articles ran under Pruett’s byline. The Bonneville County civil case CV10-21-1197 followed in February 2021.

The post-takedown sequence is on the public record at chadchristensen.org/network/emmalee-robinson. Asked whether she owed Graf an apology, Robinson’s response:

Asked to confirm: “That’s what I thought.”

The refusal-to-apologize stance is itself a network signature. The same posture surfaces in the Glenneda Zuiderveld dossier — when Substack acted on her doxxing post about Christa Hazel, she reframed the demand for removal as “lawfare” rather than retracting it — and in the Dave Reilly dossier — Valley House Executive Director John Spiers gave Reilly a 24-hour apology window after the Twin Falls homeless-shelter stunt, and Reilly never apologized. Three IFF-network operators, three documented opportunities to apologize for documented conduct, three refusals.

The Christensen lawsuit and the Pruett byline-fraud admission

In February 2021, Christensen filed a defamation lawsuit (Bonneville County CV10-21-1197) against Republican strategist and critic Gregory Graf. The complaint claimed Graf had defamed him by calling him a “sexual predator.” The description rested on factual information already in the public record, including Christensen’s own sworn deposition testimony cited in the case-record archive. Graf counterclaimed against Christensen, Greg Pruett, and Dustin Hurst.

Per the case-record archive at chadchristensen.org, Pruett’s published material about Graf ran in parallel with Christensen’s litigation. Emmalee Robinson’s own email predated the published articles and contradicted the factual basis of what Pruett’s network was about to publish. The articles ran anyway, under Pruett’s byline. Pruett later admitted under oath to publishing false statements and accusations about Graf and to byline fraud. An article carrying his name had been written by someone else.

The case is over. Christensen lost. The court entered summary judgment for Graf in fall 2023 and threw the defamation case out. The description Christensen had sued over was, on the record, supportable as factual. Christensen lost his 2022 Republican primary the year before the case was dismissed.

The deeper file, sworn deposition testimony, the Robinson email, the byline-fraud admission, and the operatives running the parallel discrediting campaign live at the chadchristensen.org archive.

Electoral history — three runs, one loss, one withdrawal, one comeback bid

2018, Idaho House D32B (won). Christensen defeated incumbent Rep. Thomas Loertscher in the May 15, 2018 Republican primary. Won the November 6, 2018 general.

2020, Idaho House D32B (won). Defeated Dave Radford in the June 2, 2020 Republican primary. Defeated Democrat Bill Leake in the November 3, 2020 general.

2022, Idaho House D35B (lost). After redistricting, Christensen ran in the redrawn District 35B. Per LocalNews8 / KIFI and Idaho State Journal coverage, Christensen lost the May 17, 2022 Republican primary to Josh Wheeler (Ammon City Councilman) by 362 votes. Per Idaho State Journal, every other local Republican incumbent legislator won their primary that night; Christensen was the only loss.

2024, withdrew. Christensen did not file. Per LocalNews8 (March 24, 2026), he sat out the 2024 cycle because he supported the incumbent Rep. Kevin Andrus.

2026, Idaho House D35A (challenging the appointed incumbent, not the man who beat him). Per the same LocalNews8 reporting and the Idaho Governor’s Office press release on the appointment, Christensen filed in the May 19, 2026 Republican primary for Idaho House District 35 Seat A against Rep. Mike Veile. Veile is a Soda Springs businessman Gov. Brad Little appointed in September 2025 after Andrus left for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in June 2025. D35 Seat A is not the seat Christensen used to hold. Christensen’s old seat (D32B, redrawn to D35B) belongs to Rep. Josh Wheeler, the man who beat him in 2022. Christensen did not file to take his old seat back from Wheeler. He filed for the other D35 seat against an appointed incumbent. He picked the weaker target.

The IFF playbook prototype

Christensen is the template case for the IFF victimhood-flip playbook. The same arc later ran at federal altitude in the Worley case. It ran first, in Idaho courtrooms, around Christensen.

The six steps from his record:

Predicate conduct. Termination from Idaho State Probation and Parole. Rejection from the Blackfoot Police Department. Two undisclosed pre-legislative criminal pleas. (Documented at chadchristensen.org from sworn deposition testimony.)
Institutional accountability. A constituent told Christensen’s then-employer about the public-record items above.
Coordinated discredit-the-accuser operation. Pruett’s network published material designed to get the constituent fired from his own employer. Emmalee Robinson’s own email, written before publication, contradicted the factual basis of the articles. They ran anyway. Pruett later admitted under oath, in the counterclaim record, to publishing false statements and accusations about the constituent and to byline fraud.
Persecution-flip lawsuit. February 2021: Christensen filed a defamation suit (Bonneville County CV10-21-1197).
Pruett-network amplification disguised as independent. The Pruett, Hurst, and Smith stack ran the public-side discrediting in parallel with the litigation.
Court rejects the suit. Run for office again. Christensen lost his 2022 primary. Lost the defamation suit at summary judgment in fall 2023. Resurfaced in 2026 as a candidate for Idaho House D35A, a seat he has never held, against the appointed (not elected) incumbent. He skipped the rematch with the man who actually beat him in 2022.

The same arc runs through Worley’s federal lawsuit dismissal and Senate D28 candidacy. The denominations and the forum differ, but the play is the same. Christensen is the prototype.

The network around him

Greg Pruett (Idaho Second Amendment Alliance / Honor Idaho / Idaho Dispatch). Pruett’s network ran alongside Christensen’s defamation litigation. Pruett admitted under oath to publishing false statements and accusations about the constituent counterclaimant and to byline fraud. Pruett’s I2AA Political Director Christy Zito took over I2AA leadership in February 2021, the same month Christensen filed against the constituent.
Dustin Hurst (former IFF VP of Communications, now Senior Director of Development at PUP, still tied to IFF via IFPAC and the Honor Idaho registered-agent role). An Idaho judge granted a three-year civil stalking injunction against Hurst after finding sufficient evidence he had engaged in stalking against the same constituent counterclaimant.
Bryan Smith (IFF Vice Chair, Idaho GOP National Committeeman, Idaho Falls attorney). The single largest itemized donor ($1,600) to the I2AA fundraising disclosure that paid for the pro-Zito CBS2 TV ad in 2020.
Doyle Beck (IFF board member, Citizens Alliance donor). Anchors the East Idaho IFF operation. Bonneville County, IFF, Beck, and Smith form the geographic and financial center of gravity around Christensen.

The deeper file

The deeper material lives at the public-interest archive at chadchristensen.org. Pre-legislative criminal cases. Probation-and-parole termination. Blackfoot PD rejection. Christensen’s own sworn deposition testimony about his conduct in office. The covert-recording incident routed through IFF operatives. The Emmalee Robinson email written before the articles ran. Profile pages on Hurst, Smith, and the other operators in the IFF apparatus around him.

This page is the network summary. The archive is the primary file.

Connected pages

Greg Pruett dossier, Pruett-portfolio amplifier-network operator; sworn-testimony admission of false statements about Graf in the Christensen lawsuit
Dustin Hurst dossier, IFF operative, civil stalking injunction respondent
Bryan Smith dossier, IFF Vice Chair and Idaho GOP National Committeeman
Doyle Beck dossier, IFF board member and East Idaho anchor
Dave Reilly dossier, Charlottesville participant whose own refusal-to-apologize signature parallels the Robinson exchange in the Christensen case file
Ryan Spoon dossier, Ada County GOP Vice Chair and IFF-network operator running the same target-and-isolate playbook against Republican legislators
Idaho Freedom Foundation organization page, the policy shop and scorecard apparatus he voted with at 98.6% lifetime
Citizens Alliance organization page, the funding pipeline behind IFF-aligned candidates
The Propaganda Network organization page, Pruett / Hurst / Heida amplifier stack

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