Joshua Kohl
Magic Valley Miracle Four. Twin Falls engineer who beat three-term legislator Linda Wright Hartgen in 2024. Voted against HB 445 water funding. MVLA slate. Paired with Rep. David Leavitt.
Sen. Josh Kohl is the Senate D25 half of the Magic Valley Miracle Four — the 2024 freshman cluster the IFF / Citizens Alliance / YAL pipeline placed in Twin Falls. He defeated three-term legislator Sen. Linda Wright Hartgen in the May 21, 2024 primary, came in alongside Hostetler, Leavitt, and Zuiderveld on the Magic Valley Liberty Alliance candidate slate, attended the 2024 YAL Conference with the rest of the cluster, and voted against HB 445 — the water-stewardship bill funding aquifer recharge in his irrigated-agriculture district.
Inside this dossier:
- Defeated three-term legislator Sen. Linda Wright Hartgen. Two House terms in D24B (2018-2022) plus one Senate term in D25 (2022-2024) ended in the May 21, 2024 primary. No Democrat ran in the November general.
- Magic Valley Miracle Four placement. Came in alongside Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, Rep. Clint Hostetler, and Rep. David Leavitt. Per Political Potatoes’ February 14, 2025 piece, all four (plus Christy Zito) attended the 2024 YAL Conference together.
- Voted against HB 445 — the water-stewardship bill funding Magic Valley aquifer recharge. Twin Falls runs on irrigated agriculture; the long-term district interest is the recharge.
- Magic Valley Liberty Alliance February 3, 2024 candidate profile. Stated priorities: opposing “the radical LGBTQ agenda in our schools,” border enforcement, and cutting government spending. The MVLA + Make Liberty Win + YAL Conference + CAI funding stack is the documented placement template.
- Paired with Rep. David Leavitt in District 25. First-cycle freshmen in the same district on the same out-of-state money, voting together on contested calls.
Who he is
Joshua Kohl is the Republican senator for Idaho Senate District 25 in Twin Falls. He took office December 1, 2024, after defeating three-term legislator Sen. Linda Wright Hartgen (R) — two House terms in District 24B (2018-2022), then one Senate term in District 25 (2022-2024) — in the May 21, 2024 primary. No Democrat ran in the November general.
Per his Idaho State Legislature official biography, Kohl graduated from the University of Idaho in 2019 (mechanical engineering, robotics specialization) and works in the dairy processing industry. He previously served as an elected member of the Twin Falls Republican Central Committee, until he moved out of his precinct. Committee assignments: Agricultural Affairs, Resources & Environment, and Transportation.
He shares the District 25 paired-vote signature with Rep. David Leavitt (House D25B), the House D25 freshman who came in the same cycle on the same out-of-state money.
The Magic Valley Miracle Four
Four legislators came in on one pipeline running one operating model.
- Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld (Senate D24), second-cycle incumbent in 2024
- Rep. Clint Hostetler (House D24A), first-cycle freshman
- Sen. Josh Kohl (Senate D25), first-cycle Senate freshman
- Rep. David Leavitt (House D25B), first-cycle freshman, paired with Kohl in the same district
All four were on the Magic Valley Liberty Alliance (MVLA) 2024 candidate slate. The cluster overlapped with Sen. Christy Zito (Senate D8) at the same 2024 conference. Per Political Potatoes’ February 14, 2025 piece, “Clint Hostetlier [sic], Glenneda Zuiderveld, Christy Zito, Josh Kohl, and David Leavitt attended the 2024 YAL Conference together.” All four were backed by Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC. The Pruett “Honor Idaho” rebrand announcement of February 11, 2026 (dateline Rigby, Idaho) named the Magic Valley success as the network’s blueprint for going statewide.
How he ran in 2024
Magic Valley Liberty Alliance published Kohl’s candidate profile on February 3, 2024, in its “2024 Republican Primary Magic Valley Candidate Series.” Per the MVLA candidate page for Senate D25, Kohl’s stated primary priorities were opposing what he called “the radical LGBTQ agenda in our schools,” border enforcement and opposing amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and cutting government spending.
The MVLA profile drew a contrast with Hartgen by quoting Kohl on her record:
MVLA candidate profile, plus Make Liberty Win field operation, plus YAL Conference attendance, plus the Citizens Alliance / Make Liberty Win primary money. That is the documented template for Magic Valley Miracle Four placements.
The HB 445 vote against the district
Kohl voted NAY on HB 445, the 2025 Idaho water-stewardship bill that codifies Magic Valley water agreements and funds aquifer recharge. The Magic Valley economy runs on irrigated agriculture. Aquifer recharge is the long-term district interest. The bill passed both chambers and was delivered to the Governor on April 3, 2025.
Per the April 19, 2025 Times-News editorial board column republished at Political Potatoes, Kohl was named with Hostetler, Leavitt, and Zuiderveld among the Magic Valley legislators who voted no. The HB 445 roll call is on file at LegiScan.
When a legislator’s primary money comes from an out-of-state PAC and the legislator votes against the local economic interest, ask who he is actually representing. The HB 445 vote answers.
Paired-vote signature with Leavitt
The Senate-D25 / House-D25 pairing of Kohl and Leavitt is one of the cleanest paired-vote signatures in the Idaho legislature. They came in together on the same money and they vote together. The pairing repeats in House D11 (Marmon and Cayler). It is how IFF / Citizens Alliance / YAL / Pruett-network district-pair placements run.
Two new legislators in the same district, sharing the same out-of-state PACs, the same national conference, and the same votes against the local economic interest. That is the playbook.
Who funds him
Per the Idaho SOS Sunshine campaign-finance database, Kohl’s documented direct contributors in the 2024 D25 Senate primary include:
| Amount | Donor | Note |
|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | John Kohl | Family |
| $1,000 | Michael Kohl | Family |
| $1,000 | Samuel Kohl | Family |
| $1,000 | Kathy Thomsen | Cross-network: also gave $1,000 to Magic Valley Miracle Four colleague Clint Hostetler |
Like Hostetler, Kohl’s direct-donor stack at the candidate-committee level is mostly family plus shared-network giving. IFF leadership does not appear at the direct-donor level. Network money ran through the Citizens Alliance / Make Liberty Win institutional pipeline.
The funding pipeline
Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC backed Kohl in 2024. Per Steve Taggart’s April 7, 2026 Political Potatoes piece and verifiable in the Idaho SOS Sunshine database, CAI is the Idaho state PAC affiliate of Citizens Alliance of America (CAA). The CAI donor profile and out-of-state money trail are documented on the Citizens Alliance organization page and in the Follow the Money investigation.
Young Americans for Liberty’s Make Liberty Win PAC also backed Kohl in 2024 as part of the Magic Valley Miracle Four cluster. Per Faculty First Responders, YAL took $5,920,023 from Koch-network sources (Koch / DonorsTrust / Donors Capital Fund) between 2012 and 2019 alone. YAL’s policy stack, including the Hazlitt Coalition, runs strict libertarian positions including support for marijuana legalization. Kohl’s Magic Valley campaign-trail rhetoric does not match that stack — but the funding came through anyway.
The full out-of-state money map is in Follow the Money.
Where he sits in the network
Kohl is one of two Senate members of the Magic Valley Miracle Four cluster. Zuiderveld in D24 is the other. He coordinates floor positions with Leavitt (D25 House paired-vote partner), Zuiderveld and Zito (Senate-side), and the broader IFF bloc. The Idaho Freedom Foundation publishes the Freedom Index that scores his votes against the IFF position. Citizens Alliance and Make Liberty Win funded his 2024 primary against an incumbent. Pruett’s amplifier sites carry the framing for the bills the cluster sponsors and the votes they cast.
His personal contribution to the network agenda:
- A vote against the Magic Valley water-stewardship bill in his irrigated-agriculture district
- Membership on the MVLA 2024 candidate slate, the Magic Valley feeder pipeline for Idaho legislative primaries
- Public attendance at the 2024 Young Americans for Liberty Conference with Hostetler, Leavitt, Zuiderveld, and Zito
- Knocking off a sitting three-term Republican legislator (Linda Wright Hartgen) in a primary, on the playbook MVLA / CAI / YAL pipeline
- Membership in the paired-vote D25 freshman delivery (Kohl + Leavitt) the network ran in 2024
Connected pages
- David Leavitt dossier, D25 House paired-vote partner
- Clinton Hostetler dossier, Magic Valley Miracle Four · House D24A
- Christy Zito dossier, Magic Valley-aligned Senate D8
- Glenneda Zuiderveld dossier, Magic Valley Miracle Four · Senate D24
- Greg Pruett dossier, propaganda-network operator who named the Magic Valley success as the model
- Citizens Alliance organization page, funding pipeline behind his 2024 primary
- Cliff Maloney dossier, CAA founder and CEO
- Scott Herndon dossier, chamber Idaho Freedom Caucus director
- Follow the Money investigation
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The Connections