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Zorro

(18,820 posts)
Mon May 4, 2026, 01:05 PM Monday

A GOP lawmaker supported an immigration crackdown. Her husband paid a price.

The call came as Tom Zuiderveld was driving last month, just minutes from his home on five verdant acres of Southern Idaho’s agricultural heartland. It was his district manager, relaying that three of the dairies he sold synthetic oil to had refused to continue working with him.

Zuiderveld felt blindsided — he had known the dairy owners for years, and the accounts represented 80 percent of his income. But it wasn’t about his performance, the manager explained on the phone and in a later email. It was about the politics of Zuiderveld’s wife.

Glenneda Zuiderveld is a Republican state senator and member of a far-right bloc that was pushing for strict immigration laws. Idaho’s dairy industry, which powers the economy of the Magic Valley region anchored by Twin Falls, depends on foreign-born labor and fiercely opposed the measures.

To the Zuidervelds, the rupture was simple retaliation that illustrates just how bitterly personal American politics has become — an “ambush,” Tom Zuiderveld said, that cost the couple as much as $125,000 in commission a year. To the businesses, which are dominated by Republicans in this deep red state, the moves were fair game in an essential effort to protect the nation’s third-largest dairy industry.

“We live in a free country, and we can actually do business with whoever we want to,” said Arie Roeloffs, owner of Riverbend Dairy, which in April became the fourth to cut ties with Zuiderveld, who is his wife’s campaign treasurer. “What his wife is doing in the state legislature are things that I don’t agree with. And he stands behind her.”

https://wapo.st/4eqX5xi

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tanyev

(49,573 posts)
1. Remember when the GOP was all "Free market! Free market!"
Mon May 4, 2026, 01:14 PM
Monday

That was when they assumed the “free market” would always benefit them.

UpInArms

(55,278 posts)
2. She's a real piece of work
Mon May 4, 2026, 01:20 PM
Monday
Glenneda Zuiderveld has represented her sprawling district since 2022, when she won her first primary by 37 votes, a gap she expanded to 828 in 2024. She initially campaigned on “health freedom” for nurses who opposed vaccine requirements and vows to expose corruption. She has since pushed for displaying the Ten Commandments in schools, voted for the nation’s strictest bathroom bill and backed the anti-spending platform of her ultraconservative “Gang of Eight,” part of the State Freedom Caucus Network.

In 2024, Zuiderveld co-sponsored an unsuccessful resolution calling on Congress to impeach former president Joe Biden over what the Idaho state lawmakers said were immigration failures and societal ills caused by “cheap immigrant labor.”


I hope they starve, because they would happily starve others

sfdennis1

(55 posts)
5. Beautiful
Mon May 4, 2026, 03:10 PM
Monday

It’s a beautiful example of the principles of karma, FAFO and reaping what you sew…soooo many valuable life lessons for these people. “May their suffering be great until their eyes (and hearts) are opened” is my new ‘MAGA prayer’

hlthe2b

(114,491 posts)
4. Well, if he sees nothing wrong with what she is doing and "stands behind her..."
Mon May 4, 2026, 01:49 PM
Monday

Then I hope to hear the "end of the story...." I doubt it will be a "pretty" one.

Auggie

(33,280 posts)
7. Glenneda Zuiderveld is up for re-election, Senate District 24
Mon May 4, 2026, 03:39 PM
Monday

She is bring challenged by another repuke named Brent Reinke.

The winner of the May 19th primary will face Mary Jo Durfee, Democrat, in November, plus an Independent.

usaf-vet

(7,847 posts)
10. They never think past the end of their noses. Hopefully, this will be a lesson to this (R) idiot!
Mon May 4, 2026, 03:47 PM
Monday

niyad

(133,743 posts)
11. Far more likely that they will be even more defiantly adamant about
Mon May 4, 2026, 03:54 PM
Monday

their righteous stance.

Augiedog

(2,704 posts)
12. How pathetic. Small mind small heart...small....betcha they all sing loud in their Jesus place on Sunday
Mon May 4, 2026, 04:03 PM
Monday
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