I hope you’re well and enjoying life as the hot summer moves smoothly into autumn’s kind weather and…its not-so-kind political season that’s facing all of us.
We’re doing well on this end. My open-heart surgery is now almost two years in the rearview mirror and… I’m NOT running for office! Ha. (Many thanks for all your prayers AND your help when I ran in ’22 and ’25.)
Allow me, though, to share with you something personal that IS facing me, if I might…
35 years ago, Susan and I (along with little versions of Nate and Meg) moved to Idaho to take the lead on a public policy group that worked in association with Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family.
Within days of arriving, we found out we were pregnant (with Colin William!). So, the stressors were all there together in one place at one time – moving to a new state, new house, new job and new child. My new job, as founder of The Idaho Family Forum (IFF) involved me becoming one of the most recognizable faces in the state of Idaho, standing for conservative values. And that’s when the stress REALLY started increasing!
I was 35 years old at the time, debating old liberal idealogues, young leftist academics and every type of “progressive” political person who believed that abortion was healthcare, sexual identities were determined at birth (yes, they actually once believed that!) and that those with a faith in Christ should have no opportunity to speak out in the public square. Man, it was the wild west of politics…and it lasted ten years for the Mansfield family. (It’s lasted even more years for ALL of us, hasn’t it?)
From the start of IFF in 1991, we focused on the value of life by ending abortion by dismantling Roe v Wade and standing against euthanasia (the “right to die” laws). I began writing pieces of legislation that key Reps and Senators carried in the Idaho Legislature. We had a small staff and we accomplished much – at one point we were referred to as the adjunct research staff for a number of Members of the House of Representatives in Idaho.
Yet, session after session when it came to the pro-life issue, I was defeated – many times we weren’t even allowed the chance to have the pro-life bills printed, let alone debated. Year after year, The IFF and I stayed the course. While we being politically defeated, I decided to look at the larger picture of IFF: legislation (yes, but also…), pastoral outreach, volunteer coordination and mentoring/coaching of business owners.
From those days, 35 years ago, the state of Idaho witnessed a surge of united efforts to impact the culture of our state and nation through a ministry we housed in our office – Mission Media (now called Mission 17). On May 1st, 1993 we launched the unaffiliated franchise model for an organization called Promise Keepers, helping men be better husbands, fathers and friends. It ignited in stadiums all across the country. John Eldredge, Jim Zorn, Dave Roever and other national figures spoke in Idaho. Many years of those and other conferences happened for families, teens and businesses. Christians had a unity that was very, very special.
And each January, the Legislature reconvened. I put on my “lobbyist” badge and returned to the State Senate and State House of Representatives.
During those years, one of my strongest political opponents, Mr. David Ripley, delighted in obstructing the pro-life movement in the Idaho Capitol…until he delighted no more, when his own son was taken in abortion.
I was shocked to hear that the very man who hated my guts wanted to meet with me. A mutual friend set up the lunch; I begrudgingly went, sitting with my arms crossed listening to his story of brokenness and his inability as a birth-father to “interfere” in the mother’s decision to end the life of their son. “Read your own damn literature,” was the response his former supporters told him.
As we met, I listened through his tears and saw his deep pain. He was like a man who had previously leaned his philosophical ladder against the wrong wall and climbed it to the top, only to find how truly in error he was.
In time, David came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, changed his worldview and asked if he could help “save babies.” It was a literal Saul-to-Paul modern-day story.
David and I became friends. We even discovered that we’d both attended, though not graduated from, The United States Military Academy a few years apart. (No wonder we were such tough competitors in politics – West Point builds that in one’s character!)
David remarried, had a son, and began a new start on life. We worked together on many things. He founded Idaho Chooses Life (ICL) thirty years ago – a political action group, as well as Idaho Chooses Life Alliance (ICLA) - a 501c3 non-profit education group.
He increased in his political pro-life visibility and I decreased in mine.
David became THE voice of the Pro-Life community, not only in Idaho for decades; but when it came time in 2021 for the Pro-Life Dobbs decision, to be heard, ICL filed an Amicus Brief with the United States Supreme Court. It was filed alongside the Catholic Medical Association and Texas Alliance for Life, contending that advances in science demonstrate the humanity of the fetus, “rendering the Court's existing viability framework outdated”. This 2022 Amicus Brief, one of 141, aided the Justices in their 6-3 decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Once Dobbs was decided and the Supreme Court declared that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, returning regulatory authority to individual states, a TARGET was placed on Idaho by those wanting abortion in one of the “reddest” states in the Union.
This year, armies of paid signature gatherers sought a wholesale deletion for every Pro-Life law that was ever signed into law in Idaho. The Idaho pro-life laws will be gutted, deleted, aborted, if Proposition One passes in November 2026.
But David Ripley is not down and out. He’s not disappointed.
He is helping organize the NO on Prop One campaign and he needs your help and mine. The urgency is to lease billboards, send direct mail and provide social media spots to educate voters on the potentially terrible impact of this proposition passing in November’s General Election.
Susan and I are each donating $500 apiece to help him fight and win this election defeat in November.
People from out of state are even donating $250 or less per spouse. Would you be willing to help this modern-day “Paul” stand for babies in Idaho? Please use the link below to donate online.
Turning back the Blue Wave here in our small state will send a signal all over the United States that life is precious and babies (who are separate human beings from their mamas in the womb) need continued legal protection.
Please join us by donating to this Pro-life point of view in the small state of Idaho, so that the large states will follow. Click here to donate now.
Thanks for joining Susan and me – ONCE AGAIN!
Just as we are standing next to this former-foe-turned-friend, David Ripley, please continue to stand next to us.
Thanks, a lot.
All the best,
Dennis
PS: My friend, Dorothy Moon, produced a very clear Opinion Editorial (below) on the specifics of why we should fund the No on Prop One campaign – my choice is by way of David Ripley’s “Damascus Road” experience – Idaho Chooses Life. Please join me, once again, as you have in the past.