Mickelsen provides counterevidence: network-supported candidate enacted data-center ratepayer protections

Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen is a useful issue-specific counterexample to any attempt to classify the entire Defend/Dairy-supported candidate cluster as uniformly favoring concentrated business interests. Mickelsen voted against HB 93 and was later supported in the 2026 Republican primary by Defend and Protect Idaho, Idaho Dairy Industry PAC and Hometown Heroes, placing her inside the candidate cluster under alignment review. In February 2026 she introduced a proposal aimed at preventing data centers and other new large-load customers from increasing electricity rates for ordinary utility customers. The later HB 911, sponsored by Mickelsen and Rep. Mike Veile, was signed into law April 10, 2026. Contemporary summaries describe the enacted measure as requiring commission-reviewed contracts for new large electricity loads, a 'no harm' test protecting existing customers, cost-allocation and financial-security requirements, and safeguards intended to ensure very large customers such as data centers pay the costs/risks associated with their service rather than shifting them to the general rate base. This is directly relevant to the standing concentrated-benefit audit: on this issue, a candidate supported by networks being scrutinized successfully advanced legislation designed to prevent cost socialization from large corporate loads to ordinary ratepayers. The case reinforces that candidate alignment must be measured issue-by-issue; support by IACI-adjacent, dairy, Defend or Hometown networks does not establish a uniform pro-corporate policy record. It also creates an important comparison within the data-center branch: IACI opposed tax-policy reforms that could reduce member-company tax advantages, while a network-supported legislator helped enact utility-cost protections for ratepayers. The different policy instruments should not be collapsed into one ideological verdict.