Senator Kevin Cook knows what it means to live at the dry end of the irrigation ditch. He grew up on a farm in Spanish Fork, where every drop of water had to be coaxed, patched, and pushed uphill. That memory drives his urgency today in the Idaho Senate, where he’s pushing for real solutions to one of the state’s biggest looming crises: water.
Every spring, 1.4 to 2 million acre-feet rush down the Snake past Milner Dam and out to the ocean. Meanwhile, Idaho farmers are told to shut off their pumps just as seeds sprout. Cook’s point is painfully obvious: we don’t have a water shortage, we have a storage shortage.
In our conversation, he walks through simple but significant options already on the table—raising Jackson Lake a foot for 35,000 acre-feet, holding American Falls three feet higher for another 28,000, revisiting Henry’s Fork reservoir sites, and yes, finally confronting the 50-year ghost of Teton Dam.
But it won’t happen without public noise. That’s why Cook launched a petition at KeepIdahoWater.com. He’s taking those signatures straight to Washington to prove Idaho is behind storage. If you eat Idaho potatoes, drink Idaho milk, or live on Idaho farmland that needs water, this is your fight too.
Our talk didn’t stop at water. Cook connected it to Idaho’s future in power and technology. AI data centers and small modular reactors are arriving whether we’re ready or not. Without storage, Idaho will lose both crops and jobs. With smart infrastructure, we can protect farms while also attracting industry.
Education ties it all together. Cook, vice chair of the Senate Education Committee, defends the Idaho Launch program, which funds training for high-demand careers. It’s already lifted incomes for adults and is giving high school students pathways into trades, nursing, robotics, and even nuclear technology. That’s the pipeline Idaho needs if we want our kids and grandkids to stay, work, and thrive here.
This episode is one worth listening to in full. Water, power, AI, and education aren’t separate fights—they’re the same one. Idaho either plans now or pays later.
👉 Listen to the full episode on Spotify and YouTube
👉 Sign the petition at KeepIdahoWater.com
About the Author
Gregory Graf is the creator of Political Potatoes and a lifelong conservative Republican. His articles often criticize the hypocrisy committed by far-right grifters who’ve taken control of the Idaho GOP and inaccurately define what it means to be a Republican. Follow Graf on X: https://x.com/gsgraf
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Disclaimer
The following is intended to convey an opinion on newsworthy events of public concern regarding public figures and/or public officials in exercising their official duties. No implications or inferences—beyond those explicitly stated in the preceding— are intended to be conveyed or endorsed by the Author. Wherever available, hyperlinks have been provided to allow readers to directly access any underlying assertions of fact upon which this opinion is based.
