Attorney Christ Troupis is dropping out of the six-way race for an open seat on the Idaho Supreme Court, and instead endorsing Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa. “We have two conservatives running for this race,” Troupis said, “and the most important thing is to have a conservative Supreme Court justice. He represents all the same values that I do. … I felt very good when I learned that Curt was running.”

McKenzie said, “I appreciate his endorsement as an attorney that I respect immensely.”

McKenzie said, “I didn’t know that Christ was running until Friday morning,” the day of the filing deadline. Troupis said, “I didn’t know ‘til 10 minutes after I filed that Curt was also running.”

With Troupis’ withdrawal, the five candidates seeking the seat being vacated by the retirement of Chief Justice Jim Jones are McKenzie; longtime Deputy Idaho Attorney Clive Strong; current Idaho Court of Appeals Judge Sergio Gutierrez; Boise attorney William “Breck” Seiniger; and Rupert attorney Robyn Brody.

If no candidate receives a majority in the May 17 election, the top two would go to a runoff in the November general election.