Jim Risch Has Enormous Power. Who Really Wields It?

October 27, 2026

By Reed Lindsay

Did you know Idaho Sen. Jim Risch has been the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for nearly eight years — and now chairs it?

If you didn't, you're not alone.

I grew up in the Wood River Valley and run Belly of the Beast, an independent media outlet covering Cuba and U.S.-Cuba relations. Our documentaries examine the devastating impact of U.S. sanctions and the powerful Cuban-American politicians behind them.

When outraged viewers asked what they could do, I’d tell them: Talk to your representatives in Congress.

Then it dawned on me: I had never talked to mine.

That’s when I realized Risch is arguably Congress’s most powerful foreign-policy figure.

I went to Capitol Hill seeking a meeting with Risch. Instead, I was referred to Victor Cerviño, a senior committee staffer. Cerviño had previously worked for three successive Florida senators: Mel Martinez, George LeMieux and Marco Rubio.

I hoped my firsthand reporting from Cuba would merit serious consideration. But Cerviño seemed uninterested. When I challenged the disconnect between U.S. policy and conditions on the ground, he became openly hostile.

I left with the impression that Cerviño's allegiance was to Florida, not Idaho, and that Risch had handed Rubio the keys to Cuba policy. I also wondered whether Rubio's influence over Risch extended beyond Cuba.

At Rubio's January 2025 confirmation hearing for secretary of state, Risch declared they were "in violent agreement on virtually every issue."

Under Rubio's direction, the Trump administration has intensified sanctions on Cuba and imposed an oil blockade. Blackouts can last days. Families cook over charcoal and endure sweltering nights without fans. Transportation is almost non-existent. Surgeons operate by cellphone light. Pharmacies lack basic medicines.

Rather than question the U.S. economic war on Cuba, Risch has applauded it, repeating the dubious claim that Cuba poses a national security threat.

Whatever Risch thinks of Cuba's government, punishing an entire population doesn’t serve Idaho or this country. As I’ve argued in The American Conservative, our policy fuels migration, undermines anti-drug cooperation, pushes Cuba closer to Russia and China, denies opportunities to American farmers and businesses, and wastes taxpayer dollars.

Idaho leaders have recognized these costs before. In 1977, Sen. Frank Church met Fidel Castro and recommended that President Jimmy Carter ease the embargo.

Thirty years later, Gov. Butch Otter led a 35-member Idaho delegation to Cuba. He later advocated ending the embargo, arguing that Idaho farmers and businesses would benefit more from engagement than hostility.

Church was a Democrat. Otter was a Republican. Their examples show U.S. relations with Cuba needn't be dictated by Florida politics.

In contrast, Risch has backed a hard-line policy that has hurt people on both sides of the Straits of Florida, while serving the interests of a handful of political opportunists and neoconservative ideologues in Miami and Washington, D.C.

As the 83-year-old senator seeks a fourth term, Idahoans deserve to know what he has done — and failed to do — with the enormous power entrusted to him.

This opinion piece by Belly of the Beast journalist Reed Lindsay was originally published in the Post Register and Gem State Chronicle on October 28, 2026.