Controversial Boise State professor has new think tank role — in Florida. Is he leaving?

Scott Yenor, a tenured professor at Boise State University known for making misogynistic comments and espousing far-right talking points, has taken on a Florida-based position with a conservative think tank.

In a tweet Wednesday, the Claremont Institute said Yenor will be its inaugural senior director of state coalitions, a promotion after having worked as its Washington fellow. In the new role, Yenor will work with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative allies in a Tallahassee-based position.

“Thrilled to welcome @scottyenor from the Claremont Institute to his new home in Tallahassee,” Florida first lady Casey DeSantis said in a tweet Wednesday.

According to the Claremont Institute’s website, its mission is to “restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.”

As first reported by Idaho Ed News, it is unclear whether Yenor will be leaving Idaho for the new position. The Claremont Institute and Yenor did not respond to emails from the Idaho Statesman on Thursday regarding Yenor’s new position.

Boise State spokesperson Mike Sharp told the Statesman in an email that Yenor is on sabbatical and remains a faculty member. According to Boise State’s website, Yenor lives in Meridian with his family.

Gov. DeSantis, a possible Republican presidential nominee in 2024, is known for raising culture-war issues and forcing through laws such as Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act, while also targeting how history is taught in schools, and how sexual orientation and gender identity can be discussed.

Yenor was a part of former Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s so-called anti-indoctrination task force, which targeted education in the state from a far-right vantage point and ultimately produced six recommendations, while receiving a lot of criticism from teachers and residents.

At the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando in 2021, he said single, career women were “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome.” He also said young women should be encouraged “to be secure with feminine goals of homemaking and having children.”

During his speech, Yenor said women shouldn’t be recruited into engineering, medical school or law school — an idea that led hundreds of students, professors, parents and elected officials to protest at the Boise State campus.

Yenor made news a few weeks ago after he was asked by the Turning Point club at Eagle High School to talk about “the effect that feminism has had on our society.” In videos on social media, he was seen talking about marriage, pedophilia and premarital sex, among other things. He was jeered by many other students, who walked out of his presentation.