He went from teenage cabinet member to Congress

Rep. Russ Fulcher became agriculture secretary when he was just 17 years old — at Boys Nation, that is.

The Idaho Republican first came to D.C. in the summer of 1979, after finishing the Boys State program back home. He spent a week learning about politics, building a mock government and rising through the ranks. The highlight, he said, was laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, even if it meant frantically looking for a suit.

He ultimately borrowed one too large for his frame: “That’s what stuck in my mind, because I didn’t bring one,” he says.

Later, he returned to intern for then-Sen. Jim McClure, who was working to shore up political power for the west as a “sagebrush rebel” and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“He gained some respect be