Idaho Republicans retain supermajority control of Legislature. West Boise races split

Winners in Idaho’s 35 legislative districts will earn seats at the Idaho Capitol next year, where they will control the purse strings on billions of dollars and have the authority to write laws.

In Idaho, Republicans clinched supermajority control of both chambers, the House and Senate in Tuesday’s election. They’ve had a supermajority for decades. Outcomes in purple districts in Boise, the Wood River Valley and East Idaho determined how much, if any, dissenting power the Democrats can muster. Preliminary results indicated Democrats will have even less power than the handful of seats they’ve retained until now.

In Idaho’s purple districts, some of the few places in the state where Democrats have a shot at power, Republicans made further inroads, fending off Democratic challengers or even picking up previously Democratic seats. Results from these close races will almost surely buoy the far-right influence in the Legislature, where minorities of Republicans have sometimes allied with Democrats to defeat far-right policymaking.

Ada County finished counting ballots overnight, with a split of the three races in hotly contested District 15. Rep. Steve Berch, a Democrat, edged challenger Annette Tipton by 227 votes, according to totals posted on the state and county elections websites. But the other two races were won by Republicans — challenger Codi Galloway knocked Sen. Rick Just out of his seat by nearly 1,000 votes and Rep. Dori Healey retained the House B seat by nearly 2,000.

IRepublicans won 91 of the Legislature’s 105 seats, reducing Democrats’ share to 13%.

At the Republican Party’s election night event, dozens of “Make America Great Again” hats were perched on the heads of attendees, who closely watched the presidential returns come in on the right-wing network Newsmax.

“We’re here to save the state and keep it bright, bright red,” Idaho Republican Party Chair Dorothy Moon told an exuberant crowd.

Down the ballot from the contest between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Republicans and Democrats competed for seats in the Statehouse. Each of the 35 districts gets one senator and two representatives; all members serve two-year terms.

Republicans already control close to 83% of both chambers. And in many races, Republicans run uncontested. Though Democrats had a candidate running in at least one race in each district this year, many individual races were still uncontested: 18 out of 105 races, according to previous Statesman reporting.

Some of the most closely watched races were in West Boise, District 15. Democrats controlled the Senate seat and one of the House seats, but won those races in 2022 by only a few hundred votes. The Senate race between Just, the Democratic incumbent, and Republican challenger Galloway was the most expensive race of the general election.

With all of Ada County’s votes counted, Galloway won with 51.8%. In the House, Berch, a Democratic incumbent, topped Tipton with 50.5% In the other House race, Democrat Shari Baber lost to incumbent Republican Healey, who had 53.6%.

”My goal on election day, other than winning, is to just have no regrets,” Berch told the Statesman. “And so I’ve done everything that I could do.”

In District 26 in the Wood River Valley area, tight contests were also expected. The same went for District 29, in Pocatello.

In the Wood River Valley, Rep. Ned Burns, D-Bellevue, lost his seat to Republican challenger Mike Pohanka, who won 51.2% of the vote to Burns’ 48.8%. In Pocatello, House Majority Caucus Chair Dustin Manwaring defeated Democratic opponent Mary Shea, 55.2% to 44.8%.

In the Senate, Sen. Ron Taylor, D-Hailey, defeated Republican challenger Laurie Lickley, 45.6% to 43.9%, with independent candidate Kala Tate taking 10.6%.

In Pocatello, the Republican also won the other House race. Challenger Tanya Burgoyne, with 52.6% of votes, beat incumbent Rep. Nate Roberts.

Moon, the GOP chair, told the Statesman that Pocatello has long been a “tough” area for Republicans.

In North Idaho, observers closely watched the races in District 6. Incumbent Rep. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, beat his Democratic challenger Kathy Dawes, 58.1% to 41.9%. In the other House race, Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston, cruised by her Democratic challenger Trish Carter-Goodheart with 64.8% of the vote.

In the Senate, Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, faced Democratic challenger Julia Parker. Foreman came under fire after he yelled “go back to where you came from” at Carter-Goodheart, who is Native American, at a debate forum, according to attendees. Foreman won with 53.3%.

Reporter Nick Rosenberger contributed.

This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 8:00 PM.

Ian Max Stevenson

Idaho Statesman

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Ian Max Stevenson covers state politics and climate change at the Idaho Statesman. If you like seeing stories like this, please consider supporting his work with a digital subscription. Support my work with a digital subscription