Ada County voters: Here’s who’s running in November 2025 elections in your city
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Ada County voters will elect mayors and council members in November 2025.
- Boise’s Jimmy Hallyburton faces challengers Lynn Bradescu and Lisa Sánchez.
- Several incumbents across districts will run unopposed or face limited opposition.
Voters across Ada County will pick new city council members, mayors and more in the November 2025 election, and now we know who will be on the ballot — and who won’t.
In Boise, incumbent Jordan Morales will retain his seat after no one filed to challenge him. But for incumbent Jimmy Hallyburton, this election will be more challenging than his last.
Hallyburton in 2023 ran unopposed. Now will face Lynn Bradescu, a familiar conservative face in local politics; and former Council Member Lisa Sánchez, who previously faced questions over her campaign spending. She outspent other officials and made purchases at restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops with the money. Ada County later said her spending complied with the law.
She lost her council seat after she mistakenly moved out of her district. Sánchez sued, saying she was unfairly removed and asked for compensation. In June, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected her case.
Boise voters will also vote on an $11 million open-space levy.
In Meridian, all three incumbents on the November ballot received no challengers, although write-in candidates could still declare themselves as late as Friday, Sept. 5. The three include sitting City Council President Luke Cavener, who seeks his fourth term. In most cases, state law requires unopposed candidates to be declared winners automatically, and their elections are canceled. But the Legislature made an exception in 2024 for cities with more than 100,000 people, of which Idaho has three: Boise, Meridian and Nampa.
Voters in Meridian and other areas within the West Ada School District will weigh in on candidates for the school board, which faced backlash this spring after the school district ordered a sixth-grade teacher to remove inclusive signs from her classroom. Two incumbents, including the board’s chair, will face multiple challengers each.
Meridian voters will also decide on a $5 million public-safety levy.
In Eagle, seven candidates will vie for two at-large City Council seats after incumbents Helen Russell and Melissa Gindlesperger opted not to seek re-election. The cast of candidates includes former Mayor Nancy Merrill, who served from 2002 to 2008.
In Garden City, voters will choose a new mayor for the first time in decades, after incumbent John Evans announced he wouldn’t seek office again.
Here are the candidates who met Friday’s legal deadline for filing their candidacies in Ada County’s six cities — Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Garden City and Star— and in school and other districts. We’re listing them here even if they lack opponents and are running in jurisdictions where unopposed candidates are declared to be winners without an election.
Candidates have until Friday, Sept. 5, to change their minds, withdraw from the election and keep their names off the ballot — and a few typically do. We’ll update this story with any withdrawals.
All terms last four years unless otherwise noted.
Boise
City Council District 2
Colin Nash (incumbent)
Josh Ellstrom
Derek James Smith
City Council District 4
Jordan Morales (incumbent)
City Council District 6
Jimmy Hallyburton (incumbent)
Lynn Bradescu
Lisa E. Sánchez
Boise open-space levy
The City Council approved putting a levy on the ballot that would raise property taxes by just under $10 for every $100,000 of property value to acquire open space and support clean air and water projects.
The city has used previous open-space levy money to buy property for new parks or near Table Rock in the Foothills. Two similar levies in 2001 and 2015 passed with 59% and 74% approval, respectively.
Meridian
City Council District 1
Brian Whitlock (incumbent)
City Council District 4
John Overton (incumbent)
City Council District 6
Luke Cavener (incumbent)
West Ada School District Trustee Zone 1
To see a map of the trustee zones in West Ada, visit westada.org/page/board-of-trustees and click on Trustee Zone Map near the bottom right of the page
Lori Frasure (incumbent)
Dara Ezzell-Pebworth
Valerie Martindale withdrew by the Sept. 5 deadline.
West Ada School District Trustee Zone 3
Angie Redford (incumbent)
Cheri Robinson withdrew by the Sept. 5 deadline.
Meghan Brown
Pattie Dushku withdrew by the Sept. 5 deadline.
Anna Marie Young unofficially withdrew in an Instagram post on Sept. 16. Young missed the official withdrawal deadline, and her name will still appear on the ballot.
Meridian Fire Protection District
District 1: Derrick Shannon (incumbent)
District 3: Marvin Ward (incumbent)
Meridian Cemetery District 3
Nic Gibson (incumbent)
Phil Black
West Ada Recreation District
District 1: Tyler Roundtree (incumbent)
District 2: Colin Moss (incumbent)
Meridian public-safety levy
Meridian seeks voter approval of a $5 million levy to increase police wages, retain firefighters hired by an expiring federal grant and establish in-house prosecution services. The levy is expected to cost taxpayers $20.11 per $100,000 of assessed property value annually, starting in October 2026.
The levy requires a 60% majority to pass. It’s the first time the city’s asked voters for a property-tax levy in at least 20 years, according to a city spokesperson.
Eagle
City Council, two at-large seats
Steve Bender
Kenny Pittman
Beth Haney
Robert Gillis
Danielle Davis
Nancy Merrill
Tom Letz
Eagle Fire Protection District
District 1: Brad Pike, Sr. (incumbent)
District 3: Josh Tanner (incumbent)
Garden City
Mayor
Incumbent John Evans is not seeking re-election.
Bill Jacobs
Molly Lenty
Teresa Roundy
City Council, two at-large seats
Kelceymarie Warner
Dennis Mansfield
Teresa Jorgensen (incumbent)
Wendy Carver-Herbert
Gage Coprivnicar
Starr Shepard
Kuna
City Council, two at-large seats
Michael Rocco
Chris Bruce (incumbent)
Stephen L. Irish
Kuna School District Zone 3
Krysti Bruce (incumbent)
Brenda Drake Blitman
Kuna School District Zone 4
Brian Shjerve
Freddy Wheeler
Kuna Rural Fire District
District 2: Carrera Atkinson (incumbent)
District 3: Bo Hilpert (incumbent)
District 4: Halie Cavanagh
Kuna Cemetery District
Jayne Davis (incumbent)
Star
City Council Seat 3
Kevan Wheelock (incumbent)
Art Soukup
City Council Seat 4
Jeff Wood
Liz Flower
Ken Slavens withdrew by the Sept. 5 deadline.
Jennifer Ragsdale
Spencer McDonald
Bruce Wise
Steve Day
Star Fire Protection District
Mike Massong
Mary Kay Ludemann
Star Cemetery District
Sub-district 2: Brittany Ashton (incumbent)
Sub-district 3: Marvin Quist (incumbent)
Star Fire Protection District levy
Voters in the Star Fire Protection District, which includes parts of both Ada and Canyon Counties, will weigh in on a $2.2 million levy that would help fund firefighter safety equipment and staffing and operating costs to help the district keep pace with “dramatic growth,” according to the ballot language.
To pass, it would need a two-thirds majority. A similar measure failed in May.
This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Ada County voters: Here’s who’s running in November 2025 elections in your city."
CORRECTION: All three Meridian City Council incumbents will appear on the November ballot even though no one filed declarations of candidacy to oppose them by the Aug. 29 legal deadline. An earlier version of this story included outdated information about the state law that cancels elections for unopposed candidates in most city elections. The law was changed in 2024 so that it no longer applies to cities with more than 100,000 people.
