Here’s how Trump’s Idaho victory, Biden’s totals compare with 2016 election
There really wasn’t any doubt that President Donald Trump would win Idaho handily over Joe Biden.
But high turnout across the state in a big election year produced some interesting results nonetheless.
Statewide, with all counties reporting, Trump won the state with 63.88% of the vote, while Biden took 33.09%. Biden’s result was about 6 percentage points higher than Hillary Clinton’s 27% in 2016.
In Ada County, Trump collected 50.33% of the vote while Biden took 46.41%. That’s also an improvement for the Democratic candidate from 2016, when 38% of Ada County voted for Hillary Clinton.
And in four eastern Idaho counties with heavy Mormon populations, Biden took a larger percentage than in other Republican-led counties, though he still lost them overwhelmingly.
While Trump took about 59% of Idahoans’ votes in 2016, independent candidate Evan McMullin, who belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, got more than 46,000 votes, or 6.7%. McMullin got more than 11,000 votes in Ada County, more than 6,000 in Bonneville County and more than 3,000 in Bannock County.
In Bonneville County this time, with all 55 precincts reporting, Biden took 26.38% of the vote, while Trump took 69.97%. In Bannock County, with all 54 precincts reporting, Biden had 36.91% of the vote while Trump took 58.65%. In Bingham County, it was 20.62% for Biden and 76.49% for Trump, while in Madison County, home of Brigham Young University-Idaho, Biden had 15.58% of the vote and Trump was at 79.24%.
Biden outperformed Clinton on all of those counties by several percentage points, including nearly 8 points in Bonneville and 6 points in Bannock. Trump performed better in each county as well.
On Oct. 6, the LDS Church put out a news release encouraging members to vote but remaining neutral on endorsements.
“While the Church affirms its institutional neutrality regarding political parties and candidates, individual members should participate in the political process,” the church’s statement said. “Please strive to live the gospel in your own life by demonstrating Christlike love and civility in political discourse.”
Before the 2016 election, the church issued a similar statement.
Perhaps the most well-known Mormon politician in the country, U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump during his impeachment trial on abuse of power. The decision made Romney the first U.S. senator in history to vote to remove a president from his or her own party.
Former Arizona U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, also a Mormon, publicly endorsed Biden over Trump. Flake was a vocal critic of Trump during the businessman’s first campaign and presidency.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 1:15 AM.
