Boise Democrat stepped down from Idaho House. Meet his replacement
Annie Henderson Haws had no particular plans to hold public office — until she saw the news, over her morning coffee, that Rep. Todd Achilles, D-Boise, was stepping down from his seat representing West Boise.
An attorney and second-generation Idahoan, she’d been mulling for about a year whether to run for office after a friend who serves on Moscow’s City Council told her to give it some thought. When she read about Achilles’ seat opening up in her district, she decided to put her hat in the ring.
“It was really like one of those things where preparedness meets opportunity,” she told the Idaho Statesman. Her father used to tell her, she said, “ ‘You keep working hard, and a door will open, and you’re supposed to walk through it.’ It just felt like one of those moments in life.”
Achilles in early July announced he was stepping down from his House seat representing West Boise to make a bid for the U.S. Senate, and on Tuesday, Gov. Brad Little selected Henderson Haws from among three candidates the Legislative District 16 Committee of the Idaho Democratic Party submitted to fill Achilles’ seat.
She will serve the remainder of Achilles’ term, through December 2026, according to a Democratic Party news release.
Henderson Haws’ belief in the importance of public service began early, as she watched her family’s advocacy for her brother, Oliver, who had muscular dystrophy.
“Those experiences helped ground her belief that government should break down barriers — not create them,” the Idaho Democratic Party said in a Tuesday news release.
In the years since, Henderson Haws, 41 a Boise-based attorney, spent her career “expanding access to justice, defending constitutional rights, and advancing equity across Idaho,” the party said. “From clerking for federal judges to protecting over 43,000 acres of tribal land from environmental degradation with the Nez Perce Tribe, her work is focused on solving real problems and standing up for enduring values.”
Henderson Haws is an attorney with Holland & Hart, a Mountain West-based firm where she focuses on civil litigation, including contract law, fraud and defamation-related cases. She teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Idaho College of Law.
Before she entered private practice, Henderson Haws served as a judicial law clerk at the U.S. District Court in Idaho for U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale and U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, according to Holland & Hart’s website.
She enjoys working as an attorney, she told the Statesman, because “at its core, it’s really about helping people solve pressing problems when they don’t have other options.”
And it offers a model for building relationships across the aisle to get things done — an approach she said she aims to bring with her into the Legislature.
“You just can’t be an effective advocate without good relationships with other attorneys on the other side of your cases, judges, court clerks and especially your clients,” she said. “We live in a time where we’ve all acknowledged these deep divisions in our society that have been sort of sown to, I think, divide us. And I really want the opportunity to use the skills I’ve gained in building relationships and civility to do right by the people of Idaho.”
Todd Achilles steps down to run for U.S. Senate
Henderson Haws’ appointment to West Boise’s Legislative District 16 seat may strike some as deja vu: Achilles was appointed to the seat in February 2024 after former Rep. Colin Nash left the seat to focus on the Boise City Council. In November, Achilles won another term.
In early July, Achilles launched a campaign to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Risch as an Independent in November 2026. He had considered the move for a long time, spurred by frustration with the state of the economy and the dysfunction of the two-party system, he told the Statesman.
“Everybody’s frustrated by the debt, deficits and dysfunction in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “Too many people are struggling. Their wages are low. They’re having to get health care from Medicaid programs. The whole system is broken.”
Idaho Democratic lawmakers celebrated Henderson Haws’ appointment as his replacement.
“As a powerhouse attorney, native Idahoan, and bridge-builder, Annie is going to bring so much to the Legislature,” Rep. Soñia Galaviz, D-Boise, said in the release. “We are lucky to have her on the team.”
Henderson Haws acknowledged that Democrats in the Legislature, as an ultra-minority, face an uphill battle in pursuing their policy goals. But she described herself as an “optimist” and said she believes there is room for Democrats to partner with Republicans to “reach real viable solutions” on some shared goals.
“What I want to do is build trusted relationships with the Republicans, whose voices and votes are truly needed for change,” she said. “I think I am not going into this with any idea that I can do that without working hand-in-hand with my Republican peers.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 3:51 PM.
CORRECTION: This story was updated on July 22, 2025 to reflect the fact that Henderson Haws is a second-generation Idahoan. Four generations of her family live in Idaho.
