This congressional race pits a GOP incumbent against a Dem newcomer. Here’s our pick

In the 2nd District House race, the Idaho Statesman endorses longtime Rep. Mike Simpson.

For a long time, it was obvious that every two years, the Statesman (and nearly every other newspaper in the state) would endorse Simpson. It happened like clockwork.

That happened because Simpson always put his state first. Because he was moderate and reasonable. Because he put the hard work of forging compromises ahead of ideological purity.

But things changed during the Donald Trump years, when Simpson refused to put sufficient distance between himself and the toxic former president. In 2020, the Statesman endorsed Aaron Swisher, his Democratic opponent.

“We are troubled by Simpson’s nonchalant attitude about abuses of power by President Donald Trump, chuckling about his tweets, as if that’s all that’s at stake. Like many congressional Republicans, Simpson does not seem to take seriously Congress’ important role of providing checks and balances on the executive branch,” our editorial board wrote at the time.

This year, Simpson is being challenged by Idaho Falls teacher Wendy Norman.

Norman is an admirable candidate. As a teacher, she has firsthand experience with the challenges facing Idaho’s education system. She has campaigned hard to gain votes in a district that hasn’t gone blue in three decades.

Frankly, we find no fault with her policy proposals or her competence.

But the U.S. House is a place where seniority can matter, and Simpson has built seniority and used it to put himself in places where he can be uniquely beneficial to Idahoans. On important issues involving water, public lands, federal facilities like Idaho National Laboratory and wildfires, Simpson remains Idaho’s most important asset.

If Norman could match Simpson’s experience and placement on key committees, it would take many, many years.

The Trump years will undoubtedly be remembered as the saddest, most disappointing in Simpson’s many decades of public service. But he did not go as far as some. Unlike Rep. Russ Fulcher, Simpson remained loyal to his country and oath after the 2020 presidential election, voting to certify the legitimate results. If he had done what Fulcher did, it would be impossible to suggest that he be reelected.

We still hope Simpson will do more to distance himself from the forces that Trump unleashed within the GOP — forces that sadly are still going strong. But there are concrete, pressing problems outside of Trump that Simpson is poised to address.

Simpson has stood alone in Idaho Republican circles to advocate for serious solutions to preventing the extinction of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead populations. Doing so will require breaching four dams on the lower Snake River, as a recent report from NOAA Fisheries makes clear.

Others have been satisfied to issue statements about the issue, generally dithering. More than anything else, that is what will kill the salmon. We have a few years to solve the problem, or we will have lost the legacy of millions of years within our lifetimes. A loss of that kind is incalculable.

Simpson has proposed serious solutions that would address economic impacts to agriculture, shipping and the electric grid. And he’s been willing to pay a not insignificant political cost to do so.

Simpson has also been diligent in protecting assets important to his constituents. From his work on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act to protecting INL, it’s hard to find a person in his district who has not benefited from his work on policy.

We hope he will sharpen that focus if reelected and not allow our increasingly toxic national political scene to prevent him from working on real solutions to real problems by crafting compromises.