A future for Democrats in Idaho? Party leaders say they’re ‘planting’ seeds

BOISE – There hasn’t been a Democratic candidate for the Idaho Legislature from District 27 since 2002, and until recently, 11 Idaho counties didn’t have a local Democratic Party.

Idaho Democratic Party leaders announced last month that every Idaho county now has a Democratic organization. And next year each of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts will have a Democratic candidate vying for a seat in the Republican-dominated Legislature, party leaders told the Idaho Statesman.

In the November general election, 11 legislative districts didn’t have a Democratic candidate for the Idaho Legislature, and Democrats lost one of their 12 House seats after a tightly contested central Idaho election. More than half of the 105 races for open seats in the Legislature didn’t have a Democratic candidate.

Republicans trounced Democrats in races for Congress and statewide constitutional offices, such as governor and superintendent for public instruction. The closest margin in statewide races was the attorney general contest, which was decided by 149,000 votes and featured a Democratic candidate with high-profile GOP support.

But Idaho Democrats hope to have three candidates – two House and one Senate – in most legislative districts and at least one candidate in every district, said Jared DeLoof, the executive director of the state party.

“That goal is specifically about the places where it seems, to the average voter, like the Democrats have given up on running for the Legislature,” DeLoof said. “We’re going to go back out there, and we’re going to run people.”

‘Dark counties’ initiative unites rural Democrats

Buoyed by record fundraising, the party is targeting previously untapped rural areas of the state through its “dark counties” initiative.

Two years ago, there were 11 “dark counties” with no Democratic Party infrastructure. The only Democratic Party presence in Boise County was an “adopt-a-highway” sign, and no local party represented Clark County’s 20 registered Democrats.

Now, Boise County has a new Democratic chairman, Jared Dawson, who plans to challenge House Majority Leader Megan Blanksma, R-Hammett, in next year’s election, DeLoof said, and the newly organized Clark County Democrats had a float in last month’s Dubois Friday Night Rodeo parade.

Democrats have organized in all 44 counties in Idaho for the first time in decades, party leaders said. In other words, every county has a precinct committee captain, county chair or another type of volunteer working on behalf of the party.

“If you wanted to run for office as a Democrat in Oneida County, there was no one for you to call,” DeLoof said. “We are planting the seeds for things that we really believe are going to pay off for Idaho Democrats in the future.”

The state party is focused on regaining lost seats in battleground districts, said House Assistant Minority Leader and Democratic Party Chairwoman Lauren Necochea, D-Boise. That includes District 6, which covers Moscow and the University of Idaho, and District 26, where Republican Rep. Jack Nelson, of Jerome, narrowly won election in a district that includes heavily Democratic Blaine County.

Democrats are unlikely to win elections in rural, heavily conservative counties like Boise and Clark. But their emergence will be a check on the dominant Republican Party that’s growing more “extreme,” Necochea said.

“The severe harm of single-party rule in Idaho is what we have to fight back against,” she said. “When Republican candidates are only looking over the shoulder to the right, looking for the even more extreme person to come and unseat them, then we end up with the kind of the policy outcomes where legislators vote to jail librarians and imprison doctors.”

Democratic fundraising outpaces GOP

The Democrats’ outreach efforts are backed by record fundraising. During the previous election cycle, 2021-22, the Idaho Democratic Party raised $2.4 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings. That’s the most money the party has raised in an election cycle without a presidential race.

The Democrats outpaced Republicans 2.5 to 1 during the most recent cycle and are breaking away again this year, raising $624,000 to the GOP’s $155,000. Both parties get most of their funding from individual donors.

Whether the fundraising begets electoral success remains to be seen. But the party leaders said the money sustains long-term programs, like the “dark counties” initiative, voter registration programs and citizenship classes for Idaho’s Hispanic community.

“We can do those things year in and year out, which is kind of the David and Goliath story,” DeLoof said. “This is how over time we make incremental change and we fight back against … the Idaho Republican Party.”