Idaho Democrats gain ground in big election flips

By Lauren Necochea
Reader Contributor

How do you beat billionaire-funded PACs, Republican incumbents backed by corporate donors and misleading attack ads? Idaho Democrats just showed how.

Democratic candidates flipped six legislative seats in Idaho’s most hotly contested districts and came close to winning four more. We made history in Ada County, where Kelceymarie Warner flipped a county commissioner seat and Dotti Owens won her race for coroner. These were our first county-level wins since 2018, making Idaho’s largest county competitive again.

Beyond the races we won, Democrats gained ground across the ballot, outperforming previous results in every statewide race, both congressional races and 67 contested legislative races. In Idaho Falls, our candidate earned 48% against a longtime Republican incumbent, putting a once-safe seat within reach. That progress matters in districts Republicans have long taken for granted.

Our candidates didn’t show up in October and expect to earn voters’ trust. We’ve been talking to Idahoans since mid-2025, asking questions and listening. Those conversations helped us focus on voters’ concerns: high grocery bills, unaffordable housing, lost health coverage, underfunded schools and threats to public lands.

We let voters know Democrats support removing the sales tax on groceries, restoring the child tax credit Republicans ended, updating the homeowners’ property tax exemption to reflect rising home prices, and ending tax giveaways to the wealthy, corporations and data centers. We reaffirmed our commitment to protecting public lands, supporting LAUNCH scholarships that lead to good jobs and making health care accessible across Idaho.

While we talked about solutions to real challenges, Republican politicians dusted off their tired playbook of attacking LGBTQ+ Idahoans and bragging about lopsided tax policies that do little for working families. Culture wars don’t put food on the table, and those stale Republican talking points are wearing thin with voters.

We still faced steep odds. Democratic candidates pounded the pavement to raise money from people who believed in them, while Republicans counted on corporate PACs, lobbyists and other special interests. Out-of-state billionaire-funded PACs poured huge sums into misleading attacks against our candidates.

Nevertheless, our ground game met voters where they were. Over the election cycle, we knocked on doors and made phone calls more than 470,000 times.

The result? When the Legislature convenes in January, there will be 40% more Democrats. They’ll be ready to cast the kind of deciding votes we have in the past: protecting Medicaid expansion; continuing LAUNCH scholarships that only became law because of Democrats; and preventing more public funds from flowing to private and religious schools while neighborhood schools are underfunded, children with disabilities face limits on therapies and road projects are canceled because of self-inflicted budget shortfalls.

This is a win for every Idahoan, however they voted.

Lauren Necochea is chair of the Idaho Democratic Party and a former District 19 legislator. Necochea spent a decade leading nonprofit programs dedicated to research and advocacy in tax policy, health care and children’s issues.