Not since the historic 1994 midterms has so much of Idaho’s electorate turned out to vote in a midterm primary election.
The primary election in Republican-dominated Idaho usually determines the ultimate winner of the general election — and, on Tuesday, voters largely showed up at the polls to support establishment Republicans over their far-right challengers for statewide races.
About 32.8% of registered voters cast ballots in the primaries Tuesday, according to data from the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. (All results are pending certification by county election officials.)
Turnout rates approached and even passed the 50% mark in a handful of small, rural counties, the data files showed.
The lowest reported turnout rate was about 13% in Idaho County. The highest were about 55% and 57% in Camas and Clark counties.
Voters cast more than 94,000 ballots in Ada County, and 30,415 in neighboring Republican stronghold Canyon County, giving those urban areas a turnout rate of about 32% and 28%.
Idaho has grown rapidly in recent years. So has its voter rolls. On Tuesday, the state reported 975,532 registered voters — an 18% jump from the 826,491 registered to vote in the 2018 midterm primaries.
There were 573,578 registered voters in Idaho for the 1994 midterm primaries. That was a banner election year for the Republican Party in the U.S. The 1994 midterms ushered in a Republican takeover of Congress, as the GOP rallied voters against the Clinton administration's health care plan and other policies.
About 33.3% of Idaho’s registered voters showed up for the primary election that year.
This year, voters turned out in droves to send a different message. For races at the top of the ballot, they opted for Idaho politicians whose challengers came at them from the far right.
“I’ve had a pretty well-known record for 3.5 years,” incumbent Gov. Brad Little told the Idaho Capital Sun on Tuesday. Little won the Republican primary for governor by a wide margin. “People kind of know what they get with Brad Little.”
Idaho Speaker of the House Scott Bedke, of Oakley, also won the race for lieutenant governor on the Republican ballot.
Bedke and others spoke Wednesday of unifying the fragmented Republican Party to win November’s general election. Bedke said voters told him during his campaign stops that they craved stability.
“If I heard it once, I heard it a hundred times (while traveling the state), ‘Please do not let our state change. Don’t let all of this new growth change who we are. I don’t want to wake up five years from now and wonder where our Idaho went,’” Bedke said Wednesday. “The campaign against the Democrats starts today.”
