Republicans won their seats in District 6 in the state legislature, with incumbents Dan Foreman (Senate) and Brandon Mitchell (House) easily reelected. They will be joined by newcomer Colton Bennett to represent Latah and Lewis counties as well as a portion of Nez Perce county.
“I’m very grateful to everyone that trusted me, and I will work every day in the legislature to live up to that trust,” Bennett told the Argonaut. Bennet said his party got a message last night about never-ending wars, regarding the Democrats’ takeover of the U.S. Senate and House. He said, “I hope we learn that lesson, the American spoke loud and clear.” He reiterated his stance against foreign wars and urged his party-mates to heed the same message.
The other winners in the District 6 State office races were unavailable to make a comment.
Bennett beat Democrat Trish Carter-Goodheart by a margin of 53.9% to 46%; Foreman beat Democrat Robin Weldy 52.7% to 47.2%, and Mitchell bested Democrat Kathy Dawes 54.6% to 45.3%.
The three Democrats all won in Latah County but lost decisively in Lewis and Nez Perce counties. The voter turnout in Idaho was 69.3%; in Latah County it was 65%. Nationwie, the voter turnout was 65.8%.
Since its redistricting following the 2020 census, District 6 has been a reliably Republican district. The wins in state legislature were accompanied by Republican victories in county positions for Latah County as two county commissioner seats, the county clerk seat, and county treasurer seats were up for election in this cycle.
Republicans Dan Schoenberg and Tony Johnson were elected in their respective Latah County commissioner districts, beating Democrats Laura Heinse and Carole Wells, respectively. Republican July Fry held on to her seat as County Clerk. BJ Swanson was the only Democrat to win in Latah as the County Treasurer.
Additionally, most state legislature offices went to Republicans as did the Congressional offices as James Risch, Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher were able to thwart their Democratic challengers. Governor Brad Little was able to secure re-election for his third term against Democrat Terri Pickens and Independent John Stegner, and Attorney General Raul labrador easily defeated challenger Democrat Lori Hickman.
Arman Khachatryan can be reached at [email protected]