ID Government

President Donald Trump and his administration have continued to ramp up demands that states, including deep-red Idaho, alter their election laws to limit or eliminate mail-in voting and ensure that only eligible citizens cast ballots with threats of legal and financial penalties just months ahead of November’s general election.

COEUR D’ALENE – The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to elect Ron Jacobson as its new chairman, after the retired banker and former mayor of Post Falls called for unity between the party’s moderate and hard-line factions.

Legislators from North Idaho appear likely to shift further to the right after Republican voters in the northern-most district ended the re-election campaigns of two incumbents.

The longtime chairman of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee lost his GOP precinct committee race Tuesday night by 14 votes, while his faction of supporters won exactly half of the committee seats, final unofficial results showed.

A former Coeur d’Alene School District board chair and activist behind the effort to protect North Idaho College accreditation is running against incumbent Rep. Elaine Price to represent the Lake City in the Idaho Legislature.

Two candidates for Idaho’s northernmost state senate district who have traded the seat back and forth the last two election cycles are facing each other again.

Idaho immigration attorneys are puzzled by a new letter from the Idaho Transportation Department notifying immigrants of issues with their records that allow them to be in the United States.

The Department of Health and Welfare would be required to report the immigration status of people using state HIV prevention services under a proposed public health budget. The move comes after Idaho lawmakers in 2025 passed a measure to prevent some immigrants from accessing services such as soup kitchens, prenatal care and crisis counseling. Just days before that law was set to take effect, ...

For school districts, educating students with disabilities who need services like a nurse or an ASL interpreter can be costly. Complex services can run a bill tens of thousands of dollars and be especially difficult for rural districts to afford. Last week, lawmakers advanced a bill to start to address the significant gap in Idaho’s special education funding. At the same time, they questioned ...

A bill criminalizing “willfully” entering a public bathroom of the opposite biological sex passed the Idaho House Wednesday.

BOISE – The Idaho Legislature should consider creating a statewide 911 program to address maintaining the emergency communication system as costs rise and technology ages, according to a new report issued Friday by an independent Idaho watchdog agency.

Idaho state lawmakers on Monday voted to move forward on a proposal to repeal the state’s Medicaid expansion plan, which provides health care coverage to about 90,000 lower-income residents. Before a narrow vote in the House Health and Welfare Committee to introduce the bill for a full committee hearing, some lawmakers indicated repeal would be a hasty move before they’ve had a chance to ...

For decades, the Lincoln Day Dinner at the Coeur d’Alene Resort has been a hallmark event for the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee and scores of conservatives in the region.

The reactions of Idaho lawmakers, lawyers and gun-rights activists to the killing of a Minnesota protester run the gamut. Some justify federal agents’ shooting of protester Alex Pretti, arguing that he put himself at risk because he had a gun. Others push back on that idea — which some officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have promoted — and are adamant that such a narrative ...

Gov. Brad Little called for the preservation of state funds for public education and vocational training in his annual State of the State address at the Idaho Capitol, even as he warned of spending cuts in a year of “budget pressures.” Little’s speech launched the state’s 69th legislative session, and Idaho’s part-time lawmakers are now set to stay in session until at least late March. In his ...

In recent months, Idaho lawmakers and state leaders have expressed angst over a projected state budget deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars. They have deliberated how to close the gap. Cut spending by slashing state programs? Reverse tax cuts enacted in the 2025 legislative session?

While there will be far fewer ballot initiatives affecting abortion access in the 2026 midterm elections than there were in the previous national election, two in Republican-led states could be consequential.

Residents voted the mayors of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls out of office in Tuesday’s election, though many other North Idaho officials retained their seats.