The regional news site InvestigateWest summed up its take on Idaho in 2025 in this headline: Unchecked prison sex abuse, Christian nationalist influence and police welcoming ICE — a year of investigative reporting in Idaho.
Well, it is an investigative site, so it’s focusing on some of the darker corners.
But Idaho sure did have its darker side this year. What comes first to mind was the Wilder horse-track mass arrest in October, when about 200 law officers including masked and anonymous ICErs descended on a peaceful crowd which was in part zip-tied (evidently including children) and hauled off. It was the most visible of many immigrant roundup activities in the state which have had sweeping social and economic effects. Maybe – we’ll see – political as well.
The year in Idaho overall was inescapably intertwined with the Trump Administration, in areas ranging from economics at the Canadian border to measles outbreaks to food stamps to threatened salmon runs to selloffs of federal buildings to major shifts in state and local government budgets to air flight schedules, and much more. It’s been impactful. The case will be hard to make that much or any of it has been helpful. But it was what Idaho voted for, strongly.
The results are visible, at least as much in Idaho as elsewhere. Idaho has a big federal presence, and actions by the DOGE cutbacks in federal agencies directly affected people, land use (and management), safety and more across the state.
Donald Trump was the proximate cause of what may have been the single most decisive event affecting in-state politics last year: His endorsement of Brad Little for re-election to a third term as governor. Before that, expectations were widespread that Attorney General Raul Labrador would challenge him in the Republican primary. At present, while that’s still possible, it seems increasingly unlikely, since so much of Labrador’s base is so solidly on the Trump train. As the year turns, then, Idaho seems likely to have a quiet rather than a raucous primary campaign season.
At the moment, the most interesting non-Republican Idaho candidate for next year might not be a Democrat (at least at present) but rather an independent, Boisean Todd Achilles, who is running for the Senate. Achilles was all over the state in 2025 launching his race for the U.S. Senate (against Republican incumbent Jim Risch), and the usual measures suggest he’s a distinct underdog. But he is rejiggering the usual calculus with his independent run, and his progress seems worth watching.
It was a year when stresses on the subject of abortion reached new levels. Keep watch on the upcoming Idaho legislature, and you might find those stresses haven’t peaked yet.
There was a flip side to all this during 2025, which also might accelerate in 2026: No Kings. Massive protests happened nationally across the year, from coast to coast and in small reddish as well as large bluish communities. Idaho was not exempt, and thousands of people in most of its larger cities (Boise, sure, but also Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Coeur d’Alene and other unlikely locations) took to the streets in protest. And many smaller places as well. It’s hard to imagine there won’t be more as the mid-term election year comes up.
There were big stories that didn’t fit the pattern, like the ending of the Kohberger murder case and the collapse of the proposed obtaining (for lack of a better verb) of the University of Phoenix by the University of Idaho. (Both Moscow-based, oddly.)
It was a year of continued economic growth, at least in the metro area, and of continued growth to the northwest and southwest of Boise. And a time of continued exceptionally high housing prices, something that has become a major topic of discussion nationally and applies in parts of Idaho as much as anywhere.
Still. The common thread through so much of what happened in Idaho last year isn’t hard to see.
Welcome to 2026 …
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