Idaho Attorney General election, 2018

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2022
2014
Idaho Attorney General
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Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: March 9, 2018
Primary: May 15, 2018
General: November 6, 2018

Pre-election incumbent(s):
Lawrence Wasden (Republican)
How to vote
Poll times: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voting in Idaho
Ballotpedia analysis
Federal and state primary competitiveness
State executive elections in 2018
Impact of term limits in 2018
State government trifectas
State government triplexes
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2018
Idaho
executive elections
Governor

Lieutenant governor
Attorney general
Secretary of state
Treasurer
Controller
Superintendent of public instruction

Idaho held an election for attorney general on November 6, 2018. The candidate filing deadline was March 9, 2018.

Democratic Party For more information about the Democratic primary, click here.
Republican Party For more information about the Republican primary, click here.

For more information on attorney general elections in 2018, click here.

SETTING THE STAGE
  • Heading into the election, the sitting attorney general was Lawrence Wasden (R), who was first elected in 2002 and was re-elected in 2006, 2010, and 2014. On September 7, 2017, Wasden announced that he would seek a fifth term in 2018.
  • At the time of the 2018 election, Idaho was a Republican trifecta. It gained this status when Gov. Phil Batt (R) took office in 1995. Idaho was a Republican triplex in 2018.
  • Idaho had been won by the Republican candidate in each of the five presidential elections leading up to the 2018 election. The widest margin of victory was George W. Bush's 40 percent margin in 2000 while the narrowest was John McCain's 25 percent margin in 2008.

  • Candidates and election results

    General election

    General election for Attorney General of Idaho

    Incumbent Lawrence Wasden defeated Bruce Bistline in the general election for Attorney General of Idaho on November 6, 2018.

    Candidate
    %
    Votes
    Image of Lawrence Wasden
    Lawrence Wasden (R)
     
    65.4
     
    384,791
    Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
    Bruce Bistline (D)
     
    34.6
     
    203,283

    Total votes: 588,074
    Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
    If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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    Democratic primary election

    Democratic primary for Attorney General of Idaho

    Bruce Bistline advanced from the Democratic primary for Attorney General of Idaho on May 15, 2018.

    Candidate
    %
    Votes
    Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
    Bruce Bistline
     
    100.0
     
    47,637

    Total votes: 47,637
    Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
    If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

    Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

    Republican primary election

    Republican primary for Attorney General of Idaho

    Incumbent Lawrence Wasden advanced from the Republican primary for Attorney General of Idaho on May 15, 2018.

    Candidate
    %
    Votes
    Image of Lawrence Wasden
    Lawrence Wasden
     
    100.0
     
    157,064

    Total votes: 157,064
    Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
    If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

    Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.


    State overview

    Partisan control

    This section details the partisan control of federal and state positions in Idaho heading into the 2018 elections.

    Congressional delegation

    State executives

    • As of May 2018, Republicans held seven of 14 state executive positions; the other seven were nonpartisan offices.
    • Heading into the 2018 election, the sitting governor of Idaho was Butch Otter (R).

    State legislature

    • Republicans controlled both chambers of the Idaho State Legislature. They had a 59-11 majority in the state House and a 29-6 majority in the state Senate.

    Trifecta status

    Idaho was a Republican trifecta, meaning that the Republican Party held the governorship, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House.

    2018 elections

    See also: Idaho elections, 2018

    Idaho held elections for the following offices in 2018:

    Demographics

    Demographic data for Idaho
     IdahoU.S.
    Total population:1,652,828316,515,021
    Land area (sq mi):82,6433,531,905
    Race and ethnicity**
    White:91.7%73.6%
    Black/African American:0.6%12.6%
    Asian:1.3%5.1%
    Native American:1.3%0.8%
    Pacific Islander:0.1%0.2%
    Two or more:2.6%3%
    Hispanic/Latino:11.8%17.1%
    Education
    High school graduation rate:89.5%86.7%
    College graduation rate:25.9%29.8%
    Income
    Median household income:$47,583$53,889
    Persons below poverty level:16.9%11.3%
    Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015)
    Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Idaho.
    **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

    As of July 2017, Idaho had a population of approximately 1,716,943 people, and its three largest cities were Boise (pop. est. 223,154), Meridian (pop. est. 95,623), and Nampa (pop. est. 91,382).[1]

    State election history

    This section provides an overview of federal and state elections in Idaho from 2000 to 2016.

    Historical elections

    Presidential elections, 2000-2016

    This chart shows the results of the presidential election in Idaho every year from 2000 to 2016.

    Election results (President of the United States), Idaho 2000-2016[2]
    Year First-place candidate First-place candidate votes (%) Second-place candidate Second-place candidate votes (%) Margin of victory (%)
    2016 Republican Party Donald Trump 59.26% Democratic Party Hillary Clinton 27.49% 31.77%
    2012 Republican Party Mitt Romney 64.53% Democratic Party Barack Obama 32.62% 31.91%
    2008 Republican Party John McCain 61.52% Democratic Party Barack Obama 36.09% 25.43%
    2004 Republican Party George W. Bush 68.38% Democratic Party John Kerry 30.26% 38.12%
    2000 Republican Party George W. Bush 67.17% Democratic Party Al Gore 27.64% 39.53%

    U.S. Senate elections, 2000-2016

    This chart shows the results of U.S. Senate races in Idaho from 2000 to 2016. Every state has two Senate seats, and each seat goes up for election every six years. The terms of the seats are staggered so that roughly one-third of the seats are up every two years.

    Election results (U.S. Senator), Idaho 2000-2016[2]
    Year First-place candidate First-place candidate votes (%) Second-place candidate Second-place candidate votes (%) Margin of victory (%)
    2016 Republican Party Mike Crapo 66.13% Democratic Party Jerry Sturgill 27.73% 38.40%
    2014 Republican Party Jim Risch 65.33% Democratic Party Nels Mitchell 34.67% 30.66%
    2010 Republican Party Mike Crapo 71.18% Democratic Party Tom Sullivan 24.93% 46.25%
    2008 Republican Party Jim Risch 57.65% Democratic Party Larry LaRocco 34.11% 23.54%
    2004 Republican Party Mike Crapo 99.18% Democratic Party Scott McClure 0.82% 98.36%
    2002 Republican Party Larry Craig 65.16% Democratic Party Allan Blinken 32.55% 32.61%

    Gubernatorial elections, 2000-2014

    This chart shows the results of the four gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2014. Gubernatorial elections are held every four years in Idaho.

    Election results (Governor), Idaho 2000-2016[3]
    Year First-place candidate First-place candidate votes (%) Second-place candidate Second-place candidate votes (%) Margin of victory (%)
    2014 Republican Party C. L. 'Butch' Otter 53.52% Democratic Party A. J. Balukoff 38.55% 14.97%
    2010 Republican Party C. L. 'Butch' Otter 59.11% Democratic Party Keith Allred 32.85% 26.26%
    2006 Republican Party C. L. 'Butch' Otter 52.67% Democratic Party Jerry Brady 44.11% 8.56%
    2002 Republican Party C. Dirk Kempthorne 56.28% Democratic Party Jerry Brady 41.73% 14.55%

    Trifectas, 1992-2017

    A state government trifecta occurs when one party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's office.

    Idaho Party Control: 1992-2024
    No Democratic trifectas  •  Thirty years of Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
    Governor D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
    Senate R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
    House R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R



    Pivot Counties

    See also: Pivot Counties by state

    No counties in Idaho are Pivot Counties. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

    In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump (R) won Idaho with 59.3 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton (D) received 27.5 percent. Independent candidate Evan McMullin received 6.7 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Idaho voted Republican 70 percent of the time and Democratic 30 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, Idaho voted Republican all five times.

    Presidential results by legislative district

    The following table details results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections by state House districts in Idaho. Click [show] to expand the table. The "Obama," "Romney," "Clinton," and "Trump" columns describe the percent of the vote each presidential candidate received in the district. The "2012 Margin" and "2016 Margin" columns describe the margin of victory between the two presidential candidates in those years. Data on the results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections broken down by state legislative districts was compiled by Daily Kos.[4][5]

    In 2012, Barack Obama (D) won 4 out of 35 state House districts in Idaho with an average margin of victory of 13.5 points. In 2016, Hillary Clinton (D) won 4 out of 35 state House districts in Idaho with an average margin of victory of 17 points.
    In 2012, Mitt Romney (R) won 31 out of 35 state House districts in Idaho with an average margin of victory of 38.6 points. In 2016, Donald Trump (R) won 31 out of 35 state House districts in Idaho with an average margin of victory of 39 points. Trump won three seats controlled by Democrats heading into the 2018 elections.


    Recent news

    The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Idaho attorney general election 2018. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

    See also

    Idaho government:

    Elections:

    Ballotpedia exclusives:

    External links

    Footnotes