by Logan Finney, Idaho Reports
Both the Republican and Democratic parties have called on Idaho lawmakers to reinstate the state’s presidential primary for 2024 – but without an agreement on when to hold it, the chances of a special session this summer are slim.
Without a clear path forward to schedule a presidential primary, the parties are preparing to hold local caucuses next spring to select delegates to their national presidential nominating conventions.
Punting the Primary
Lawmakers passed House Bill 138 during the 2023 legislative session to move the presidential primary from March to May, but due to a technical error in the bill, it simply eliminated the March election date without adding a new May date. A follow-up bill to correct the error passed the Senate but died in a House committee.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane first proposed the legislation as a budgetary measure to save the state the cost of conducting an extra standalone primary in presidential election years. Idaho Republican Party chair Dorothy Moon and other party officials urged lawmakers at the time against completing the move, arguing that holding Idaho’s presidential contest earlier, in February or March, would benefit the state more than combining it with the later May primary for state and local offices.
Creating the Caucuses
In the intervening months since the legislative session, the state central committees of both major political parties have met and made plans to hold local presidential caucuses for the 2024 campaign.
“We need to have a plan in place if the legislature fails to act, but it’s not our preference. That’s our fallback plan,” Idaho Democratic Party chair Rep. Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, told Idaho Reports on Wednesday. “We absolutely want the legislature to reconvene so that we can allow voters a say in the presidential nominating process.”
The Democratic state central committee has approved two presidential delegate selection plans – one using a caucus, the other using the results of a primary – while the Republicans state central committee passed a set of caucus rules that would simply revert to using the primary if lawmakers reinstated the March election date.
“Ideally, we would have liked to see HB 138 actually get fixed,” Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, told Idaho Reports on Thursday. “We still want to go back in and fix it when we get back into session.”
Deciding the Dates
While the local election schedule is a state-level decision, the backdrop of national politics is definitely influencing the issue. Moon told lawmakers during the session that she hoped Idaho could become “the Iowa of the West” with an early slot in the calendar to attract attention and campaign visits from Republican presidential hopefuls.
“This [caucus] vote moves Idaho into the early stages of the Republican Presidential nominating fight — allowing Idaho Republicans to vote fifth in the nation and before Super Tuesday,” the Idaho GOP noted in a press release following its summer meeting.
In 2016, the Idaho Republican Party held its presidential primary on March 8. In the days before the vote, presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz visited Idaho to make their case to Republican voters; Ultimately, Cruz won the state. The Idaho Democratic Party held its caucus on March 22, with Sen. Bernie Sanders visiting and winning Idaho.
Josh Putnam, a political scientist who focuses on the presidential nominating process and runs the website FrontloadingHQ, told Idaho Reports that this type of competition between states jostling for places on the presidential primary calendar is a common theme every presidential election cycle.
“States have over time sought to find earlier positions, and the problem with that has been that it’s usually not just one state that wants to do it,” Putnam said. “So, it’s gotten crowded really quickly, and it’s been hard for any state – much less a state on the smaller side like Idaho – to kind of stand out.”
Putnam said he wasn’t sure whether Idaho Republicans jumping ahead of the 12 or 13 states that will vote on Super Tuesday – including Texas and California – would do much to highlight western issues in the presidential race, but he said it was probably worth a shot.
“I think in Idaho and Michigan to some extent, and I guess the Virgin Islands, Republicans are doing the same sort of thing: trying to kind of carve out a space before Super Tuesday to say, ‘Look, you know, you may ignore us in the end, but we’re gonna take a shot at this to try and lure you out.’”
With incumbent President Joe Biden seeking another term in office in 2024, the campaign calculus is different for Democrats.
“We are satisfied with a May primary, given how it saves state dollars by having that election consolidated,” Necochea said.
“I think the way that the Republicans in Idaho have designed things with the filing fee in particular is pretty novel,” Putnam said. “If a candidate comes out to campaign [at the caucus] in Idaho, then it basically cuts the filing fee in half. That may or may not be attractive to some folks… Given the size of the state, given where it is just in between major urban areas and such, it’s worth a gamble.”
Shelving the Session
Idaho’s next regular legislative session is scheduled for January 2024. The governor also has the power to call lawmakers back for a special session, or 60% of each chamber can call a special session.
“I don’t see either one of those transpiring,” Nichols told Idaho Reports. “The best result we have is to do a caucus, because at least this way Republican voters are not completely disenfranchised.”
Without a decision from the Republican legislative caucus about the timing of the presidential primary, it is unlikely that lawmakers will rally behind a petition to call their first special session any time soon.
“I haven’t seen anything drafted. I do know members of my caucus are eager to see this change made,” Necochea said. “It is a heavy lift. It’s a high number of Republicans that would have to go with us.”
House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, confirmed to Idaho Reports on Thursday that there is no clear path toward a special session at this time.
“There’s not a consensus on what to do. Because some want everybody to vote in the primary in May, some want it to be in March, some want it to be a caucus, there’s no consensus on what the solution is,” Moyle said. “You’ve got to have something that everybody gels around.”
Necochea pointed out that there is still the tried-and-true method of convening a special session.
“The governor could also still lead on this. He certainly has the option to do that,” Necochea said. “He seems to want to punt this to the legislature and abdicate his leadership and the potential role he could play in fixing it.”
After lawmakers clamored for the ability to call their own special sessions in the political landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Brad Little appears content leaving that responsibility in their hands.
“The Idaho Legislature sets policy related to Idaho’s elections. Idaho voters passed SJR 102 last November, allowing the Idaho Legislature to call itself back into session,” his press secretary Madison Hardy said in a statement provided to Idaho Reports on Thursday.
“Election integrity, voter participation, and open and transparent elections remain a priority for Governor Little,” Hardy said. “Governor Little always prefers giving Idahoans the ability to cast their own vote in a presidential primary, and he is a strong proponent of an election system that encourages as many Republicans as possible to participate. He has faith that Idaho Republican voters will make the best choice for our party’s presidential nominee.”
Setting the Schedule
Common criticisms of the caucus system are that the specific time and location, as well as the duration, can preclude people from being able to participate, including people with disabilities, parents who need childcare, and those who work evenings. Members of both political parties told Idaho Reports that they hope lessons from previous caucus years will make the process easy for participants.
“We want people to be able to participate without the inconvenience of a caucus,” Necochea said. “We also tried to make our caucus as user friendly as possible.”
Nichols told Idaho Reports that the Idaho GOP made a conscious effort to design a localized process that shouldn’t take as long or require as much travel as past Republican presidential caucuses.
“It’s the best we’ve got for the time we’ve got,” Nichols said.
| Nominating Contest | Scheduled Date |
| Idaho Republican Presidential Caucus | March 2, 2024 (Saturday) |
| “Super Tuesday” | March 5, 2024 (Tuesday) |
| Idaho Statewide Primary Election | May 21, 2024 (Tuesday) |
| Idaho Democratic Presidential Caucus | May 25, 2024 (Saturday) |
Logan Finney | Associate Producer
Logan Finney is a North Idaho native with a passion for media production and boring government meetings. He grew up skiing, hunting and hiking in the mountains of Bonner County and has maintained a lifelong interest in the state’s geography, history and politics. Logan joined the Idaho Reports team in 2020 as a legislative session intern and stayed to cover the COVID-19 pandemic. He was hired as an associate producer in 2021 and they haven’t been able to get rid of him since.
