By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports

The Idaho Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would establish a presidential preference primary election after the state’s inability to hold a presidential primary this year.

SB 1415, sponsored by Senate President Pro Temp Chuck Winder, R-Boise, will advance to the House in a 31-4 vote. The bill would establish a date for the presidential primary election. The political parties could follow the voters’ recommendations if they chose.

Winder explained the primary date could move, as another bill the Senate passed last week could move the date for all primary elections to April.

The bill states that “the secretary of state shall notify the state chair of each political party of the results. A political party may use the results for candidate nomination at its national convention, and nothing in this chapter shall be construed as mandating a political party adopt the results of the presidential preference primary.”

Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, voted against the bill, saying he felt it was rushed. The Senate waived its rules to bring it to the third reading calendar for consideration on Tuesday.

Lenney also expressed concern that the stakeholders had not been consulted on the bill.

The other no votes came from Sens. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton; Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls; and Dan Foreman, R-Viola.

The issue is timely, after the Idaho Republican Party just held a presidential caucus on Saturday. Key complaints about the process have been the low turnout to the caucus.

This bill comes after the Idaho Legislature passed a bill in 2023 to eliminate the May presidential primary in an effort to consolidate elections, but failed to add a new presidential primary date. That left it up to the state’s political parties to establish processes to nominate presidential candidates.

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