COEUR d'ALENE — Jerry Sturgill is running as a Democrat for a seat in the United States Senate that has been securely held by the GOP for more than two decades.

But 2016, Sturgill said, is a very different year in politics.

"People are more willing to listen," Sturgill said. "People who are disaffected by the government's inability to do anything will listen. People who are completely upside down over what's happened with the GOP nomination are more willing to listen."

The changed political climate, coupled with a lifetime of service, led the fifth-generation Idahoan to believe that this is the right time to challenge sitting Sen. Mike Crapo. Sturgill said he has seen the impacts of poverty, felt the responsibilities of leading a business and making life better for his employees, and the transformative power of embracing fundamental values like the golden rule.

"All of those experiences together have caused me to feel like something needs to be done, and I want to go help do it," Sturgill said. "The government just needs to be doing a better job. I think our glass is more half-full than half-empty. But we have a lot of things that we can do to fill the glass and make life better for a lot of people."

Sturgill was raised in Twin Falls and later graduated with honors from Brigham Young University before obtaining his law degree from the university's law school. As a partner with Latham & Watkins law firm in New York, Sturgill worked with banks and underwriters in financing growth strategies for public and private companies before returning to Idaho to be closer to family.

He became a partner in the Boise offices of the Stoel Rives Law Firm, where he worked with both large and small Idaho companies.

Sturgill is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and serves as a bishop at his ward in Boise. The ward, Sturgill said, is located in the "inner-city" and led him to have many experiences with members of the community struggling with poverty.

Education, Sturgill said, is one of the top issues he would like to address should he be elected. According to Sturgill, education is ultimately a long-term economic opportunity, and Idaho needs to be doing a better job in bring resources to the state to promote education.

"We have to find a way to get them to college and for them to be able to afford it," Sturgill said. "We've got to find a way for them to come out of college without being in debt that buries them and leads them to discouragement and despair — banks should not be permitted to make profits on the backs of our students."

Sturgill said he was captivated by the Idaho wilderness as a young man, and that captivation has led him to care deeply about outdoor conservation. If elected, he said he would not support any movement or effort to give federal lands back to states, one of the issues he says his opponent has pivoted on in the last four years.

"He's changed. He's not the same Mike Crapo as he was when he went to D.C.," Sturgill said. "We need to have balance in the political system, especially in Idaho."