Idaho PACs spent more than $4M

Idaho political action committees, or PACs, spent more than $4.2 million on May primary races this year. In a deep red state like Idaho, the Republican primaries tend to be the most competitive races. 

Most of the money generally poured into legislative primary contests between a hardline conservative candidate and a candidate considered to be a more mainstream or traditional Republican. Money from large, well-funded organizations — with sometimes difficult-to-track individual donors — went to both mainstream and hardline candidates. 

Election results were mixed among races with the most spending — large sums to oppose a group of ultraconservative incumbents seemingly had the desired results in districts around Twin Falls. However, money that went toward the farther right candidates in North Idaho and north central Idaho seemed to prevail in those contests. 

“It’s always a little hard to know, is the money causing a particular outcome? Is it helping a particular candidate win?” Jaclyn Kettler, a Boise State University Political Science professor who researches state politics, told the Idaho Capital Sun in a May interview. 

“Well, it’s always a little unclear. It’s not as easy to be like, the most money wins.” 

Kettler said that a large amount of spending in an election is often correlated with greater awareness from voters and often greater engagement. 

Donations to PACs are not limited by campaign finance laws, unlike contributions to individual candidates. For instance, a person or business may only contribute a maximum of $1,000 per election to a candidate, but a person or company could donate as much as they want to a PAC. 

“Independent expenditures” refers to money spent outside a candidate’s campaign to support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. 

Independent expenditures by the PACs may not be coordinated with the campaigns they support, but otherwise have no dollar limits. Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the Sun for a previous story that his office is seeing “so much more money” going toward independent expenditures in recent years. 

The money used on these independent expenditures is sometimes passed among multiple PACs before going toward supporting or opposing a candidate, making it difficult to trace. Individual contributors must be identified when they donate to a campaign, but if someone donates to a PAC and that PAC donates to another PAC, it’s harder to track the individuals or companies contributing to the committee. 

The Idaho Capital Sun analyzed data from the state’s Sunshine campaign finance database, focusing on PACs’ use of independent expenditures for some of the biggest spenders this year. 

Who was the top spender? Which candidates did it support or oppose? 

The Idaho PAC “Defend and Protect Idaho,” spent the most, putting more than $752,800 into supporting 23 Republican primary candidates and opposing 14 others. The committee is led by former Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney, the Sun previously reported. He and other retired law enforcement formed the group in 2022 to thwart “fringe candidates,” Raney said at the time.

The committee spent more than $270,000 supporting some incumbents who are considered more mainstream Republicans. It spent around $18,000 each in support of McCammon Sen. Jim Guthrie and nearly $19,000 for Shelley Rep. Ben Fuhriman. Both incumbents won their races.

The PAC spent over $25,000 to support North Idaho Sen. Jim Woodward, who lost his primary contest to challenger Scott Herndon, a former senator from Sagle. 

Top-spending PAC a part of web of PACs contributing to each other 

Defend and Protect Idaho was part of an interwoven web of PACs that contributed to each other. It received large donations from other committees, such as Hometown Heroes, which also spent over $150,000 supporting many of the same mainstream Republican candidates. 

Hometown Heroes contributed more than $65,000 to Defend and Protect Idaho. Incumbent Republican legislators Rep. Britt Raybould of Rexburg and Sen. Van Burtenshaw of Terreton donated to Hometown Heroes. 

Hometown Heroes also received large contributions from other PACs, such as Esto Perpetua and Take Back Idaho PAC, which made no independent expenditures. 

Idaho Liberty PAC spends more than $100K to support Guthrie 

The second-top spending PAC, Idaho Liberty PAC, supported many of the same candidates as Defend and Protect Idaho. The group spent $108,708.26 to support Guthrie out of its total $565,969.57 in independent expenditures. 

Guthrie, a seventh-term legislator and the powerful Senate State Affairs Committee chairman, has had discretion to allow or deny hearings for bills passed by the House. Legislators who supported hardline immigration enforcement noted that many of the bills died in Guthrie’s committee this year and failed to advance, the Sun previously reported. He has been seen by some as an obstacle and to others as a safety stopgap for more extreme proposals. 

He was challenged by David Worley, who previously unsuccessfully ran for Pocatello mayor and sued the National Guard for alleged religious discrimination. Idaho Liberty PAC also spent just over $35,000 to oppose Worley. 

Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC spends more than $500K on hardline candidates 

The Citizens Alliance of Idaho, which received the vast majority of its funding from the federal Virginia-based Citizens Alliance Political Action Committee, spent the third most. It supported more hardline conservative candidates. 

The Idaho-based arm of the PAC spent nearly $500,000 to support 38 candidates, 22 of whom were incumbents. It also spent around $6,700 to oppose Guthrie, candidate Christa Hazel and incumbent Idaho Falls Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen. 

It spent the most — nearly $39,000 — in support of incumbent Sen. Josh Keyser of Meridian. Two years ago, Keyser ousted longtime Senate leader Chuck Winder, the Sun reported at the time. 

Keyser won his 2026 contest against challengers Russ Spencer and Richard Marsh.

PAC run by incumbent with no challengers spends more than $330K on other races

The 36-18-1 PAC, run by Coeur d’Alene Rep. Jordan Redman and his father, former state Rep. Eric Redman, spent over $325,000 on other legislative primary elections. Redman didn’t have a primary opponent, and while he isn’t allowed to coordinate contributions to help his own campaign, he is able to support others. 

The Redmans’ PAC, supported by a donation of more than $250,000 from Jordan Redman, supported 15 incumbents and 11 non-incumbents. His committee also spent just over $6,000 to support a Kootenai County commissioner candidate.  

Jordan Redman told the Sun he chose candidates to support with a “conservative worldview,” which he defined as “keeping government in check, not letting government grow past where I believe it should be, freedom of individuals to live their lives with less government interference.” 

“The people that we tried to support that were currently in position were just people that had a conservative worldview,” Redman said, “and then some of the ones that we supported that weren’t already in office were people that I believe would move the state to more of a conservative worldview.”

The PAC spent more than $26,600 each supporting Lewiston Rep. Kyle Harris and Kuna Rep. Chris Bruce, both members of the powerful budget-writing committee. The committee spent more than $25,200 for Coeur d’Alene Rep. Elaine Price and around $25,000 for former Rep. Julianne Young of Blackfoot, who challenged the incumbent, Fuhriman. Harris, Bruce and Price all won their contests. Young lost to Fuhriman. 

Redman also contributed $15,000 to the Idaho Summit PAC, run by another incumbent Representative with no Republican challenger, Josh Tanner. 

Tanner’s PAC spent over $217,000 to support 12 incumbents and nine non-incumbent candidates, many of whom overlapped with those supported by Redman’s PAC.