The race for Idaho’s top election official, the secretary of state, is a rematch

In the race for Idaho’s top election official, two familiar names are headed to the ballot.

Democratic challenger Shawn Keenan is again challenging Republican incumbent Secretary of State Phil McGrane, who widely defeated Keenan in the 2022 election. 

Keenan, a mortgage broker and loan officer who lives in Coeur d’Alene, says he’s running again to avoid and combat election misinformation.

McGrane, a seasoned Idaho election official seeking a second term, says he’s running on a track record of keeping elections secure and improving access to election information. 

The two will be on the ballot in the Nov. 3 general election.

The secretary of state is a statewide office that oversees elections in the state, manages campaign finance compliance and transparency, and maintains records on businesses. The secretary of state also serves on the Land Board, which manages the state’s endowment lands.

The secretary of state serves a four-year term and earns an annual salary of $128,690.

In a Republican-controlled state, Keenan’s election bid faces tough odds. Voters in the state last elected a Democrat to statewide office in 2002, for the superintendent of public instruction. The state last had a Democratic secretary of state decades earlier. 

Who is Shawn Keenan, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state?

Keenan, 49, has not worked in election administration but said he has been involved in politics from a young age and has worked on several Democratic campaigns in North Idaho. His parents moved to Idaho with him when he was 1 years old, he said. 

Keenan runs a nonprofit, called the North Idaho Kindness Project, that focuses on fostering acts of kindness — like love letters around Valentine’s Day and kindness tokens, which his group encourages people to hand out to people they see doing random acts of kindness. 

He said his initial bid for secretary of state four years ago came out of fear of growing distrust in election results — including among some of the then-Republican candidates for secretary of state. Years later, Keenan is still campaigning on that.

“When people start crafting these stories about elections not being secure or safe in Idaho, I wanted to be a voice for the truth: that they are indeed safe and secure and have been and always will be,” he said. 

Keenan praised McGrane, the incumbent, for his “due diligence.” And he said he and McGrane are on the same page on at least one policy priority: Establishing a state-issued voter guide, like other Western states have, that mails information on candidates and more directly to voters. 

As a Democrat in a reliably red state, he said he acknowledged that his odds of getting elected are tough — unless he puts in years of doorknocking. He said his campaign has largely focused on digital outreach to voters, compared to travel across the state.

With less than three weeks until the election, Keenan’s campaign has not raised any money, according to the state’s campaign finance database.

Who is Phil McGrane, the Republican incumbent seeking a second term as secretary of state?

McGrane, 45, first started in election administration in Ada County in 2005 — years after a contentious recount of the George W. Bush v. Al Gore presidential election in Florida that brought concerns over partially hole punched “hanging chads.”

In the two decades since, he went to law school and worked in several areas of election administration — like operating voting equipment, training poll workers and entering voter registration cards into the state’s system. 

In 2018, McGrane was elected Ada County clerk. In 2022, he was elected as secretary of state, widely defeating Keenan with more than 72% of the vote.

McGrane said he’s proud of his work to improve access to election information — pointing to his office revamping a website that hosts resources for voters and candidates. The office also has updated the state’s campaign finance data dashboard and the state’s lobbying transparency website. 

“I’ve been working in elections my entire career. I think … the work I’ve done at Ada County, both in the elections team, but also as the elected clerk, and then here as Secretary of State, I think I’ve had a long history of making sure that voting is easy, that voting is secure, and that Idahoans can have confidence in their elections,” he said.

If re-elected, McGrane said his priorities would be to overhaul the state’s business registration system, update the state’s dated campaign finance laws, re-establish the presidential primary election and ask the Legislature for approval to create a voter guide with information on candidates

McGrane’s campaign has raised more than $440,000, and has about $171,000 in cash on hand, according to the state campaign finance database, which his office manages.

How would the candidates approach running elections?

Keenan said the key difference between him and his opponent is the type of pressure they’d face from their political parties. 

“He does a good job of trying to hold the line when it comes to just the important work of delivering fair and safe elections,” Keenan said. “I don’t think I would have any — the same kind of party pressure to deal with that Phil (McGrane) has to.”

But Keenan reiterated an assurance he offered ahead of the 2022 general election: That the state would be OK if his opponent won.

“At the end of the day, I don’t feel like the office of secretary of state is being threatened by a candidate that is not capable of performing well for the citizens of Idaho,” Keenan said. “So I have full confidence, win or lose, that myself or Phil (McGrane) will be able to fulfill the necessary duties for the citizens of Idaho.”

But McGrane said he doesn’t see it as him working against partisan pressure. 

Even when he disagreed with the Idaho Republican Party — over regulations around closed primary elections — or the Trump administration when it comes to sensitive voter roll data, he said he’s maintained good relationships with them.

The same week that the U.S. Justice Department sued McGrane over refusing to turn over sensitive information in voter records to the Trump administration, McGrane said he was in the White House celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with President Donald Trump. 

And he said he talks frequently to Dorothy Moon, the chairwoman of the Idaho Republican Party, who McGrane narrowly defeated in the 2022 GOP primary election for secretary of state.

“It shows that it is not so simple as what people read in the news and the way things are framed in the news,” McGrane said. “That the best form of government — whether that’s state and federal government or it’s just here within the state, state officers, us with the Legislature — is government that works together and coordinates together. And that’s part of my leadership and something, if I have the good fortune of being reelected here and serving Idaho some more, I’m going to continue to work to pull people together — pull people together in the state of Idaho, and pull people together across the country.”

    Keenan