Republican incumbents easily won their party primaries Tuesday in Idaho, where the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is based.
Longtime House Appropriations Committee member and INL backer Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) carried more than 63% of the GOP primary vote in Congressional District 2, with the rest of the votes being split between two other Republican challengers, according to morning-after election results.
Simpson will square off in the November general election against Democrat Ellie Gilbreath who won 82% of the votes in her party’s primary Tuesday.
Idaho is a very red state. Only about 27,000 people voted in the district 2 Democratic Primary, while on the Republican side, Simpson alone garnered more than 63,000 votes.
In the U.S. Senate primaries, incumbent Jim Risch (R), a member of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, won 67% or 156,000 votes in the Republican primary. Three other GOP candidates split the rest of the primary vote.
Risch is headed toward a November general election matchup with Democrat David Roth, who won 62% or 30,000 votes in the blue primary.
If there were an election consolation prize for most memorable name on the ballot in might go to the Democrats third-place finisher, Nickolas 007 Bonds. 007 Bonds only won 7% of the vote in the Democrats Senate primary.
The numbers come from voteidaho.gov.