State reference

How does government work in Idaho?

Idaho’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

105

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: Constitution of the State of Idaho source
In effect since: 1890 source

What may surprise you here

Idaho voters elect the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, controller, treasurer and superintendent of public instruction as separate offices. source
Idaho allows citizens to propose laws by initiative but not constitutional amendments. source

Legislature

Name: Idaho Legislature source
Senate: seats: 35 source
Senate: term in years: 2 source
House of Representatives: seats: 70 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None (enacted 1994, repealed 2002) source

Structure set by: Art. III, s. 1.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: None source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: separate election source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: District Courts source
How high-court judges reach the bench: mixed: Supreme Court justices elected statewide to six-year terms source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 44 source
Cities and towns: Cities are bodies corporate and politic with local self-government powers under state law. source
Schools: Idaho school districts are separate bodies corporate and politic, not departments of city or county government. source

Elections

Chief election official: Secretary of State source
Who runs elections locally: County clerks source
Primary type: partially closed source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: statutory initiative and referendum, no constitutional initiative source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Brad Little Republican, in office since January 7, 2019. source

US senators for Idaho
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Mike Crapo	Republican	Class 3	January 6, 1999	January 3, 2029
James E. Risch	Republican	Class 2	January 6, 2009	January 3, 2027

Members of the House for Idaho
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Russ Fulcher	Republican	January 3, 2019
District 2	Michael K. Simpson	Republican	January 6, 1999

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 2