Incumbent Sen. Jim Risch was reelected to the U.S. Senate after defeating Democratic candidate Paulette Jordan by 62.4% with 99% of the votes reporting as of 4 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Risch was first elected to Idaho’s Senate in 2008, and has served for two terms in the U.S. Senate. The National Journal referred to him as the “most conservative senator in the U.S Senate.”
Risch spoke to his supporters via livestream on election night,
“I’ve been doing this long enough that Idahoans know me and they know what to expect from me. Whenever I cast a vote, there’s never a question about where it’s going to come from.”
Risch received 50.6% of the votes in Ada County.
“I think the message is that they’d like to stay the course and keep Idaho the great place that it is. And the fact is that I think people here in Idaho have a really good, clear understanding of how lucky we are in Idaho compared to the rest of the country,” Jordan said in the Idaho Press.
Jordan led in Latah, Blaine and Teton county.
“We are well aware that we’re in Idaho — what is assumed as a ‘safe red state’, but we fight anyway. That is our honor. We must never forget that we are the accumulation of the dreams and prayers of our ancestors. We honor them, we honor one another, and we honor ourselves through our willingness to carry out our divine purpose and fight for the values that they have instilled in us,” Jordan said in an interview with the Idaho Statesman.
Ada County had record breaking voter turnout, with 867,250 total Idahoans voting in Tuesday’s election. Of the votes, 179,127 were submitted absentee.
