Nilsson Troy, Mitchell and Nelson earn Dist. 5 victories

Two Republicans and one Democrat earned victories Tuesday in races for a senate seat and two house seats in Idaho’s 5th Legislative District.

With just one small precinct left uncounted in Benewah County, Republican challenger Brandon Mitchell and incumbent Caroline Nilsson Troy each held on for victories against Democratic rivals. Democrat incumbent David Nelson also prevailed.

In the race for the Dist. 5 Senate seat, Nelson’s 12,608 votes earned him the victory over Dan Foreman’s 12,190 votes. In the House races, Mitchell outlasted Dulce Kersting-Lark, 13,600-11,102 for the Rep. B seat, and incumbent Caroline Nilsson Troy beat challenger Renee Love, 13,732-10,237 for the Rep. A seat.

Mitchell-Kersting-Lark

Mitchell, 50, styled himself as a conservative, pro-gun, anti-abortion candidate with concerns about overtaxation. He ran an unsuccessful bid for Moscow City Council last year. He led Kersting-Lark by more than 2,500 votes in Benewah County, which he said was expected, but knew Kersting-Lark would fare better in Latah County.

Mitchell, who owns a handful of Jiffy Lube stores, said as a business owner, he knows how to manage budgets, which would help him as a legislator. A central feature of his campaign was reigning in government spending.

Kersting-Lark, 35, is the executive director of the Latah County Historical Society and ran a campaign focused on boosting education in the state and creating a more bipartisan atmosphere in the capitol.

The mother of a young child, she said the primary reason she got into the race was because she had concerns over Idaho education.

Kersting-Lark said late Tuesday evening that she is still hopeful to pull out a win, noting there was record absentee voting in the county this year, which could help her close the gap with Mitchell.

“My campaign team was really encouraging folks to vote early — either in-person voting at the courthouse or by absentee,” she said. “We were certainly asking our supporters to do that and I know of many, many people who did vote absentee.”

Foreman-Nelson

Foreman served in Nelson’s seat from 2016-18 after defeating incumbent Democrat Dan Schmidt. Nelson then beat Foreman in 2018.

Nelson said last month funding transportation infrastructure, Medicaid expansion and education are three of his top goals if reelected.

Nelson, who serves on the Senate Transportation Committee, said he learned in 2018 while campaigning that good roads are important to District 5 residents.

“Roads are important and continue to be important because we haven’t really fixed our funding dilemma with roads, which is how do we survive on a gas tax that’s a shrinking pot of money and still maintain those roads,” Nelson said.

Foreman said last month, if elected, he will reintroduce “pro-life” legislation even though he said the Senate will not have the “stomach for it.”

“That’s priority one,” he said. “Keeping little kids alive.”

Nilsson Troy-Love

Three-term incumbent Nilsson Troy said she has more to offer her constituents with a fourth term representing Dist. 5. She believes assessments of Idaho’s education spending are flawed by their measurement of per-pupil spending.

““I think what we should be looking at is what the outcomes are,” she said, noting money does not fix everything.

She said she will be up late following local and national elections and looks forward to finding out results.

“It’s amazing to represent a district as competitive as this one,” Nilsson-Troy said. “There are few in Idaho that are as competitive as ours. This is how it should be done.”

Political newcomer Love said she wants to get involved with the state legislature to make policy changes she feels have been overlooked by incumbents. She said legislators discussed five main “hate” bills last session that attacked things like LGBTQ rights and affirmative action protections.

“These hate bills are for no other purpose other than discriminating against other populations that our Legislature doesn’t understand,” she said.

Love said late Tuesday she was staying patient for final vote tallies and appreciates the support she’s received from countless community members.

“I do want to thank everybody that helped my campaign — all my volunteers that spent so much time on it,” she said.