Idaho was the second-fastest growing state between 2010 and 2020, but the Gem State’s 17-percent growth rate was not quite enough to secure it an additional congressional district.
That meant Idaho’s independent redistricting commission had a relatively straightforward task: adjust the two existing districts to account for population shifts.
The commission did just that, shifting just a few precincts from the 1st to the 2nd District in Ada County (Boise metropolitan area), and leaving the map otherwise identical to the one already in place.
The map, which was approved by both Republican commissioners and one of the two Democratic commissioners, faces several legal challenges in state court, including one from Ada County itself, which objects to being split between the two districts.
Ada is the only county in the state (out of 44) that is split between the two districts, and it is also where nearly half of the state’s Democratic voters reside. In 2020, Joe Biden won 287,021 votes in Idaho, 120,539 of which came from Ada County.
But that court challenge and a few others in a similar vein face steep odds. Ada County has been split between districts for the past five decades.
1st District
The 1st was roughly 35,000 residents above its target population and had to shed a few precincts to the 2nd. The change happened entirely in Ada County, where portions of Garden City, Eagle, and an eastern sliver of Meridian were moved from the 1st to the 2nd. Otherwise, the district remains the same.
The minimal changes extend to the district’s partisan lean. The old 1st voted for President Donald Trump by 37 points, 67-30 percent. The new 1st would have voted for Trump by 38 points,...