Kootenai County went red as the nation went blue: what the 2026 election means here

Democrats won both houses of Congress. Idaho stayed Republican, and Kootenai County voted more Republican than the state. Here's how we voted, where the independents went, and what changes.

The country went one way on Tuesday. Kootenai County went the other.

Across the nation, Democrats won control of both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. In Idaho, Republicans won every statewide race and kept all four seats in Congress. And Kootenai County voted more Republican than Idaho as a whole, in every major race on the ballot.

All of these numbers are unofficial. Kootenai County canvasses its results Nov. 12, and the state finishes its canvass by Nov. 24.

How Kootenai County voted

About 77,000 of the county's 114,380 registered voters cast a ballot, or 67%, according to the county's unofficial results on the Idaho Secretary of State's site.

Gov. Brad Little won 69.5% of the Kootenai County vote. Statewide he won 57.1%. U.S. Sen. Jim Risch won 68.3% here and 56.5% statewide. U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher won 69.2% here and 64.3% across the 1st Congressional District.

In each of the three top races, the Republican candidate ran about 5 to 12 points stronger in Kootenai County than across Idaho or the 1st District.

The rest of the state offices followed the same pattern. Every Republican running for a state office, from governor to school superintendent, won Kootenai County with between 69% and 76% of the vote.

None of the county's own offices were contested. Every county race on the ballot had one name on it.

Where the independents went

The U.S. Senate race had no Democrat on the ballot. Risch faced two independents and a Libertarian. In Kootenai County, independent Todd Achilles won 22.3%, independent Natalie Fleming won 6.6%, and Libertarian Matt Loesby won 2.7%. Together, about 3 in 10 Kootenai voters in that race chose someone other than the Republican. Statewide it was more than 4 in 10.

With no Democrat in the Senate race, voters who did not back Risch split among two independents and a Libertarian.

In the governor's race, independent John Stegner won 5.3% in Kootenai County, and the Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates together won about 3%. In the 1st District House race, independent Sarah Zabel won 5.6%. In those races the Democratic candidates, Terri Pickens and Kaylee Peterson, finished second, with 22.3% and 24.4% here.

Nationally, independents were a deciding group. Republicans won only 38% of independent voters, their weakest showing with independents since at least 1998, according to exit poll data reported by NPR. In 2006, the last year that came close, Democrats also won both chambers.

The ballot questions

Kootenai County voted the same way as the state on the two biggest statewide questions, by wider margins. Proposition 1, which would have created a right to abortion before fetal viability, along with other protections, failed. It lost with 66.4% voting no in Kootenai County and 55.9% no statewide. The constitutional amendment on the English language, House Joint Resolution 6, passed with 75.4% yes here and 63.2% yes statewide.

The county and the state agreed on both big ballot questions. Kootenai's margins were wider.

Closer to home, the Coeur d'Alene School District's supplemental levy passed with 58.2% of the vote, and the Post Falls School District's passed with 55%. A county advisory question asked whether county taxpayers should be responsible for a bus system serving Coeur d'Alene, Hayden, Post Falls and Dalton Gardens. Most voters, 57.3%, said no. The question was advisory only.

Both school levies in the county's two biggest districts passed. Most voters said no to the county bus question.

How the rest of the nation voted

Democrats won control of the House and the Senate on Tuesday, according to projections by CBS News and other networks. As of Thursday morning, CBS News projected Democrats would hold at least 54 Senate seats, with races in Alaska and Mississippi still uncalled, and between 251 and 268 House seats. Some House races were still being counted.

Democrats flipped Senate seats in states including Texas, Ohio, Kansas, North Carolina, Maine, Iowa and South Carolina, Northeastern University's news service reported, citing the Associated Press.

Idaho moved a little, too. Democrats won six more seats in the Idaho Legislature, in districts in west Boise, the Magic Valley and the Pocatello area, Boise State Public Radio and Idaho Education News reported. None of those districts are in Kootenai County. Republicans will still hold about 80% of both chambers. Idaho Education News also noted that Little's statewide share fell from nearly 61% four years ago to about 57%.

Compare and contrast

The national result and the local result point in opposite directions. Nationally, voters moved toward Democrats, and independents moved away from Republicans. In Kootenai County, Republicans won every statewide and congressional race, all by more than 2 to 1, and ran ahead of their statewide numbers.

Where the two pictures meet is the independent vote. In Kootenai County, voters who did not pick the Republican went to independent and third-party candidates when no Democrat was running, and mostly to the Democrat when one was.

What it means

Washington will be split. President Trump will serve his last two years with Democrats leading both chambers of Congress. In Congress, the party with the majority picks the leaders and the committee chairs.

That matters for Idaho's delegation. All four of its members are Republicans, so all four will now be in the minority party. Risch currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Boise State Public Radio noted. Sen. Mike Crapo currently chairs the Senate Finance Committee, and CNBC reported that Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon is expected to take that chair.

At home, little changes. The governor, every statewide office, the Legislature and Kootenai County's government all stay in Republican hands.

Have a question about the results? Tell us, and we'll look it up. Every number in this story names its source below.