Local incumbents shine on primary election night

WALLACE — All of the incumbent county officials on the 2022 ballot are poised to defend their positions in November, as they staved off challengers within their own party in Tuesday’s primary election.

While Shoshone County voter turnout numbers were not available from the Shoshone County Elections office as of press time on May 19, a comparison to the number of mail-in ballots cast in the 2020 primary to this year show a slight increase from 2,137 to 2,563.

Due in part to the number of high-profile state races on the GOP ballot, local participation in the Democratic primary was low. A total of 1,725 Shoshone County voters opted for the GOP ballot on Tuesday, compared to 703 for the Democratic one.

When it came to local contested races on the primary ballot, Shoshone County voters largely favored those currently holding their respective positions.

Current Shoshone County District No. 2 Commissioner Jay Huber defeated challenger Dawn Wiksten in the DEM primary by garnering a commanding 521 votes (75.51%) to her 169 votes (24.49%). Huber is now set to face GOP challenger and former county commissioner, David Dose, who defeated Dawn Hauff for the GOP nomination by a margin of 996 votes (65.53%) to her 524 (34.47%).

Incumbent Shoshone County Clerk Tamie Lewis-Eberhard also handedly held off her DEM challenger, Shawn Leroy, by taking 77.32% of the vote (525 votes) compared to his 22.68% (154 votes). Lewis-Eberhard will be unopposed in the November general election by a GOP candidate.

Earning the ability to take on current Democratic Shoshone County District No. 3 Commissioner John Hansen, Jeff Zimmerman defeated his GOP counterpart James O’Connell by receiving 1,006 votes (72.74%) compared to O’Connell’s 377 (27.26%).

The last contested county race of the night was for the GOP Kellogg Precinct Committeeman position, which saw Phil Hart (134 votes, 72.43%) defeat Stetson Jones (51 votes, 27.57%).

On the state level, Hart was also successful in his bid for Legislative District No. 2 State Senator, garnering 5,126 votes (56.83%) district wide and 596 votes (36.30%) in Shoshone County. In a distant second was Bill Hasz with 2,416 district votes (26.78%) and 550 Shoshone votes (33.50%). Bringing up the rear was Jon Cantamessa with 1,478 district votes (16.39%) and 496 Shoshone votes (30.21%).

The following are Shoshone County voting statistics pertaining to contested state races. Candidates marked with an (S) before their name carried Shoshone County. Those with a (O) before their names won the overall state election. Any races, county or state, not listed or discussed in this article were uncontested or not on the Shoshone County ballot.

GOP

• Governor

Steven R Bradshaw: 43 2.53%

Ben Cannady: 7 .14%

Edward Humpherys: 41 2.41%

Ashley Jackson: 37 2.18%

(S)(O)Brad Little: 804 47.35%

Lisa Marie: 8 .47%

Janice McGeachin: 753 44.35%

Cody Usabel: 5 .29%

• Lt. Governor

(O)Scott Bedke: 533 33.38%

Daniel Gasiorowski: 133 8.33%

(S)Priscilla Giddings: 931 58.3%

• U.S. Senate

Brenda Bourn: 80 5.05%

(S)(O)Mike Crapo 1,172 73.99%

Natalie Fleming: 132 8.33%

Scott Trotter: 139 8.78%

Ramont Turnbull: 61 3.85%

• Secretary of State

(O)Phil McGrane: 446 29.02%

(S)Dorothy Moon: 750 48.8%

Mary Souza: 341 22.19%

• Attorney General

(S)(O)Raul Labrador: 1,084 67.5%

Author Macomber: 246 15.32%

Lawrence Wasden: 276 17.19%

• Superintendent of Public Instruction

(O)Debbie Critchfield: 418 27.36%

(S)Branden Durst: 790 51.7%

Sherri Ybarra: 320 20.94%

DEM

• U.S. Senate

Ben Pursley: 174 32.10%

(S)(O)David Roth: 368 67.9%

LIBERTARIAN

• Governor

(S)John Dionne Jr.: 3 60%

(O)Paul Sand: 2 40%

Full statistics in all races in the state can be found on the Idaho Secretary of State’s website.