Red Idaho becomes more so

 The Hill:

Conservative earthquake rocks Idaho
...

Twenty incumbent state legislators either lost their seats or lost races to move from the House to the Senate on Tuesday.
Among them: state Sen. Carl Crabtree (R), chairman of the Senate Education Committee; state Sen. Jeff Agenbroad (R), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee; state Sen. Jim Patrick (R), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee; state Sen. Fred Martin (R), chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee; and state Sen. Peter Riggs (R), Martin’s vice chairman and the son of former Lt. Gov. Jack Riggs (R).

None of the five would pass as moderate in almost any other state. But all five lost to challengers who painted them as roadblocks to conservative progress.

“For quite a few races particular in the Senate, it was challenges from the far right that defeated those incumbents,” said Jaclyn Kettler, a political scientist at Boise State University. “It looks like the Senate will now be moving farther to the right.”

In recent years, Idaho’s state House has been the bastion of archconservatives who have passed new restrictions on abortion, transgender rights and critical race theory. Some, but not all, of those policies have met procedural deaths in the state Senate, which has been run by what passes in Idaho for more mainstream Republicanism.

“The House is the branch that has really generated the outrageous bills,” said David Adler, a longtime Idaho political analyst. “Not to say that the Senate is particularly moderate. It’s just less far right.”

Tuesday’s results were not a complete victory for conservatives, as several of the most conservative members of the state House went down to defeat. At least six members of the state House lost renomination bids, and two others are trailing as late ballots remain to be tallied.

But conservatives declared victory. Early Wednesday morning, the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a powerful force in conservative politics in the Gem State, tweeted, “Conservatives are having a solid night, especially in the Idaho Senate.”
...

I think this is more evidence of a red wave election this year. 

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