The fundraising race is heating up in the fight over Proposition 1, the ballot initiative to overturn Idaho’s strict abortion ban.
After accepting its first donation on July 10, the opposition group Too Extreme for Idaho has taken in $1,643,978 from 41 people, corporations and political groups, according to campaign finance records.
All but one of those contributions totaled $1,000 or more.
Meanwhile, Idahoans United for Women and Families, the group behind getting the initiative on the ballot, has had much more time to organize its campaign.
It has raised $2,756,675 over the last two years from 5,422 donors.
Jaclyn Kettler, a political science professor at Boise State University, said the wide gap between each group’s number of donors isn’t representative of who will ultimately show up to vote.
“We can’t infer that there’s no popular support [Too Extreme for Idaho], that the people don’t support it, but at the very least, they’re not the ones investing on that side at the moment,” Kettler said.
Of Too Extreme for Idaho’s 41 donors, the average contribution totaled $40,340.
Idahoans United has also received substantial donations from wealthy benefactors, but its financial support base is much wider. The group’s 5,422 donors, on average, gave $505.
Despite the wide gulf between those total numbers, both camps have similar amounts of cash on hand to spend.
Idahoans United has $1,745,368 in its bank account, while Too Extreme for Idaho has $1,590,100.
“It doesn’t necessarily tell us which side is going to win. I think one key point is that both sides have money to run active campaigns and so I suspect we’re going to see a lot of advertising and messaging around this issue,” Kettler said.
The two groups have outraised just about every political entity in Idaho aside from a failed push to legalize medical marijuana and Gov. Brad Little’s re-election campaign.
Voters will get to decide whether to once again legalize abortion in Idaho, along with protecting access to contraception and in vitro fertilization at the polls in November.
Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio
