The mood at the Idaho Democrats watch party in downtown Boise Tuesday was festive throughout the night. Some local candidates gained new ground, while national races favored democrats.
The crowd was particularly cheerful when results from races across the country trickled in, showing democrats taking back control of congress.
“It was a blue wave, baby,” said attendee Sarah Seidl. “And it was beautiful.”
Keely Duke left the party late, also feeling very hopeful.
“We have more ground to cover, but we certainly have done better than we thought we would do. And there's more work to be done,” she said.
Local candidate Kelceymarie Warner won her race for Ada County Commissioner, unseating Ryan Davidson by a very small margin: 400 votes exactly. Speaking while the results were still coming in, Warner said that slim margin means voters are engaged and paying attention.
“It's not enough to just vote party line anymore. It's important to work across the aisle. And I think that people in Ada County are seeing that, you know, we're not just Democrats and Republicans, we're Ada County residents,” she said.
“I think that that is really apparent in the polls this year,” Warner added.
Idaho Democratic Party Lauren Necochea said regardless of local wins, having democratic candidates in every district race in the state this year sent a message to Idahoans.
“it helps us just keep tilling the soil for voters who haven't voted for us in the past, but they can get to know us and, and see that we have good ideas and we are listening to voters,” she said.
Unofficial results show Democratic candidate for governor Terri Pickens lost with 32% of votes to incumbent Gov. Brad Little. Speaking as the watch party wound down last night, she said she felt good about her campaign.
“Tonight we celebrate taking back the House and the Senate nationally. Tonight we celebrate sending the Trump nightmare,” she said. “And tomorrow we get our boots on the ground and we continue because we're going to continue to build, and we're not going to stop until Boise and Idaho are purple."
