Todd Achilles, formerly serving as a Democrat in the Idaho state Legislature, has left state politics to prepare to run against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. James Risch.
Achilles is in the middle of a listening tour throughout North Idaho, trying to figure out what issues are most important to voters.
“Health care, obviously a huge concern for Idaho, and so, (I’ve) been digging into that and the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill, particularly on cutting Medicaid and what that’s going to mean for rural hospitals who are barely hanging on right now,” Achilles said.
Piet Kongsatt, a student at Lewis-Clark State College, showed up to Brackenbury Square in downtown Lewiston with a small group of other people to talk to Achilles.
“Groceries are really expensive,” said Kongsatt, who said the cost of housing is another one of his concerns.
Rent is really expensive for him and his friends right now, he said.
“Most of them are like, going back (to) live with their own parents just to save money,” Kongsatt said.
Achilles talked with Kongsatt about how he wants to work on keeping landlords from using pricing algorithms to coordinate rent prices, rather than letting the market decide.
Housing affordability is one of the big issues he wants to focus on. He's also concerned about how AI is affecting jobs and the overall economy.
Defeating political incumbents can be hard. But more than a third of voters in Idaho are registered as “unaffiliated.”
Achilles is working on pulling in votes from the middle by focusing on populist policies like housing and the job market.
Both Democrats and Republicans at the national level are serving into old age, said Achilles, who is 58 years old. The average age of a U.S. Senator is about 64 years old.
“For all the people that were complaining rightly about Biden's age, they need to take a hard look at our representation in the Senate because my opponent is effectively the same age as Joe Biden, six months younger,” Achilles said.
He acknowledged age is a problem for Democrats, too. Three Democratic representatives died this spring while serving their terms.
Risch, 82, has been in federal office for more than 15 years. He did not respond to a request for comment.
