Adam Chapman

Adam Chapman: Democratic Nominee for Idaho Senate District 5

Adam Chapman, a Democrat and Coeur d'Alene independent contractor, is the Democratic nominee for Idaho Senate District 5 on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot. He won the May 19, 2026 Democratic primary unopposed, with 825 votes, 100 percent of the total. His opponent in the general election is Republican incumbent Carl Bjerke, who won the seat in 2022 and is now in his second term. The race is a rematch of 2024, when Bjerke defeated Chapman 21,404 votes (79.4 percent) to 5,557 (20.6 percent), according to Idaho Secretary of State records.

Background

Chapman has lived in Idaho for 30 years and told a 2024 candidate forum that Coeur d'Alene has been his home his entire life. He holds a bachelor's degree in Spanish with a concentration in literature from the University of Oregon and works as an independent contractor, according to his response to a 2026 candidate survey published by CBS2/FOX9's idahonews.com. At the 2024 forum, produced by the Coeur d'Alene Press, he said he had previously worked at Walmart, "way in the back room hauling freight."

Campaign and priorities

Chapman says he has not taken corporate or dark-money campaign contributions. At the 2024 forum he said, "I have accepted zero money on my campaign, for the reason that I want to be authentic when I get to Boise." In his 2026 survey response, he wrote that his campaign finances are publicly disclosed and described it as "a campaign by the people, for the people."

In that survey, Chapman listed his top district priorities as:

• Traffic reform
• Reducing carbon emissions
• Increasing wealth distribution "to middle and lower classes"
• Education reform
• Private-business reform
• Healthcare expansion and cost reduction
• A pro-labor focus

Asked what issue the legislature is failing to address, Chapman named climate change, calling it "the existential threat to life on earth posed by climate change and carbon emissions." He named opposition to the Trump administration as a secondary concern. On the state's recent budget shortfalls, he wrote that Idaho needs "to mobilize our economy and transform it into one that is not focused on wealth creation, but problem solving."

2024 candidate forum

At the October 2024 candidate forum, Chapman described his platform as "the three E's, the economy, education and the environment, or preservation in that order." He called himself "a very strong union advocate" and said workers deserved to be paid, in his words, "more than a living wage."

Asked whether he would support Proposition 1, the 2024 ballot measure on open primaries and ranked-choice voting, Chapman said he would: "I will support proposition one. So that we do have open primaries in Idaho, as I believe it's a more democratic process that way... candidates will have to... give in to the people as opposed to... just kind of hold on to their base."

In his closing statement, Chapman said he wanted "a clean lake, a healthy lake," referring to Lake Coeur d'Alene, and proposed unspecified curriculum changes in schools, citing his own experience studying languages as a hobby.

District and opponent

At the same 2024 forum, Bjerke described Senate District 5 as sitting wholly within Kootenai County, running from the Kootenai-Benewah border through Post Falls and Prairie to the Washington border. According to his official Idaho Legislature biography, Bjerke is now in his second term as Vice Chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and a member of Senate Finance. He is a retired deputy fire chief from the Santa Monica Fire Department.

In his own 2026 survey response, Bjerke listed housing affordability, healthcare costs and "keeping Idaho affordable" among his priorities, and wrote that his work on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee reinforced "the importance of distinguishing between a temporary revenue problem and an ongoing spending problem."

In the 2024 general election, Bjerke defeated Chapman 21,404 votes (79.4 percent) to 5,557 (20.6 percent). Earlier that year, Bjerke won his own Republican primary against Cheri Zao, 5,827 votes (77.5 percent) to Zao's 1,692 (22.5 percent). Chapman's 2024 Democratic primary, like his 2026 primary, was uncontested.

Sources

• 2026 general election candidate survey, idahonews.com (CBS2/FOX9): Chapman's and Bjerke's own submitted survey answers.
• 2024 State Senator District 5 candidate forum transcript, Coeur d'Alene Press: direct quotations from both candidates.
• Sen. Carl Bjerke, Idaho Legislature: official biography and committee assignments.
• Adam Chapman, Idaho Secretary of State elections database: certified 2024 primary and general election results.
• Carl Bjerke, Idaho Secretary of State elections database: certified 2024 primary and general election results.