Anita Janis

Anita Janis: The Democrat in District 26's Three-Way Race for House Seat A

Anita Janis ran unopposed in the May 19, 2026 Democratic primary for Idaho House District 26, Seat A, collecting 3,000 votes, or 100 percent, according to certified Idaho Secretary of State results. She now heads to the November 3, 2026 general election, where she faces Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Pohanka and Independent candidate Bella Schiffler in a three-way contest for the seat covering Blaine, Lincoln, and Jerome counties.

The field she is running against

Pohanka, a Jerome Republican, is running for his second term. The Idaho Mountain Express describes him as an Idaho State Police chaplain who taught economics at the College of Southern Idaho. He defeated fellow Republican Jeff Emerick of Ketchum in the May primary, per certified state results, and advanced to the general.

Schiffler, a 22-year-old Independent from Jerome, has worked as an intern in the Idaho State Legislature for the past four years, according to the Idaho Mountain Express. In her own responses to the 2026 general election survey published by CBS2/FOX9, which the outlet published without alteration, she describes herself as a homesteader in Carey running "fully dependent on God." She writes that "the Democrat Party is completely demonic, woke, and carries the agenda of hell," that "every illegal must go," and that undocumented immigrants "endanger our communities, especially women and children." Her stated top priority is "the issue of life," and she calls for abolishing property and income taxes and eliminating the roughly 40 percent of Idaho's budget that comes from federal funds.

Janis, by contrast, built her campaign around her work history. "I am not a career politician and am not beholden to special interests or large donors," she wrote in her own survey response. "My campaign is built from the ground up, driven by genuine concern for the impact of recent legislation on everyday Idahoans."

A career in classrooms and college administration

Janis grew up in a military family with three siblings. Her father's Air Force service moved the family from England to Germany to Duluth, Minnesota, before they settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after his retirement, according to her survey responses. She began college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, then transferred to a women's college, where she earned a degree in English and history education. She later earned a master's degree in education and completed coursework in the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin.

Her career spanned five states. She taught language arts to eighth graders and worked with high school students in rural southwest Wisconsin, then spent ten years teaching speech and writing at a technical college, and worked part-time at First Call for Help, now known as 211, connecting people in crisis with local resources. In higher education administration, she interned with a Vice President of Instruction in Rochester, New York, served as Assistant to the President at a college in Illinois, and in Oregon became Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at a community college before promotion to Dean of Instruction, overseeing academic divisions, career-technical programs, the library, IT, and education and training at a correctional facility. Her final post was Dean of Instruction at a two-year college in Colorado, where she oversaw transfer degrees, career-technical programs, and adult basic skills, and partnered with a four-year college on a "2+2" program designed to ease a statewide shortage of elementary teachers.

Her campaign site summarizes the career as 14 years teaching English and adult education and nearly 15 years as a college dean. She and her husband have lived in Jerome since January 1, 2019, per her survey response.

Party and community roles

The Idaho Mountain Express independently confirms that Janis chairs the Jerome County Democrats and serves as secretary of the Idaho Democratic Party Rural Caucus. She also serves as co-president and board member of the Idaho Community Connects Coalition, or Idaho C3, a South Central Idaho nonprofit. Her site lists its programs as an emergency food bank, classes for grandparents raising grandchildren, citizenship and suicide-awareness programming, pet spay and neuter services, and summer programming for children.

Her platform

Her campaign site lists five priorities. The first is schools and workforce development: she cites nearly 30 years in education and calls for stable public school funding and expanded career and technical pathways in agriculture, healthcare, trades, small businesses, and recreation. Second is rural healthcare, where she commits to protecting rural hospitals, clinics, Medicaid, and mental health services, arguing that "access to healthcare should not depend on where you live."

Third, she addresses agriculture, tourism, and small business, noting that farmers and ranchers face rising costs, workforce shortages, and water uncertainty, while tourism communities struggle with housing, transportation, and workforce needs. Fourth is preserving public lands and access, which she describes as central to both Idaho's heritage and its rural economy. Fifth is fiscal responsibility and transparency, where she points to her dean experience managing budgets and securing grant funding.

Where she stands on the budget and schools

Her sharpest policy language came in the CBS2/FOX9 survey, published August 24, 2026. Asked about the biggest issue the legislature is not addressing, she wrote that public schools "have been underfunded for far too long" and that "Idaho ranks last in the nation for per-student spending." She said lawmakers "diverted $50 million in public school funds" to private education and called for "a complete overhaul" of a funding formula she called outdated.

On the state's recent budget shortfalls, she criticized the legislature for giving "major tax breaks to the wealthiest, leaving working families behind," and wrote that it is "appropriate to revisit" the state's $1.6 million rainy-day fund.

Campaign money

Her campaign finance disclosure filed through the Idaho Secretary of State's Sunshine portal shows total contributions of $37,766.15 and total expenditures of $11,478.28, leaving an ending cash balance of $26,287.87 with no debt or loans. Her largest contributor is the Blaine County Democratic Central Committee at $4,000. The Idaho Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel each gave $2,000, as did the Jerome District Democrat Party, the Gem State Victory Fund, Patricia Zebrowski, and David Presson.

Sources

• About Anita, Anita Janis for Idaho, campaign biography and community roles
• Priorities, Anita Janis for Idaho, her stated issue platform
• CBS2/FOX9 (idahonews.com), 2026 general election survey for State Representative District 26A, published August 24, 2026
• Idaho Mountain Express, March 6, 2026 report on District 26 candidate filings
• Idaho Secretary of State Sunshine portal, campaign finance profile for Anita Janis