Dale Hawkins

Dale Hawkins, Republican incumbent for Idaho House District 2, Seat B

Dale Hawkins is the Republican incumbent for Idaho House District 2, Seat B, on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot. He won the May 19, 2026 primary with 7,097 votes, or 76.77%, over Todd Perry. In November he faces Democrat Sabine Krier. Hawkins is in his second term, according to his official legislator page.

Background

Hawkins lives in Fernwood, in Benewah County, and has been a resident of the area for more than 24 years. His campaign site says the family moved to Idaho in 1998 to homeschool their six children. He and his wife, Debra, have been married 38 years and have one grandchild.

His official page lists him as a small business owner, retired, with work history in mining, logging, and construction. He served seven years as a reserve deputy with the Benewah County Sheriff's Office and is an NRA certified firearms instructor. He has served as a precinct committeeman and as Benewah County GOP chairman. His campaign site says he was elected to the Fernwood water and sewer board in 2008 and describes his Christian faith as the foundation of his policy positions.

Committee work

Hawkins chairs the House Education Committee, a role he took at the start of the 2026 session. He also sits on Ethics and House Policy, Judiciary Rules & Administration, and Local Government, per his official member page.

The compulsory attendance amendments

Hawkins's signature legislation is a proposed constitutional amendment, sponsored twice. House Joint Resolution 1 in 2025 would have removed the legislature's authority to set compulsory school attendance ages and replaced it with the sentence: "The right of the people to educate their children without government regulation outside of the public schools of the state shall not be infringed." Current law requires children between seven and 16 to attend some form of school, public, private, or home-based, according to OPB.

"We will become the state that recognizes what God has already given parents and that's control and direction over their children," Hawkins told the House State Affairs Committee, per Boise State Public Radio. He said parents would still be required to educate their children under the change: "If you don't educate your children, I guess that would be a form of child abuse," he said. "We have plenty of other stuff in our code that recognizes that." Asked by another lawmaker whether the state has a responsibility to ensure every child is educated, Hawkins told the committee: "I think the state has the opportunity and the right and the responsibility to provide for the education system that exists. What I don't think the state has is the right to step into your home or my home and tell me what to do or you to do with your children as it refers to education," per OPB. Former state senator Scott Herndon worked on the proposal with Hawkins and testified in favor of the resolution, per Boise State Public Radio. House Minority Caucus Chair Todd Achilles opposed it: "When we make this change to the constitution, we're opening the door for parents, irresponsible parents, to not educate their kids and that impacts every single one of us," he said, per Boise State Public Radio.

HJR 1 passed the House 46-23-1, one vote short of the two-thirds supermajority constitutional amendments require. Hawkins sponsored the amendment again in 2026 as House Joint Resolution 9, with similar language. HJR 9 passed the House 44-25-1 and again fell short of the threshold needed to reach the ballot, according to Idaho Legislature bill records. Hawkins called the mandatory-attendance language "rather archaic" in 2026, per Idaho Education News.

As Education Committee chair

Two 2026 bills show how Hawkins used the chairmanship. The first was Senate Bill 1234, which would have renamed Lewis-Clark State College as the state's fourth full university. The bill passed the Senate 34-0. Hawkins never scheduled a hearing for it in House Education, and the bill died without one, according to Idaho Education News. LC State President Cynthia Pemberton said Hawkins initially told her the name change "made sense" at a January 2026 meeting. Idaho Education News submitted written questions to Hawkins about the bill and received no response.

The second was Senate Bill 1288, from State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield, creating a $5 million fund reimbursing districts for the costs of serving individual high-needs special education students. Hawkins personally opposed the bill but agreed to hold a hearing once he confirmed the funding was available, including $1 million in interest from a career readiness student fund. He put the bill on the committee's March 20 agenda, and the committee passed it. The full House passed it 49-21. Hawkins voted against it on the House floor. "Our schools are not medical centers," he said during debate, per the Spokesman-Review. "We seem to be losing our grip on what schools were intended to be."

Campaign finance

Hawkins raised $23,680.08 during the 2026 primary period, according to the Coeur d'Alene Press. That total includes $2,000 from the Benewah County Republican Central Committee and $1,000 each from Brent Regan, Rep. Jordan Redman, Avista Corp., and SMC Properties.

Sources

• Idaho State Legislature, official member page for Rep. Dale Hawkins confirming district, term, committees, and biography
• Dale Hawkins for Idaho, campaign site with his biography and stated positions
• Boise State Public Radio, coverage of House Joint Resolution 1 and the February 2025 committee hearing
• Oregon Public Broadcasting, reporting on the text and effect of House Joint Resolution 1
• Idaho Education News, account of the LC State rebranding bill and its death in House Education
• Idaho Education News, play-by-play of the 2026 special education funding bill
• Spokesman-Review, floor debate coverage of the special education funding bill
• Coeur d'Alene Press, 2026 primary-period campaign finance roundup