Dave Lent

Dave Lent: Idaho Republican Incumbent for Senate District 33

Overview

Dave Lent is a Republican incumbent running for re-election to the Idaho State Senate in District 33. Lent lives in Idaho Falls and is seeking his fourth term in the May 19, 2026, Republican primary. He first took office in December 2018. A Democratic challenger, Jan Brown, is also running in the May 19 primary on the Democratic side, according to Ballotpedia’s District 33 race page.

Background

Dave Lent was born in Idaho Falls and grew up in Shelley, Idaho. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Corporate Training from Idaho State University and a credential from Eastern Idaho Technical College. He also earned a national credential in radiation protection. Lent spent his career at the Idaho National Laboratory, retiring as site-wide training manager for Fluor Idaho. He received a Distinguished Leadership Award from the U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C., for regulatory reform and cost-cutting, as documented in his official Idaho Legislature member profile. He has served on advisory boards for the College of Eastern Idaho and Idaho State University, according to his Wikipedia entry.

Lent served on the Idaho Falls School District 91 Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2018. He resigned the board seat to take his Senate seat. During his tenure on the board, he helped facilitate construction of four new elementary schools and the conversion of Clair E. Gale Jr. High into Compass Academy, a project-based high school, as he described in a 2024 East Idaho News candidate questionnaire. Lent is married to Terri Lent. The couple has five children and fourteen grandchildren.

Political Career

Lent won his first Senate race in 2018, defeating incumbent Tony Potts in the Republican primary and Democrat Jerry Sehlke in the general election with 60 percent of the vote. He ran unopposed in the 2020 Republican primary and won re-election in both 2022 and 2024, defeating the same challenger, Bryan Scholz, in both primary cycles.

Lent currently chairs the Senate Education Committee and sits on the Finance and Agricultural Affairs committees, per his current Idaho Legislature member profile. Governor Brad Little appointed Lent as Idaho’s representative to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Lent has also served as a fellow of the Hunt Institute, as he noted in a 2022 East Idaho News profile.

In the 2024 session, Lent was the lead sponsor of House Bill 521, the $2 billion school facilities modernization bill. He later sponsored trailer legislation to address school district concerns about four-day school week restrictions embedded in the original bill. “Pull out the language that’s the problem,” Lent told Idaho Reports, arguing for a clean removal of the contested provision.

In the 2025 session, Lent sponsored Senate Bill 1025, which proposed expanding Idaho’s Empowering Parents program from $30 million to $50 million, increasing individual family grants from $1,000 to $5,000 annually, and adding private school tuition as an eligible expense. The bill also directed an additional $30 million toward special education in public schools. It passed the Senate Education Committee on a 5-4 vote. Lent framed the measure as a middle-ground approach, telling KTVB: “There’s the do nothing and completely resist… and the option that we are going to go down the road and favor less and less accountability. And I know other bills that are in circulation now range from no accountability to just some light touch of accountability to the third version, which is in the middle, which is what we try to do.”

Policy Positions

Lent’s most extensively documented policy area is education. He has supported public school infrastructure investment and expressed a conditional approach to school choice: any expansion of private school funding must include accreditation requirements, staff background checks, and standardized testing for participating schools. “If we’re going to have a school choice bill, it has to look like this,” he told the Idaho Education News during the 2025 SB 1025 hearing.

On fiscal matters, Lent has described his committee work on the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee as a check on spending growth. In the 2024 East Idaho News questionnaire, he noted the general fund’s year-over-year increase from fiscal year 2024 to 2025 was 1.7 percent, which he cited as evidence of fiscal discipline during the transition away from one-time federal pandemic funding.

On the role of government, Lent stated in a 2022 East Idaho News candidate profile: “Government should not be expected to solve people’s problems, we should look to local, state and federal control in that order, a free enterprise system should be the basis for the economy, maintaining minimal taxes supports both families and business.”

Political Alignment

Lent appears aligned with Traditional Conservative Republican positioning. His legislative record places him in documented conflict with the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which publicly condemned him in 2023 for blocking a universal education savings account bill in committee. IFF president Wayne Hoffman called him “a phony who gives lip service to education choice,” according to a statement published on the IFF’s website. A 2022 Post Register report noted that Lent’s primary challenger cited his IFF score as a basis for the race, framing the contest as a division between IFF-aligned and non-IFF-aligned Republicans. Idaho Education News has described Lent as a Governor Critchfield ally who voted against private school choice bills that cleared the Senate Education panel in 2023 and who frequently clashed with the more conservative members of his committee. No documented endorsements from the Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho Freedom Caucus, Citizens Alliance of Idaho, Idaho Family Policy Center, or affiliated organizations have been identified.

Campaign and Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify formal endorsements for Lent in either the 2022 or 2024 election cycles. No endorsement announcements for the 2026 race have been publicly reported as of April 2026. Lent’s campaign themes across multiple cycles have centered on education investment, fiscal restraint, and limited government, as documented in candidate questionnaires published by East Idaho News.

FAQ

Who is Dave Lent, Idaho? Dave Lent is a Republican state senator from Idaho Falls who has represented Idaho Senate District 33 since 2018. He retired from the Idaho National Laboratory and chairs the Senate Education Committee.

What district does Dave Lent represent? Dave Lent represents Idaho Senate District 33, which covers much of Idaho Falls and portions of Bonneville County.

Is Dave Lent an incumbent? Yes. Lent is a three-term incumbent seeking a fourth term in the May 2026 primary election.

What committees does Dave Lent serve on? Lent chairs the Senate Education Committee and serves on the Finance and Agricultural Affairs committees, as listed on his official Idaho Legislature member profile.

What has Dave Lent sponsored in the Idaho Legislature? Lent sponsored the $2 billion school facilities modernization bill in 2024 and Senate Bill 1025, a school choice accountability measure, in 2025. He has also served on the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee throughout his tenure.

2018 Primary Election Results Lent 61% / Potts (incumbent)

2018 General Election Results Lent 60% / Sehlke

2020 Primary Election Results Lent — Unopposed

2022 Primary Election Results Lent / Scholz

2022 General Election Results Lent — Unopposed

2024 Primary Election Results Lent 2,580 / Scholz 1,714

2024 General Election Results Lent — Unopposed

Profile published by IdahoVoters.com. Last updated April 2026. This profile will be updated as additional information becomes available.