Karen Matthee

Karen Matthee, Democratic Nominee for Idaho House District 1, Seat A

Karen Matthee is the Democratic nominee for Idaho State Representative, District 1, Seat A, on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot. She won the May 19, 2026 Democratic primary with 939 votes, running unopposed. She faces Republican Jane Sauter in the general election. District 1 covers Bonner and Boundary counties in the Idaho Panhandle. The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Mark Sauter, who lost his primary; Matthee is not an incumbent.

Background

Matthee was born and raised in Northern California. Her father worked as a machinist and her mother as a secretary. She earned a BA in English and an MA in journalism, funded partly through scholarships and grants, work study and waitressing.

She spent years in journalism across newspapers, magazines and radio. As editor of a parenting magazine, she recruited child-development experts to speak at town halls in Seattle. She later moved into non-profit communications, working for an international organization assisting landmine victims, with frequent travel to Southeast Asia and to Afghanistan, where the organization was contracted by the U.S. State Department to establish programs. She then became marketing and communications director for a Washington State humane society.

Her volunteer work includes ski instruction for people with mental and physical disabilities, river guiding for an organization working to keep rivers wild and scenic, and participation in a Romanian-led effort to rescue abandoned pets from Ukraine. Her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter live in Sandpoint; her son works in the building trades, her daughter-in-law is pursuing a teaching degree and her granddaughter attends public school.

Where She Stands

Matthee's campaign centers on lowering the cost of living, expanding rural healthcare access, protecting public lands, investing in public education and supporting veterans. She wants commercial properties to pay a larger share of property taxes so homeowners carry less of the burden, and supports raising the homeowner's exemption by returning to the index, based on the sales price of Idaho homes, that was capped in 2016. She would eliminate the grocery tax and taxes on tips and overtime, and calls Idaho's flat income tax unfair to lower- and middle-income families, favoring a progressive system instead.

On education, she calls for state funding at least on par with the national average, saying Idaho public schools receive the least state funding in the country. She supports funding the LAUNCH program, which covers 80 percent of tuition and fees, up to $8,000, for graduating high school seniors entering in-demand careers. She would reverse legislation limiting teachers' unions from advocating on political issues and collaborating on professional development.

Healthcare is shaped by local conditions. Matthee says Bonner County has lost all four of its OB/GYNs and that 42 percent of Idaho's OB/GYNs have left the state, citing its strict abortion bans and the threat of legal punishment as primary factors. She supports exceptions to the abortion ban that would allow doctors to save a mother's life in a medical emergency and after a fatal fetal diagnosis. She wants to fund the WWAMI and University of Utah medical training programs to draw doctors to underserved rural areas, and says Idaho ranks near the bottom for doctors per capita. She would protect Medicaid expansion and reverse state cuts to reimbursement rates for providers treating Medicaid patients, which she says threaten the hospitals in Bonner and Boundary counties.

On housing, she supports state tax incentives for sellers who sell below market value to working-class families, and land-use reforms allowing smaller manufactured homes, smaller lots for starter homes and more backyard cottages. She backs preserving public lands and opposes bills that, in her words, “seek to marginalize any segment of our North Idaho community based on gender, sexual identity, sexual preference, race or religion.” On veterans, she wants Veterans Service Officers funded so they can connect former service members with state and federal benefits.

In an interview with the Bonner County Daily Bee, Matthee said she is running because she believes the Legislature's Republican supermajority is not focused on the issues that matter to Idahoans: “I do feel that we've got to chip away.” She also said, “I am the only candidate who is very out loud and proud in supporting the reproductive rights initiative.”

Sources

Ballot status and certified primary results from the Idaho Secretary of State. Biography and policy positions from her campaign site, About Karen and Priorities. Interview from the Bonner County Daily Bee.