Kelly Anthon

Kelly Anthon: Idaho Senate District 27, Republican Incumbent and Senate President Pro Tempore

Kelly Anthon is the President Pro Tempore of the Idaho State Senate, the chamber's highest-ranking position and one that puts him second in line of succession to the governor. He has held the post since December 2024, when his Senate colleagues chose him to succeed Chuck Winder, according to the Senate leadership roster. This November, the Republican from Rupert is asking District 27 voters for a sixth term.

Ballot basics

Anthon, a Republican, is the incumbent state senator for Legislative District 27, which covers the Mini-Cassia region in south-central Idaho. Neither he nor his general-election opponent, Democrat Margo Saunders, faced a primary contest this year. The general election is November 3, 2026. His official legislator page lists him in his 6th term, with committee assignments on Local Government & Taxation and State Affairs for the 2026 session.

How he reached Senate leadership

Anthon's Senate career began with an appointment. In 2015, Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter named him to fill a vacancy created when Sen. Dean Cameron resigned. He then won election in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. He ran unopposed in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2024. The 2022 race was the exception on both ends: he defeated Jeanie Hakes in the Republican primary with 74 percent of the vote, then beat independent Bill Drury in the general election 89 percent to 11 percent.

His colleagues promoted him steadily. Senate Republicans elected him Majority Caucus Chair in 2017, after two years in the chamber, and later chose him as Majority Leader. In December 2024 he became President Pro Tempore, the Senate's top job.

Background and career outside the Senate

Anthon is a seventh-generation Idahoan, raised on a family farm in Declo that his family has operated for more than 100 years, according to his campaign site and his official legislative biography. He attended the University of Idaho's College of Law, where his campaign site says he was elected student body president and named the college's 2002 "Bistline Scholar" by the Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

He practiced law as a partner at the Rupert firm Robinson, Anthon & Tribe until 2012, focusing on helping local farmers as well as municipal law, debt restructuring, and large business reorganization. He served as the appointed city attorney for four communities: Burley, Rupert, Acequia, and Minidoka. At the time of his first appointment, his site says, he was the youngest appointed city attorney in Idaho. He then stepped away from the firm to become City Administrator of Rupert, the position he holds today.

Japan runs through his résumé. He is fluent in Japanese, and his connection to the country began at age 15, when a 4-H exchange trip took him to Nara, Japan. Today he functions as an intermediary between Idaho, Japanese companies, and the Japanese Consul General stationed in Portland, Oregon. In 2025, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented him with a commendation at the Idaho State Capitol, given by Consul General Masahiro Todoriki, recognizing his decades of work strengthening Idaho-Japan cultural and economic ties.

His board service, per his own site, includes the Mart Group, a large potato fresh pack company; the Southern Idaho Development Organization; and the Region IV Development Corporation. He served two terms as President of the Minidoka Healthcare Foundation and spent ten years on the governing board of Intermountain Healthcare's Cassia Regional Medical Center. He is a member of his local Rotary club. He and his wife, Joelle (Rogers) Anthon of Rupert, have five children.

The Parental Rights Act, and fixing it

Anthon's most significant legislative work in recent sessions began with Senate Bill 1329, the Idaho Parental Rights Act. Anthon sponsored the bill in the Senate in 2024, and it passed the Senate 27-7-1 before being signed into law. After the law took effect, a gap surfaced: it affected minors' access to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline and a few other narrow situations.

Anthon responded with follow-up legislation across two sessions. In 2025 he sponsored Senate Bill 1199 to clarify the law, and it passed the Senate 26-9-0. In 2026 he sponsored House Bill 860 in the Senate alongside Rep. Barbara Ehardt. That bill passed the House 68-0-2 and the Senate 34-0-1, and was signed into law on March 31, 2026. It allows the 988 hotline to provide immediate crisis services to minors without prior parental consent, along with routine school first aid, newborn drug screening, and time-sensitive sexual-assault evidence collection.

Anthon addressed the balance the law tries to strike during the 2026 debate: "I want this to be a good statute. No one has any interest in hurting a child. That's a no-brainer. What we're trying to do is make that careful balance inside a code that we are preserving the inherent right of a parent without harming a child."

Grocery tax credit and other legislative work

In 2025, Anthon co-sponsored House Bill 231, which increased Idaho's grocery tax credit from $120 per person ($140 for seniors) to $155 per person. The bill passed the House 61-6 and the Senate 30-3 and was signed into law, retroactive to January 1, 2025.

Platform and party position

His campaign site describes agriculture as the lifeblood of the Idaho economy and calls for balanced budgets, tax cuts, and reduced regulation, with emphasis on policies that work for farming and ranching communities. It also lists support for Second Amendment protections and for parental rights over medical and educational decisions. Agricultural groups have recognized that record repeatedly: the Idaho Farm Bureau has recognized him for his advocacy for Idaho's farmers, ranchers, and dairymen, and Idaho Food Producers has named him an "Ag Allstar" every year he has served in the legislature, per his own site.

On the Idaho Republican Party's candidate page, Anthon filed the party's required affiliation statement. In it he wrote that he supports the Idaho Republican Party Platform as the standard for evaluating his performance as a candidate and officeholder, with exceptions noted. The exceptions he listed cover abortion and the direct election of U.S. Senators. On abortion, he wrote that he opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience while stating that exceptions can apply when a pregnancy results from rape or incest, when a physician determines the life or health of the mother is in serious jeopardy, or when a physician determines the fetus has severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. He also wrote, "I also support the election of U.S. Senators directly by our citizens."

Campaign finance

Anthon's 2026 campaign committee is active on the Idaho Secretary of State's Sunshine portal. It has reported $90,672.13 in total contributions and $70,185.82 in expenditures for the current cycle, with $47,740.20 in cash on hand as of the last filed report.

Sources

• About Kelly, Anthon for Idaho
• Sen. Kelly Arthur Anthon, Idaho State Legislature
• Senate Leadership, Idaho State Legislature
• Kelly Anthon, Idaho Republican Party
• Idaho Secretary of State Sunshine portal, campaign finance disclosure