Kent A. Marmon

Kent Marmon: Republican incumbent for Idaho House District 11, Seat A

Kent Marmon is the Republican incumbent for Idaho House District 11, Seat A, on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot. He is running unopposed. He won the May 19, 2026 Republican primary with 2,120 votes, or 68.52% of the vote, over Carlos Hernandez, who received 974 votes. Marmon is in his first term in the House, having taken office on December 1, 2024.

Background

Marmon is a native Idahoan and a second-generation Caldwell resident. His great-grandparents were Idaho pioneers. He graduated from Caldwell High School, attended the College of Idaho, and earned a B.S. in business administration with honors from Northwest Nazarene University.

He spent most of his career in the private sector. He owned and operated a family printing business for 12 years, until 1999. He then held management positions at Albertsons, built two Ace Hardware stores for an Ace franchisee, and worked as a training development manager for MotivePower in Boise. He retired at age 54.

His public service in Caldwell goes back to the 1980s. He served on the Caldwell City Council in the mid-1980s and later as a Caldwell School Board member. He is a longtime Kiwanis member, a former governor of the Utah-Idaho District of Kiwanis, and an Eagle Scout who received the Silver Beaver Award. He has served as a scoutmaster, district chair, and board member for the Ore-Ida Council of Scouting.

He and his wife Sylvia have been married 48 years. They have three children, 15 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

In the Legislature

Marmon sits on three House standing committees: Business, Education, and Local Government. He is in his first term, having unseated incumbent Rep. Julie Yamamoto in the May 2024 Republican primary.

In the 2024 race, Marmon received 1,912 votes to Yamamoto's 1,455, a margin of about 57% to 43% in the official count of the primary. The Idaho Press reported at the time that Marmon had received an endorsement from the advocacy arm of the Idaho Freedom Foundation and had said on his campaign website that his top priorities included eliminating the sales tax on groceries, reforming or repealing property taxes, and opposing any potential mask or vaccine mandates.

Marmon posts his own commentary on state spending under his own name on a Substack he has run since January 2024. In a December 2025 post, he opposed Nampa's proposed conveyance of the Ford Idaho Center to the College of Western Idaho, writing: "The only real 'winner' in this deal is Nampa City government." In the same post he wrote: "CWI will also inherit $20 to $25 Million in deferred maintenance that they would have to find a way to pay for."

Marmon is a confirmed member of the self-described "Idaho Gang of Eight." The group's own Substack names him directly, by district and by his official house.idaho.gov email, and describes itself as "Part of the State Freedom Caucus Network." What the group's day-to-day activity involves, beyond the name and roster on its own page, is not documented in the sources reviewed for this profile.

The Idaho Freedom Foundation, a conservative policy organization that scores legislators on its own index, gives Marmon a 94.8% Freedom Index score and a 94.2% Spending Index score for 2026. His lifetime scores on both indexes sit in the mid-90s. These scores measure how often a legislator votes the way the Foundation prefers, so they describe one group's rating of his voting record rather than an independent evaluation.

Sources

• Idaho State Legislature, official member page confirming Marmon's district, term, contact, committee assignments, and biography
• Idaho Freedom Foundation, 2026 and lifetime Freedom Index and Spending Index scores
• Idaho Press, results and details of the 2024 primary against Julie Yamamoto, including endorsements and stated priorities
• Idaho Secretary of State, certified May 19, 2026 primary results for House District 11, Seat A
• Kent Marmon's Substack, his own commentary on state spending, including the December 2025 post on the Ford Idaho Center
• Idaho Gang of Eight, the group's own page listing Marmon as a member