Idaho General Election · November 3, 2026Find polling place
Republican

Raul R. Labrador

Raul R. Labrador

Attorney General

Raúl Labrador, Republican incumbent and candidate for Idaho Attorney General

Raúl Labrador, a Republican, is Idaho's Attorney General and a candidate for a second term in the November 3, 2026 general election. He filed on February 26, 2026, and the Idaho Secretary of State lists the filing as approved. He won the May 19, 2026 Republican primary unopposed, with 186,106 votes, according to the Idaho Secretary of State's certified results. His opponent is Democrat Lori Hickman.

Background

The Idaho Office of the Attorney General says Labrador "is Idaho's 33rd Attorney General. He was elected to his first term on November 8th, 2022." It says he "holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Washington School of Law," clerked for the federal court in Idaho after law school, and "founded and managed a law firm with offices in Boise and Nampa, Idaho."

The same page says he was elected to the Idaho House of Representatives in 2006 and "later served in the United States House of Representatives from 2011–2019, including as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security." The office says he lives in Eagle with his wife Rebecca.

In January 2015, a release from Rep. Jim Jordan's office listed Labrador among the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus.

The Spokesman-Review reported in July 2019 that he defeated former state Superintendent Tom Luna 111-109 in the vote for chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, and that he had left Congress to run for governor in 2018.

Election history

According to the Idaho Secretary of State's election database, Labrador finished second in the May 15, 2018 Republican primary for governor. Brad Little received 72,672 votes (37.3%), Labrador 63,544 (32.6%) and Tommy Ahlquist 51,109 (26.2%).

In the May 17, 2022 Republican primary for Attorney General, Labrador received 140,585 votes (51.6%), incumbent Lawrence Wasden 103,393 (37.9%) and Art Macomber 28,700 (10.5%). In the November 8, 2022 general election, he received 367,579 votes (62.6%) to Democrat Tom Arkoosh's 219,405 (37.4%).

The Health and Welfare grants investigation

The Idaho Capital Sun reported in October 2026 that in March 2023 Labrador served civil subpoenas on current and former state health officials and on organizations that received $72 million in federal child care grants in 2021 and 2022.

East Idaho News reported in August 2024 that Fourth Judicial District Judge Lynn Norton ruled Labrador had a conflict of interest in the case. The Idaho Capital Sun reported that the order found the conflict because the Attorney General's Office had previously advised Health and Welfare on the grants, and that it still allowed Labrador to oversee the investigation.

In September 2025, Judge Jonathan Medema, ruling in the Daphne Huang lawsuit described below, wrote that the subpoenas "were legally unenforceable" and were "the State of Idaho trying to subpoena itself." He departed from the earlier conflict ruling. According to the Idaho Capital Sun, he wrote: "It is entirely irrational to conclude that the Attorney General of the State of Idaho, when he is investigating compliance with state law by state employees, now has an interest that conflicts with the interests of other officials of the State of Idaho."

In the October 2026 report, special prosecutor Christopher Boyd said: "I have had sole control of the investigation and the AG removed itself entirely." A grand jury indicted a former Health and Welfare grant manager on two felony counts in September 2026, and a judge dismissed the case two days later at the prosecutor's request. Boyd said: "The majority of jurors felt my time was better spent focusing on the many other serious crimes they worked on." The report said the Attorney General's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Daphne Huang lawsuit

Daphne Huang, a deputy attorney general who advised Health and Welfare, was fired in March 2023 and sued in September 2023 under Idaho's whistleblower law, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. The Attorney General's Office has said she was fired for misconduct.

In April 2025, Judge Medema ordered Labrador deposed. He said at an April 14 hearing: "I have evidence in the deposition testimony … that Attorney General Labrador was the person in the office who made the decision to terminate Ms. Huang's employment." In a separate ruling he sanctioned the office for Labrador's failure to appear for a previously scheduled deposition and required it to pay expenses and attorney fees. Office spokesperson Damon Sidur said the effort to compel the deposition "runs counter to well-established legal principles that shield high-ranking government officials from precisely this type of litigation-driven harassment."

On September 12, 2025, Medema granted summary judgment to the office, writing that "no rational juror could find Plaintiff had proven any of her claims." Labrador said: "While this former employee may have disagreed with our policy directions, the court found no basis for her claims." Huang's attorney, Guy Hallam, said the Idaho Supreme Court would have to decide whether the office's position holds. The October 2026 Idaho Capital Sun report says the case is on appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.

The State Board of Education lawsuit

In June 2023, Labrador's office sued the State Board of Education over three closed-door sessions about the University of Idaho's plan to acquire the University of Phoenix, Idaho Education News reported. The suit claimed the sessions were illegal. The board said it would hire outside counsel and send the bills to Labrador's office. Board executive director Matt Freeman said the board had consulted the Attorney General's office on the meeting beforehand.

The Spokesman-Review reported that on March 26, 2024, Judge Jason Scott, who had ruled in the board's favor in January, ordered the attorney general to pay nearly $243,000 in costs and attorneys' fees. The board said: "This unnecessary and unsuccessful lawsuit by the attorney general against his own client took an enormous amount of time and resulted in a large cost to taxpayers." The Spokesman-Review reported that Labrador had appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court. The October 2026 Idaho Capital Sun report describes it as his "dropped lawsuit against the State Board of Education."

The Land Board

The Idaho Capital Sun reported in September 2025 that Labrador was the only member of the Land Board to vote against a June 2025 policy letting the board use its own legal counsel. His attorneys wrote in an August 22 federal filing that the attorneys who submitted the board's brief "have no authority to represent the State or the Land Board in court." The board's attorneys replied: "The Legislature expressly repealed the AG's authority to represent the State's interest in state land and timber matters."

Abortion

Labrador issued a 2023 legal opinion, requested by Rep. Brent Crane, that said medical professionals who refer or prescribe abortion pills across state lines are subject to criminal penalties under Idaho's abortion ban. Planned Parenthood and two Idaho doctors sued, and Labrador later recalled the opinion, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. On July 17, 2025, Labrador and two county prosecutors agreed in federal court not to prosecute those plaintiffs for out-of-state referrals. He said: "This settlement simply affirms what our office already made clear in court: We do not have the authority to prosecute referrals for out-of-state services."

On March 20, 2025, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered that the attorney general may not prosecute St. Luke's Health System or its providers for abortions that are necessary to stabilize a patient with an emergency medical condition under the federal EMTALA law, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. Labrador's office had asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing there is no conflict between Idaho's abortion law and EMTALA.

Women's sports, classroom signs and flags

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded Little v. Hecox, the challenge to Idaho's women's sports law, 6-3 on June 30, 2026, in an opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The Attorney General's office said Labrador "made defending the law a top priority and appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court" and that Solicitor General Alan Hurst argued it.

In June 2025, Labrador issued an opinion that Idaho's HB 41 bars "Everyone is Welcome Here" classroom signs. In a July 14, 2025 opinion piece reposted on his office's website, he wrote: "The rainbow colors and progressive symbols accompanying these messages make their political purpose unmistakable." East Idaho News reported that teacher Sarah Inama sued in federal court in February 2026, naming Labrador among the defendants. Her complaint says: "Ms. Inama's First Amendment rights are and were infringed by the Speech Regulations and will continue be threatened absent relief from this Court."

On April 15, 2025, Labrador wrote to Boise's mayor that "the City of Boise is currently flying two flags in defiance of the law" and that he had spoken with legislative leaders about "taking legislative action, similar to HB 22 (2023), to deny state tax revenues and other appropriations to the City of Boise or any other governmental entity that does not follow state law," according to his office's release of the letter.

Outside counsel

Records obtained by Law Dork in December 2023 show that Alliance Defending Freedom agreed to represent the state "without charge" in at least three cases, and that the Attorney General's Office agreed to "consult with ADF" about communications with the media regarding the representation. James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general who teaches at Harvard Law School, told Law Dork: "It is a very bad practice to allow an advocacy group to represent the state. They will represent their true client, the advocacy group, not the state."

What supporters say

After the January 2026 Supreme Court argument in the women's sports case, Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican, said in a release published by the Attorney General's office: "I commend Attorney General Labrador and his office for their strong defense of Idaho's commonsense law before the U.S. Supreme Court."

Responding to his critics' endorsements of Hickman, the Labrador campaign said, according to the Idaho Capital Sun: "Lawrence Wasden, Jim Jones, and disgruntled former employees. Who would have thought?"

What critics say

On October 1, 2026, former Republican Attorneys General Lawrence Wasden and Jim Jones and dozens of former lawyers from the office endorsed Hickman, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. The Sun's review of Transparent Idaho found at least eight of the endorsers left the office shortly before or after Labrador took office in January 2023.

Wasden, who served as Attorney General for 20 years and lost to Labrador in the 2022 primary, said: "The rule of law really is the issue that separates us from any other country in the world. That is, that the law applies to everyone, and it's not based upon someone's personal political view." Jones said of the former lawyers: "They've been in the office. They know how it should run, and they know it is not running in that way at the present time."

Jones read from the resignation letter of former deputy attorney general Madison Miles, who endorsed Hickman. Miles wrote that she could "no longer be associated with your blatant attempt to provide subpar and even unethical representation to the Department of Health and Welfare." Huang also endorsed Hickman.

Hickman said: "I'm trying to restore the tradition of sound legal advice, regardless of who the clients are or their political affiliations. So I'm running as a Democrat because my opponent's a Republican."

After the Idaho Capital Sun's April 2025 report on the deposition order, Hallam said: "No one is above the law, including the Idaho Attorney General."

Jim Jones, a Republican who was Idaho Attorney General from 1983 to 1991 and a justice of the Idaho Supreme Court from 2005 to 2017, wrote guest editorials about Labrador for Political Potatoes in 2024 and 2025. He also endorsed Hickman on October 1, 2026.

In 2024, Labrador petitioned the Idaho Supreme Court to keep the Open Primaries Initiative off the ballot. Boise State Public Radio reported that the court unanimously dismissed the petition on August 13, 2024, writing that the petition "fundamentally misapprehends" the court's role under the Idaho Constitution.

In an August 1, 2024 editorial, Jones wrote that Labrador was "also trying to defend McGrane in the lawsuit. That is a serious conflict of interest." He wrote that the court had issued an order on July 28 "demanding that Labrador show why he should not be disqualified from representing McGrane."

In a December 2024 editorial, Jones wrote: "While Labrador promised to represent the interests of the people, he has utterly failed to do so." He wrote that in the Kroger-Albertsons grocery merger case, "Labrador chose to sit out a case that would have increased the grocery bill of Idaho families in areas where Fred Meyer and Albertsons compete for customers."

In a July 9, 2025 editorial about Labrador's opinion on the "Everyone is Welcome Here" sign, Jones wrote: "Labrador has demonstrated a penchant for providing politically-biased legal advice to some of his state clients." He also wrote that Labrador "has failed to comply with his statutory responsibility to provide official legal opinions to legislators to guide their legislation around legal pitfalls."

Campaign finance

The Idaho Secretary of State's Sunshine campaign finance system showed contributions of $684,117.39 and expenditures of $112,116.67 for the 2026 cycle on October 2, 2026, for the committee Labrador for Idaho. It showed $581,501.27 in cash on hand and $0.00 in outstanding debt.

Sunshine's top-contributor list showed ten sources at $10,000 each: Gaylon Ball of Boise, Silverwood Inc. of Athol, J.M. Auld Rental Account of Boise, James Auld of Boise, Lorna Auld of Boise, Gary Norton of Athol, Jeanne Norton of Athol, Freedom Northwest Credit Union of Kamiah, Altria Client Services LLC of Richmond, Virginia, and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Plummer. Sunshine classified $219,539.05 of his contributions as out-of-state.

The Idaho Capital Sun listed him at $684,117 and Hickman at $173,373 as of September 30, 2026.

Sources

Profile published by IdahoVoters.com. Last updated October 2, 2026. This profile will be updated as additional information becomes available.

Frequently asked questions

What office is Raúl Labrador running for?
He is the Republican incumbent seeking a second term as Idaho Attorney General in the November 3, 2026 general election. His opponent is Democrat Lori Hickman.
What did Raúl Labrador do before becoming Attorney General?
He served in the Idaho House starting in 2006 and in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2019, chairing the Immigration and Border Security subcommittee. He chaired the Idaho Republican Party from 2019.
How did Raúl Labrador win the Attorney General's office?
He defeated incumbent Lawrence Wasden in the May 2022 Republican primary, 140,585 votes to 103,393, and won the general election with 62.6% of the vote against Democrat Tom Arkoosh.
What did the courts decide about the Health and Welfare investigation?
Judge Lynn Norton ruled Labrador had a conflict of interest but let him oversee it. Judge Jonathan Medema later wrote that it was "entirely irrational" to conclude the investigation created a conflict, and he found the subpoenas legally unenforceable.
What happened in the State Board of Education lawsuit?
A judge ordered the Attorney General to pay nearly $243,000 in costs and fees in March 2024 after the office sued the board over closed meetings. The Idaho Capital Sun later called it a dropped lawsuit.
Who has endorsed Lori Hickman over Labrador?
Former Republican Attorneys General Lawrence Wasden and Jim Jones and dozens of former Attorney General's Office lawyers endorsed Hickman on October 1, 2026. The Labrador campaign called them disgruntled former employees.
How much money has Raúl Labrador raised?
Idaho Sunshine showed $684,117.39 in contributions for the 2026 cycle on October 2, 2026, with $112,116.67 spent, $581,501.27 in cash on hand and no outstanding debt.