Jim Risch

Jim Risch (born May 3, 1943, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.) is an American politician who was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and began representing Idaho in that body the following year. He previously held several political posts in the state, including that of governor (2006).

Born in Wisconsin, Risch attended university there for two years before transferring to the University of Idaho, where he earned a bachelor’s degree (1965) in forestry and a law degree (1968). Risch married in 1968, and he and his wife, Vicki, later had three children. In 1970 he became prosecuting attorney for Ada county, the seat of which is Boise, and he held the post until 1974. That year he entered the Idaho Senate, in which he served as majority leader from 1976 to 1982. After being upset in the 1988 election, he left office in 1989. Risch mounted a campaign to reenter the state Senate in 1994 and was again defeated, but the following year he was appointed to that body to fill a vacated seat. Risch served until 2003, when he became Idaho’s lieutenant governor. He briefly was governor in 2006, when the sitting governor, Dirk Kempthorne, became U.S. secretary of the interior. Risch then returned to the post of lieutenant governor, holding it until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008.

After taking office in 2009, Risch served on committees involved with public lands and natural resources, generally favouring a pro-development platform. He soon established himself as among the most-conservative members of Congress. He sought to limit the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency while promoting geothermal energy development on public lands. However, he joined with Democrats, including Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, in an initiative to require the Department of Energy to develop energy retrofitting programs. During his first term, Risch came to be known as a strict constitutionalist, and he relentlessly criticized Pres. Barack Obama. His anti-Washington stance proved popular in his home state, and he was reelected to the Senate in 2014 with nearly two-thirds of the vote.