James E. Risch
Republican · ID · U.S. Senate
Bio
James Elroy Risch is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Idaho since 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Lieutenant Governor of Idaho under Governors Dirk Kempthorne and Butch Otter, and briefly as Governor between their terms.
Full bio on Wikipedia →Record of service
- In office
- 17.6 years
- First took office
- 2009 (3 terms)
- Seniority
- 33 of 100 by time served
- Age
- 83
- Senate class
- 2 · junior senator
- Boise, ID · 208-342-7985
- Coeur d'Alene, ID · 208-667-6130
- Idaho Falls, ID · 208-523-5541
- Lewiston, ID · 208-743-0792
- Twin Falls, ID · 208-734-6780
- Pocatello, ID · 208-236-6817
Service history, offices and identifiers from unitedstates/congress-legislators (public domain). Years served sum each term rather than subtracting the first start date, so a break in service is not counted as time in office.
Reported net worth
- Assets
- $20.4M – $92.2M
- Liabilities
- $515k – $1.1M
- Net worth
- $19.4M – $91.7M
- Since 2018
- +$13.8M
From annual financial disclosures, which report every asset and debt as a bracket — so these are ranges, and the figure shown is their midpoint. A primary residence is not a reportable asset while its mortgage is a reportable debt, which pushes some members negative. How this is calculated →
Overall lean (DW-NOMINATE)
Issue profile
Each issue runs left ↔ right, scored from how the member voted on bills tagged to that issue (−1…+1). Issues with too few votes are blank. Overall lean uses DW-NOMINATE.
How they score against the parties
James E. Risch's voting record compared with each party's national platform, issue by issue — the same similarity score used across the site.
On the political map
James E. Risch (the large ringed dot) among every current member of Congress and the party platforms.
Each small dot is a current member (Dem · Rep); the larger dots are party platforms — click one for its closest members. Economic axis: taxes, healthcare, labor, energy. Social axis: abortion, guns, immigration, civil rights, crime.
Do you vote like Risch?
Answer a few questions on the issues and see which members of Congress — and which party — actually line up with you.
Caucuses & committees
Where Rischsits in Congress's own organization — each group's lean is computed from its members' voting records. Explore them all on the caucuses and committees pages.
Committees
- United States Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Controlcenter · 7 members
- Senate Select Committee on Ethicscenter · 6 members
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligencecenter · 21 members
- Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resourcescenter · 20 members
- Europe and Regional Security Cooperation (Ex Officio)Africa and Global Health Policy (Ex Officio)East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy (Ex Officio)Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism (Ex Officio)Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues (Ex Officio)Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy (Ex Officio)State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development (Ex Officio)
- Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurshipcenter · 19 members
Most and least aligned members
Treating Risch's 14 issue scores as a vector, cosine similarity measures whether two voting records point the same way (+100%) or in opposite directions (−100%) — the colleagues whose records align most and least with theirs.
Recent notable votes
Latest news
US senators move to rebuke China over TibetThe Trump administration would push for the inclusion of Tibet’s exiled government in more international organizations under a new bipartisan proposal that rebukes China for its pressure campaign against the Tibetan people. The bill from Sens. Jeff Merkley, D…
Biztoc.com · August 11, 2026- Chairman Risch Statement on Passage of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act
U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today delivered the following remarks ahead of Senate passage of The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which would impose critical new sanctions on …
Globalsecurity.org · August 7, 2026 - Chairman Risch, Ranking Member Shaheen Meet with UK Foreign Secretary Miliband
Today, U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Ranking Member released the statement below following their meeting with the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom Ed Miliband.
Globalsecurity.org · August 5, 2026 
Senators Demand Apple Commit to Not Buying Chinese Memory ChipsU.S. Senator Chuck Schumer has teamed up with several of his Senate colleagues to demand Apple commit to not purchasing chips from Chinese companies ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) or Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC). [PDF] With memory shortage…
MacRumors · July 30, 2026
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