Don Samuelson

A conservative, Samuelson was encouraged by Governor Robert Smylie to run for the Idaho Senate in 1960. Samuelson won and was re-elected in 1962 and 1964. After the Democratic landslide of 1964, he decided to run for governor in 1966, which was still held by three-term incumbent Smylie, a moderate Republican from Boise and former state attorney general. In a heated race that drew national attention to the Republican gubernatorial primary,[8][9] Samuelson won handily, 61 to 39%.[10][11]

Following their wins in the early August primary, Samuelson and attorney Charles Herndon of Salmon were slated to face each other in the November general election. In mid-September, while flying from Pocatello to Coeur d'Alene, Herndon and two others were killed in a private plane crash in the central Idaho mountains, northwest of Stanley.[12][13][14][15] The pilot of the twin-engine Piper PA-23 was the only survivor.[16] Occurring only seven weeks before the election, the Democrats nominated the runner-up in the primary, state senator Cecil Andrus of Orofino,[17] whom Samuelson defeated by over 10,000 votes.[18]

During the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, Samuelson supported molybdenum mining in central Idaho's White Cloud Mountains,[19][20] and was defeated for re-election by Andrus[21] – a staunch opponent of the mining development – and returned to private life.

Following Samuelson's win in 1966, Democrats won the next six gubernatorial elections in Idaho, through 1990.