District 5A in the Idaho House of Representatives is probably not one that you’ve heard about on the political podcasts or from the Cook Political Report. But Democrat Dulce Kersting-Lark has a great chance to flip this district in the fall. A win here would be an important step toward breaking the Republican supermajority in the Idaho state legislature. District 5A represents one of the hundreds of marginal districts across the country that we are looking to help this year, thanks to our partnership with Targetsmart.

In 2018, this district was decided by less than 4,000 votes in what was one of Idaho’s closest contests of the election cycle. This fall, we can flip this seat. But as state parties and legislative caucuses recruit candidates at a frenzied pace, Empower Engine wants to do our part to help win districts like these.

Thanks to our partnership, we have teamed up to give candidates like Dulce a new weapon - an Empower Engine district report, featuring Targetsmart’s groundbreaking model scores. District Reports provide an unprecedented visual breakdown of any district in the country, helping you understand your voters through Targetsmart data, and giving you a resource to share widely with your team and allies. Last month, the Idaho State Party purchased a district report for every legislative district.

What’s in a Report?

To understand how useful this report can be, let’s look at District 5A.

Using the Empower Engine data visualization platform, we create a series of maps based on a select set of Targetsmart model scores. The maps come in PDF format, breaking down your district, based on the report you chose.

For example, if you are a candidate running in this district, you may have chosen the “Get to Know your District” package, which comes with the following model scores and other elements:

Partisanship Score
Pro-choice Score
Path to citizenship Score
College Funding Score
Climate Change Score
Gun Control Score
Paid Leave Score
Tax on the Wealthy Score
Ideology Score
Average income
Median Age
Homeowner Score
College Graduate Score
District demographic information

Here’s what the report looks like.

Using your Live Maps

District reports are more than a PDF, they come with links to live maps on Empower Engine that give you a chance to interactively analyze your map. Let’s say you want a deeper look at your voters’ attitude about Gun Control, just click the link on the cover page and you’ll be taken to a live version of the map.

Not only do you get a district-wide sense of your voters’ preference on the issue, but you can see pockets where support for gun-control is concentrated.

Using your live map, you can dig deeper into your district on our platform. If you mouse over the map, you will see the aggregated scores. In this case, you’ll see the score by census block group.

You can also change the background to see what the area looks like, zooming in to get a closer look. Below, we can see the satellite imagery of the map of district 5A. Other backgrounds include street level and terrain.

At Empower Engine, we’ve always seen data visualization and maps as a clarifying force for campaigns, it helps your stakeholders understand what they are doing and why.

Combining our visualization platform with Targetsmart’s unmatched models will give campaigns at all levels the ability to quickly understand their voters, and build a strategy that can win.

District 5A was decided by two-points in 2018, our goal is to help the Democrats capture districts like this all over the country in November.

Elle Casner - Executive Director of the Idaho Democratic Party - put it best when she said,

“The district reports are a great resource for our candidates in Idaho. The visuals and live maps make it easier for them to understand their voters. They are thrilled to have them.”

We have other reports designed for campaign planning, GOTV, as well as reports for 501c3s and 501c4s to enable voter registration campaigns.

Reach out to us at sales@empowerengine.com for more information.

Supporting Idaho's legislative candidates with our Targetsmart District Reports