About Me

I’m Ali, and I’m Idaho’s State Senator in District 16.

I’m also a mom, a wife, a community leader, an attorney, and a born-and-raised Idahoan. My deep roots here inspire my commitment to protect our state in the face of rapid change. I continue to seek office in the statehouse so I can help Idahoans – my neighbors and my friends – tackle real issues affecting them – and ultimately keep Idaho a wonderful place to live.

Growing up in Middleton, Idaho surrounded by farm fields and Idaho’s great outdoors, I learned how special our state is. My mom was public school teacher and dad a state employee for the Department of Transportation, where they each served for over 30 years. Some of my earliest memories involve playing sports at my public school, learning to drive on winding dirt roads, hiking in the Sawtooths, fishing with dad, and picking potatoes out of mom’s garden.

I also witnessed firsthand the needs of rural kids who weren’t provided the same opportunities due to economic disparities. I went on to pursue a career in public service, curious about the policy problems causing so much poverty in one of the richest countries in the world. I graduated from The College of Idaho, then William & Mary Law School with honors.

Public service was the center of my work long before I held public office. During my legal career I have worked with veterans, refugees, people without housing, and rural communities abroad. I have always demonstrated my commitment to serve people, first. In the early stages of my legal career, I supported Indigenous communities in remote parts of Cambodia and Sierra Leone whose land was being taken from them by large corporations. I then spent some years working for the U.S. federal government as an adjudicator, processing refugees from all over the world.

Witnessing the United States’ growing problem with homelessness sparked a desire to make more impact through grassroots work. I transitioned back into the local nonprofit sector to support communities and service providers in their efforts to end homelessness. After representing communities attempting to solve these problems, I became the Executive Director of Jesse Tree, a nonprofit preventing eviction and homelessness for families in the Treasure Valley. My work serving everyday working families drives me to amplify their experiences in halls of our Capitol.

I first ran for office in 2020 when Maryanne Jordan stepped down from her seat and asked me to run. Since then, I have advocated to address our housing crisis, fund our public schools, invest in forward-thinking transit, expand affordable childcare and healthcare options, ensure unfettered access to our public lands, support a woman’s right to choose, and implement sensible property tax relief.

As an Idaho Democrat, I seek to bring balance and common sense to the Capitol where our one-party system and extremism often lead to bad policy driven by out-of-state special interests and culture wars. I am working to stop expensive private school vouchers, fix Idaho’s dangerous abortion ban, and push back against schemes that threaten to whittle away our access to public lands and ability to vote.

Because my professional background has primarily been in housing and homelessness, I have also sought to focus on this issue, which is frequently cited as one of Idahoans’ top concerns. In 2021, I successfully fought for $50 million in funding for Idaho’s Housing Trust Fund, which had sat empty for 30 years. The fund created over 1,200 units of housing that’s affordable to working families across the state. When renters were being taken advantage of by large corporations, I passed a bill to make junk fees more limited and transparent. When eviction rates doubled due to the rising cost of housing, I passed a bill to remove dismissed evictions from tenants’ records. And when shelters needed a fix to allow them to provide shelter to runaway youth, I passed a bill gives kids access to needed services.

I continue to serve and seek office so I can help our state address real challenges in a way that serves real Idahoans, and I hope I can count on your support.

I’m proud to have earned the endorsement of these trusted organizations and elected officials: