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- Kalshi donated $5,000 to Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s campaign—part of $15,500 given to state Republicans over the past month—even as Labrador’s office confirmed the donation will not soften his opposition to prediction markets offering sports contracts without state oversight.
- Labrador has joined a 39-state coalition opposing federal preemptions in court, even while Kalshi currently hosts 24 live Idaho election markets drawing over $500,000 in total trading volume, including $42,896 traded on Labrador’s own re-election race.
Kalshi donated $5,000 to Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s campaign on Tuesday, even as Labrador’s office said it remains opposed to the company’s position in court and before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The contribution matters because Idaho is part of a broader state-federal fight over whether prediction market platforms can offer sports-related event contracts without complying with state gambling laws. Kalshi is also actively hosting Idaho election markets, tying the political donation to a live regulatory and market-access dispute.
A spokesperson for Labrador said the donation would not affect the attorney general’s stance. “That’s why he has joined a brief to the Ninth Circuit and a comment to the CFTC, including against both Kalshi and the federal government’s position,” spokesperson Damon Sidur wrote in an email, according to RG.org. “No campaign donation is going to change his zeal to defend the laws of Idaho and its sovereignty.”
RG.org reported that Kalshi has given $15,500 to Idaho Republicans over the past month. The company has also listed 24 Idaho election events with combined trading volume above $500,000.
Idaho markets are already drawing volume
Among those markets, Labrador’s race had the second-highest Idaho election volume at $42,896, with traders pricing him at a 96% chance of defeating Democrat Lori Hickman, according to the report. The most active Idaho market was the U.S. Senate race, which had $385,221 in volume and showed Jim Risch as a 94.3% favorite.
Kalshi spokesperson Dani Lever told the outlet, “Like many U.S. regulated companies, we support candidates on both sides of the aisle.”
The Idaho attorney general’s office has argued that Kalshi and Crypto.com began offering sports betting in January 2025 by labeling the products as event contracts on federally regulated futures exchanges.
Court split raises stakes for prediction markets
Labrador joined a 39-state coalition in March in an amicus brief to the Ninth Circuit supporting Nevada’s authority to enforce gambling laws against prediction market platforms. He has also criticized the CFTC’s position, saying states that ban sports betting could be blocked from enforcing those bans.
The legal backdrop has become more complicated in recent months. The Third Circuit sided with Kalshi in April, but the Ninth Circuit ruled the other way on Aug. 28, and the Sixth Circuit followed on Sept. 25, creating a split among federal appeals courts.
RG.org also reported that the CFTC declined to endorse the contracts for about a year before reversing course under new leadership in late 2025.
For operators, regulators, and bettors, the next key question is whether the court split or pending appeals will push the dispute closer to U.S. Supreme Court review, and whether states such as Idaho can continue treating these contracts as unlawful sports betting under state law.
Source: As reported by Sergey Demidov.
