| Lauren Necochea | |
| Office: | Chair of the Idaho Democratic Party |
| Term Start: | March 12, 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Deborah Silver (Acting) |
| State House1: | Idaho |
| District1: | 19th |
| Term Start1: | December 2019 |
| Predecessor1: | Mat Erpelding |
| Birth Name: | Lauren Bentley Smith |
| Birth Place: | Boise, Idaho, U.S. |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Children: | 2 |
| Education: | Pomona College (BA) Princeton University (MPA) |
Lauren Necochea (née Smith) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Idaho House of Representatives since 2019. She represents the 19th district, which includes a portion of Boise, the state capital. Since 2022, she has served as chair of the Idaho Democratic Party.[1]
Necochea was born Lauren Bentley Smith in Boise, Idaho to Dr. Michael Smith and Susan Smith.[2] Her father is a dentist and her mother founded the Idaho Women's Charitable Foundation.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Pomona College and a Master of Arts in public affairs from Princeton University.[3] Necochea was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.
After earning her master's degree, Necochea worked as a program evaluator for the Baltimore City Health Department.[4] She later returned to Boise. She worked as the director of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy and Idaho Voices for Children.[5] Necochea was on the steering committee for the Idahoans for Healthcare campaign, which supported the 2018 Proposition 2 campaign to expand Medicaid in Idaho.
In December 2019, Necochea was appointed to the Idaho House of Representatives by Governor Brad Little, succeeding Mat Erpelding, who resigned from the House to take a lobbying position.[6] [7] She was elected in the 2020 and 2022 House of Representatives elections.
In March 2022, she was elected chair of the Idaho Democratic Party, replacing acting chair Deborah Silver. Necochea announced February 2024 that she will not run for re-election and focus on being chair of the Idaho Democratic Party.[8]
In 2006, she married Alejandro José Necochea, a Yale School of Medicine-educate internal physician. Necochea lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and two daughters.[9]