Born in Caldwell, Idaho into a small Roman Catholic family of limited means, his parents were Regina Mary (née Buser) and Joseph Bernard Otter.

[1][2] His father was a journeyman electrician, and the family lived in many rural locations in the Midwest and West during his youth, attending fifteen different schools.

[3] His first bid for elective office was in 1972; he won a seat in the state legislature from Canyon County, and was re-elected to the House in 1974 serving until 1976.

[4] In January 1977, incumbent Democratic Governor Cecil Andrus was appointed U.S. Secretary of Interior under President Jimmy Carter.

In 1991, when the Idaho Senate was evenly divided between 21 Republicans and 21 Democrats, Otter's tie-breaking votes kept the body under GOP control.

Midway through his fourth term in 2001 (14 years), Otter resigned to take his congressional seat in Washington, D.C.; he is the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Idaho history.

[citation needed] Otter entered the Republican primary, and immediately became the favorite due to his name recognition as lieutenant governor.

He has voted to allow importation of prescription drugs and has supported small business associations to reduce health insurance costs via collaborative efforts.

A poll conducted for the Idaho Statesman and Boise ABC affiliate KIVI showed Otter ahead of Brady by only a single point– a statistical dead heat.

[16] Otter has recommended an increase in Idaho state educational funding by $1.36 billion as well as expanding needs-based scholarships for college-bound students.

On January 11, 2007, Otter announced his support for a "gray wolf kill," in which all but 100 of Idaho's recently recovered population would be eradicated, pending the forthcoming U.S.

The Stateline explained that the "Idaho plan is perhaps the most far-reaching effort to use teachers' rights and performance as part of a bid to revamp a state's entire educational process."

Critics say that roughly 770 teaching positions would be eliminated and teacher contracts would have to be renegotiated every year, in which bargaining would cover only pay and benefits.

In April 2011, Otter issued an executive order prohibiting Idaho state agencies from implementing the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In an apparent attempt to increase profits, the company had been assigning too few staff to the prison and it submitted false staffing reports in order to appear to be in compliance.

[29] In March 2014 Otter established the "Wolf Control Fund and State Board" which continues his policy of exterminating wolves in Idaho.

[30] Senate Bill 1146a, which would have legalized CBD oil for persons with severe epilepsy, passed the Idaho Legislature following "lengthy and emotional" hearings, but was vetoed by Otter in April 2015.

[34] In July 2017, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General from nine other states, and also including Otter, in threatening the Donald Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been put into place by president Barack Obama.

[38] In 2006, Otter married his longtime girlfriend Lori Easley (born 1967), a former Miss Idaho USA,[39] in Meridian on August 18.

Otter offered several explanations for failing the field sobriety test including: his stocking feet were stung by weeds and gravel, he had run eight miles (13 km) and his knee hurt, he was hungry, and that he had soaked his chewing tobacco in Jack Daniel's.