PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the nation’s most competitive U.S. House races is in Oregon, where the state’s GOP-held 5th Congressional District is one of more than two dozen seats nationwide that are considered toss-ups.
Two other House races in the state’s 4th and 6th districts, while less competitive, will also be closely watched as Democrats and Republicans battle for control of Congress. And in every election, freshman female lawmakers seek re-election.
Here are the tightest House races in the state:
For the first time in about 25 years, Republicans want to hold on to a seat they flipped red in the 2022 midterm elections. But freshman U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer faces another Democratic opponent in November: Janelle Bynum, a state representative who previously defeated her in legislative elections in the district and is supported and funded by national Democrats.
The seat is seen as a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, meaning both parties have a good chance of winning. Outside groups have poured millions of dollars into the race.
Chavez-DeRemer narrowly won her seat in 2022 in the district’s first election after its boundaries were significantly redrawn following the 2020 census. It now includes disparate regions spanning metropolitan Portland and wealthy working-class suburbs, but also about rural farming and mountain communities and the fast-growing city of Bend in central Oregon on the other side of the Cascade Range.
Unaffiliated voters represent the largest constituency, although registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by about 25,000. Both parties hope that the higher turnout during the presidential election, compared to midterm elections, will strengthen their base.
A small portion of the district is in Multnomah County, where a ballot drop box was located just outside the county election office in Portland. set on fire by an incendiary device about a week before the election, damaging three ballots. Authorities said enough material from the incendiary device was recovered to show that the Portland fire was also linked to two other ballot box fires in neighboring Vancouver, Washington, one of which occurred on the same day and damaged hundreds of ballots .
Oregon’s newest congressional district, the 6th, is seen as a likely win for Democrats compared to the 5th, according to the Cook Political Report. This gives a slight advantage to incumbent U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, a Democrat who will again face Mike Erickson, a Republican whom she defeated by about 2.5 percentage points in the 2022 midterm elections.
Salinas has easily outpaced Erickson, with more than $5 million in campaign contributions compared to his roughly $545,000, the most recent federal campaign finance data show.
Salinas and Chavez-DeRemer became the first Latina members of Congress to represent Oregon when they were elected in the 2022 midterm elections.
Erickson is the founder and CEO of a shipping and logistics consultancy firm. This is the fourth time he has run for Congress.
The boundaries of the 6th District were created during redistricting following the 2020 Census. The district includes the capital Salem and parts of Portland’s affluent southwestern suburbs. And while it also extends to rural areas across a wide swath of the Willamette Valley, President Joe Biden would have increased it by about 13 points in 2020.
Democratic freshman U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle is seeking re-election in the 4th District, which spans the southern half of the state’s coast and includes rural, mountainous communities and the more populous, liberal college towns of Eugene and Corvallis.
She is running against Republican Monique DeSpain, who, according to her website, served in the U.S. Air Force for 30 years, much of it as a military lawyer. DeSpain has never held elected office and has cast himself as an “outsider” candidate.
The district, which has not elected a Republican to the House of Representatives since 1972, is seen as a likely victory for Democrats, according to the Cook Political Report.
Hoyle had outpaced DeSpain by about $1.6 million in mid-October, but Republican groups were still spending heavily in their effort to flip the seat, federal campaign finance records show. The fundraising arm of House Republicans, the National Congressional Republican Committee, spent about $375,000 on ads opposing Hoyle.