Candidate filing ends: Hot contested races list

By In the news
In: Uncategorized
Wednesday March 11, 2026

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Here are some highlights of contested races (not exhaustive):

BIG CONTESTED RACES

U.S. Senate: Held by U.S. Senator Merkley. On the Republican side is a contested primary between Sen. David Brock Smith and Jo Rae Perkins.

Congress #5 held by Congresswoman Janelle Bynum has no primary challenger but there are two Republican primary challengers with Patti Adair and Jonathan Lockwood.

Governor held by Governor Kotek has 4 unknown Democrat party challengers (Forest Alexander, James Atkinson, Brittany Jones, Tristan Sheppard) and Five major Republican challengers with Dannielle Bethel, Rep. Ed Diehl, Sen. Christine Drazan, Chris Dudley, and David Medina. There is also LaNicia Duke (Unaffiliated).

 

CONTESTED SENATE SEATS

 

Senate #3 left open by Sen. Jeff Golden has five Democratic challengers Jim Crary, Denise Krause, Cristian Mendoza Ruvalcaba, Tonia Moro and Kevin Stine.

Senate #6 left open by Sen. Cedric Hayden (retiring) has three Republican primary challengers Jami Cate, Nicole de Graff, Jack Tibbetts.

Senate #11 left open by Sen. Thatcher (retiring) has two Democrat primary challengers Teresa Alonso Leon and Virginia Stapleton.

Senate #15 held by Sen. Janeen Sollman (D) is facign two primary challengers, Myrna Munoz and Nelly Donis-Purcell.

Senate #16 left open by Suzzane Weber (retiring) with three Democrat challengers Rachel Armitage, Asron Dickie and Jordan Gutierrs. Three Republican challengers are Courtney Bangs, Tripp Dietrich and Frank Mansfield.

 

CONTESTED HOUSE SEATS:

 

House #7  left open by Democrat Rep. John Lively has 3 Democrat challengers; Ky Fireside, KC Huffman, Kori Rodley

House #9 left open by Rep. Boomer Wright (retiring) has two Republican challengers Troy Cribbins and Claire Lynn.

House #17 left open by Rep. Diehl (running for Governor) has three Republicans challengers. Dan Farrington, Beth Jones, Ron Nalley.

House #18 left open by Rep. Ron Lewis (retiring) has three challengers Ben Fisher, Matthew Lawson, Amanda Staehely, Jospeh Steininger and most eye-catching Shawn Starr (Senator Bruce’s brother).

House #27 left open by Democrat Rep. Ken Helm (retiring) has two Democrat challengers; Tammy Carpenter, Ashley Hartmeier Prigg

House #32 Rep. Cyrus Javadi who switched from R to D has two Republicans dueling in the primary, Christian Honl and Max Sherman.

House #52 left open by Rep. Jeff Helfrich who is running for Senate, has four Democrat challengers David Osborn, Hank Sanders, Bernard Seeger and Nick Walden Poublon. It has three Republican challengers: Robert Fleming, Scott Hege, Darcy Lapier.

House #54 is held by Rep. Jason Kropf and now has a Democrat primary Democrat challenger Andrew Caruana

House #57 is held by Rep. Greg Smith and now a Republican primary challenger Jim Doherty has filed.

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