The Salem area will have a politically mixed legislative delegation with two incumbent state senators if preliminary ballot counts from Tuesday night hold.
Republicans were poised to pick up one seat in the region’s House delegation, mirroring early results across the state showing Republican gains in both legislative chambers.
The Salem delegation includes many fresh faces following redistricting. Three of the four Oregon House districts that include portions of Salem had no incumbent running, and preliminary results had two new Republicans and one new Democrat in the House.
Oregon Senate
Preliminary results show leads for incumbent Senator Deb Patterson, the Democrat representing south Salem, and Senator Kim Thatcher, the Republican representing north Salem and Keizer.
As of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s website showed Patterson had received 23,196 votes putting her at 54.13% for the District 10 seat, ahead of challenger Raquel Moore-Green who received 19,595 votes and 45.72%.
For the District 11 seat, longtime state legislator Thatcher also took the lead in early returns with 15,752 votes and 53.17% of the vote. Democratic competitor Richard Walsh had 13,809 votes and 46.61%.
The race for the seat representing south Salem, Senate District 10, pitted two civic veterans and freshman legislators against each other.
Patterson, 66, narrowly won the seat in 2020 against Republican Denyc Boles, having no prior experience as an elected official. As a freshman legislator, she chaired the Senate Committee on Health Care and said she’d continue to focus on health care affordability, along with securing money for projects addressing homelessness and affordable housing in Salem and across the state.
Following the initial count Tuesday, Patterson said she was “cautiously optimistic with my fingers crossed.”
“So far so good. Obviously it’s way too early to call because a lot of ballots are still in the mail,” she said.
Moore-Green, 67, has lived in Salem for 30 years and ran a consulting business, rmg consulting, before becoming a state legislator. She’s been active in civic organizations, volunteering with the Salem Police Foundation, Salem City Club and other organizations.
She was appointed a representative for House District 19 in 2019, and won election in 2020.
After redistricting last year changed the boundaries for District 19, Moore-Green opted to run for a Senate seat.
She ran on a platform of improving the state’s behavioral health system and providing more resources for law enforcement.
“It’s absolutely too early to tell – lots of votes to come in still,” she told Salem Reporter Tuesday night.
The race for Oregon’s District 11 seat, which represents north Salem and Keizer, was also highly competitive. The seat was vacated by the retiring Peter Courtney, a Salem Democrat and longtime Senate President. Due to redistricting, the seat had no true incumbent. Thatcher currently represents Senate District 13.
Republican candidate Kim Thatcher, 57, has served several terms in the Oregon House and Senate since 2004 and owns a highway contracting firm. Thatcher made headlines following the 2020 election as one of the Oregon lawmakers who supported a lawsuit overturning the results of the presidential race.
Thatcher ran on a platform of upping public safety investments, reallocating funds for homelessness toward addiction and mental health services, and more school choice in education such as vouchers.
“The reason I was running was to bring back balance (to the legislature),” she said. “It was a hard race but it’s humbling to see people are turning out to support me.”
She faced off against Democratic newcomer and former Keizer City Councilor Richard Walsh, 64. Walsh has worked for 30 years as an attorney representing injured workers in Salem, Keizer and Woodburn.
His main goals were providing affordable and easy-to-understand health care for all, support for seniors and enacting laws in support of abortion rights.
Walsh also told Salem Reporter Tuesday night that it was too soon to tell how the race would fall, but offered thanks to his supporters, donors, family and friends for helping him run his campaign.
“I just want everyone to know that regardless of the outcome, I will continue to do the best I can with what I’ve got to work towards solutions to the problems that we all face,” Walsh said.
Oregon House
Salem will be represented by a largely new set of legislators if Tuesday’s results hold, with Republicans picking up a seat.
Preliminary results showed Democrats Tom Andersen and Paul Evans taking the House District 19 and 20 seats, and Republicans Kevin Mannix and Tracy Cramer taking Districts 21 and 22.
The House District 19 race pitted two former Salem City Councilors against each other to represent the south portion of the city.
Andersen, 71, an attorney in private practice, served two terms on the council, resigning in August to focus on his legislative campaign. He said he would focus on environmental efforts and fighting climate change as a legislator.
Andersen was up with 55.19% of the vote just before 11 p.m. Tuesday.
His opponent, T.J. Sullivan, 49, is an insurance broker who said he wants to bring a business-friendly approach to legislating in Salem. He served on the Salem City Council from 2004-2010 and has been out of politics since.
The seat is currently held by Rep. Raquel Moore-Green, but was redistricted with a more Democratic voter base.
In House District 20, Democrat Paul Evans of Monmouth was winning re-election to a fifth term based on early results which put him at 54.79% of the vote.
Evans, 52, is an Air Force veteran and instructor at Chemeketa Community College, and said he wants to focus on constituent services, modernizing the state’s education system to address workforce needs, and continuing to bolster emergency management.
His opponent, Dan Farrington, 62, owns Sunrise Medical Consultants in Salem and lives in south Salem. He ran in 2012 to represent House District 21, losing to incumbent Brian Clem. He campaigned on improving Oregon’s business climate and reworking state educational standards and curriculum to focus on core subjects, rather than what he described as social issues.
The House District 21 seat also had no incumbent due to redistricting this year, but preliminary results show it will likely have an experienced legislator step in.
The seat is currently held by Chris Hoy, a Salem Democrat who is also the city’s mayor. Early returns Tuesday showed Republican Kevin Mannix pulling ahead with 51.79% of the vote over Ramiro Navarro Jr., who had 45.56%.
Mannix, 72, has previous experience having served five terms in the House from 1988 to 1997 as a Democrat, and then a partial term in the Senate as a Republican by appointment. Mannix also ran as the Republican candidate for attorney general in 2000, but lost to Hardy Myers and ran for governor in 2002, but lost to Democrat Ted Kulongoski.
He was the author of Oregon’s Measure 11 minimum sentencing requirements.
His main priorities are increasing funding for public safety and courts, more staff for state hospitals to support mental health, eliminating Oregon’s Corporate Activity Tax, and a tough-on-crime approach.
Mannix said he was “encouraged” by the early results Tuesday night and how he and other Republicans were able to work together.
“I’m really pleased with how my campaign synchronized with Kim Thatcher’s senate campaign and Tracy Cramer’s house campaign… and how we reached out to voters in a coordinated fashion,” he said. “I do think it made a difference, and I think the voters appreciated us being willing to work together.”
Navarro, 32, ran a campaign emphasizing his own experience as a veteran who experienced post-traumatic stress disorder. His top issues were around providing better support for veterans, promoting access to child care and funding for education, and creating sustainable, affordable housing.
The House District 22 seat was also up for grabs, with incumbent Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon, a Woodburn Democrat, not seeking re-election. Unofficial results Tuesday night showed Republican Tracy Cramer up with about 53% of the vote against Democrat Anthony Medina at 46.65%.
Cramer, 33, is a local business owner and had a campaign largely focused on crime and reducing the increased rate of homelessness, as well as removing “red tape” for law enforcement response. She supports allowing families to use state education money to send their child to a school of their choice, public or private.
Medina, 31, is a senior policy analyst for the state and the Higher Education Coordinating Commission and has been a Woodburn School Board member since 2017. He was running on the platform of investing more in public education and postsecondary opportunities, as well as more collaboration for solutions around homelessness.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. Contact reporter Jordyn Brown at [email protected].
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Jordyn Brown is an Oregon journalist who formerly worked for the Eugene Register-Guard.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
