Oregon US Senate 2026
Election day is November 3, 2026. A statewide contest in Oregon.
Who is favoured in Oregon US Senate?
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What the Oregon US Senate election decides
The Senate confirms federal judges and cabinet officers, ratifies treaties, and can stop legislation the House passes. With a six-year term and a hundred-member chamber, a single seat is a larger share of the institution than any House district, which is why Senate races draw national money into state contests.
Each state sends two senators regardless of population, so this seat carries the same weight as California's or Wyoming's. Oregon voters fill it alongside all 6 of the state's House seats and the governorship, and a Senate term runs six years, spanning two future Congresses and, in this case, the next presidential election.
How Oregon votes
Oregon divides between the Portland metro and Willamette Valley and a vast, sparsely populated east with a different economy and politics. Democrats lead statewide, while housing, homelessness and wildfire dominate its agenda. That backdrop is the ground any Oregon campaign fights on, and it is what the Electorate HQ simulation reads first when it weighs a ticket's platform against this contest.
About this race
The 2026 United States Senate election in Oregon will be held on November 3, 2026, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Oregon. Democratic incumbent Jeff Merkley is seeking a fourth term. He is being challenged by Republican state senator David Brock Smith.
In the Democratic primary, Merkley was nominated with 93.2% of the vote against minimal opposition. Smith won the Republican nomination with 29.5% of the vote over former Linn County party chair Jo Rae Perkins and real estate broker Brent Barker.
Republicans have not won a Senate election in Oregon since 2002.
Latest coverage of the Oregon US Senate race
Oregon Election 2026: Key Races and Historical Presidential Election ResultsOregon (2026 Democratic Primary Preview Series)Group chat underscores divisions among Oregon Democrats after activist confronted state senatorOregon joins other Democratic states to file new lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s order limiting mail voting in midtermsState Sen. Smith leading in Oregon Republican US Senate primaryRanked choice voting makes sense for OregonThe rest of the Oregon ballot
Every Oregon House district, the counties inside each one, and an address lookup that resolves your exact districts are on the Oregon state page.
Other 2026 races in Oregon
Analysis covering Oregon
One seat covers 34 square kilometres. One seat covers 1,713,379.
New York's 12th and Alaska's at-large seat each elect one member of the House. On the ground, one is fifty thousand times the size of the other.
Twenty-six states elect a senator and a governor on the same day in 2026
The overlap between the Senate class and the gubernatorial cohort is a coincidence of two unrelated calendars, and it decides where money goes.