Oregon Journalism Project: Merkley will run for re-election

Merkley, 68, an East Portland resident when he’s not in Washington, D.C., has been mulling his future for months and extended his process beyond a self-imposed deadline of June 30. 

“It was a difficult decision,” Merkley says. “I see folks who stay too long and assume they are the only ones who can make an effective case for their constituents.”

But in the end, Merkley says, he and his wife, Mary Sorteberg, came to the conclusion that he should continue for one primary reason: the desire to help counterbalance President Donald Trump and his influence on all branches of government. 

“What tipped us is the slide into a 'strong man' state; a deferential Supreme Court; the power they are giving him to reorganize the federal government; the effort to steal the power of the purse from Congress; and, the entire strategy of undermining the separation of powers,” Merkley says. 

“It's an incredibly perilous moment in our country’s history; Mary and I feel that we have to be fully engaged in the battle to defend our country and our constitution.”

Merkley, who serves on the Senate committees on appropriations, budget and foreign relations, began his Senate career with the 2008 defeat of incumbent U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). That outcome marked the second consecutive momentous victory in Merkley’s career and coincided with a seismic shift toward Democratic control of Oregon politics. 

From the late 1960s until the mid-1990s, two Republicans, Mark Hatfield (1967-1997) and Bob Packwood (1969-1995), represented Oregon in the Senate. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) replaced Packwood in 1996 and Merkley defeated Smith 12 years later. 

Merkley grew up in Douglas County and later East Portland, and earned degrees from Stanford and Princeton. He led two non-profits, Habitat for Humanity and the World Affairs Council of Oregon, before making politics his fulltime career. 

He won a seat in the Oregon House in 1998 and moved up to House speaker in 2007, the first time Democrats held control of the House since 1989. That takeover (Democrats had controlled the Senate since 2003) catapulted Merkley in his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. 

After defeating Smith by 3.4 percentage points in 2008, Merkley has not experienced a close race, defeating GOP opponents Dr. Monica Wehby by 19 points in 2014 and Jo Rae Perkins by 17 points in 2020. 

Since entering the Senate, Merkley has been a reliably progressive voice, a less flamboyant ally to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). He has a been loud voice for civil rights, a fierce critic of both Trump administrations and of Wall Street excesses. After the great recession, he co-authored the so-called  “Volcker Rule,”  which dramatically reduced banks’ speculative trading and risk-taking activities.  

The Center for Effective Lawmaking, a joint venture between Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, which ranks members of Congress based on 15 criteria, ranked Merkley as the 5th most effective Senate Democrat earlier this year, noting he’d “advanced two sponsored bills into law: the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, and the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act.”

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This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project (oregonjournalismproject.org), a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon.