Nearly 100 Democrats are vying for the party’s nomination in the May primary to be the next, or returning, Oregon state representative or senator in 75 races across the state.
About a third of the candidates are incumbents who are running unchallenged, and who will sail smoothly to November general election ballots where most will face off against Republican challengers, while several more moderate Democrats currently holding office are being challenged by progressives who are approaching the May primary as a referendum on their own party.
“There is a war within the Democratic Party,” said Annie Naranjo-Rivera, state director for the Working Families Party of Oregon, which is backing two challengers to business-friendly incumbents in legislative primary races in Washington County and in Lake Oswego. The minor party, which typically cross-nominates Democrats instead of running its own candidates, also is backing one of two Democrats running for a Beaverton seat being vacated by moderate Democratic Rep. Ken Helm, who is retiring.
“There are people who will go to Salem bringing the voices of the working class, people who have been left out of these rooms for far too long, and this other class of (Democrats) who are bringing special interests into the room with them and their funders and the people that back them,” she said.
Kathleen Stuart, former deputy director of the Senate Democratic Caucus who in 2016 also ran Future PAC, a political action committee supporting House Democratic candidates, also noted fractures within the party driving both incumbent challengers and fresh faces to state politics.
She said Democrats are campaigning on standing up to the Trump administration, but have not done enough to show working-class voters that they have a plan to fight growing income inequality, to make life more affordable and to improve access to health care and housing.
“The incumbent (House and Senate) Democrats that are in power right now came to power because they very clearly articulated a vision. They did a pattern we called ‘run, govern, run,’ and they ran on a clear vision, then they governed on that vision and then they ran on it again. They have not done that in the last two election cycles. End of story,” she said. “It’s not enough to just have a D next to your name, they (voters) want to know: what’s your affirmative vision for what’s next?”
Democratic primary races for Oregon Legislature by the numbers:
House:
73 Democrats are running in races for 60 seats in the Oregon House of Representatives.
34 of them are incumbents.
9 of the incumbents are being challenged for the party’s nomination.
25 incumbents are running unchallenged.
39 non-incumbent candidates are running.
15 are running unchallenged and will automatically get the party nomination.
14 are running against each other in 6 races.
Senate:
26 Democrats are running in races for 15 seats in the Oregon Senate.
10 are incumbents.
2 are being challenged for the party’s nomination.
8 incumbents are not being challenged.
16 non-incumbent candidates are running.
1 is running unchallenged and will automatically get the party nomination.
12 are running against each other in 4 races.
Challenging the ‘Mod Caucus’
Of the nine Democratic incumbents facing a new party challenger, the two most contentious races are for Sen. Janeen Sollman’s seat in the 15th Senate District encompassing much of Washington County and Rep. Daniel Nguyen’s seat in the 38th House District in Lake Oswego.
Sollman, an influential moderate Democrat first elected to the Oregon House in 2016 before being appointed to the Senate in 2022, is challenged by Myrna Muñoz, a Democratic Socialist and former elementary school principal from Forest Grove who works for the Oregon Department of Education’s Educator Advancement Council. Muñoz is the sister of state Rep. Lesly Muñoz, a Democratic Socialist from Woodburn.
Nguyen, who was first elected in 2022, is challenged by John “Waz” Wasielewski, a Lake Oswego middle school teacher.
Naranjo-Rivera, of the Working Families Party which is backing Myrna Muñoz and Wasielewski, described Sollman and Nguyen as “corporate Democrats” more willing to do the legislative bidding of business lobbyists than working class Oregonians.
This was most revealing, she said, during the recent legislative session when she lobbied Democrats to pass a bill divorcing some of Oregon’s tax code from new Republican changes to the federal tax code that would cut into state revenues. Both Nguyen and Sollman voted for the eventual measure, as did all legislative Democrats except for Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone.
Sollman also angered labor unions by voting against a 2025 bill to allow striking workers up to 10 weeks of unemployment benefits. Among them was the Oregon Education Association, which recently gave Muñoz’s campaign $10,000. And though Sollman has continued to carry support from ironworkers unions and building and construction trade unions, one of the largest public employee unions — Service Employees International Union Local 503, which represents about 72,000 caregivers and other professionals — recently contributed $11,000 of in-kind contributions to Muñoz’s campaign.
Some of Sollman’s most ardent supporters and donors are her Democratic colleagues in the Legislature, as well as Oregon’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Attorney General Dan Rayfield and State Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner. Muñoz has the endorsement of one state elected official so far in her sister.
The Working Families Party is also backing Beaverton School Board member Tammy Carpenter in the Democratic primary for the 27th House District currently held by Helm, who is not running for reelection. Carpenter is up against Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg, a Beaverton city councilor and director of product management at Crate & Barrel, who Helm has endorsed as his successor.
And the party is backing Michael Sugar, a West Linn High School teacher and debate coach, against Charles Gallia, a health policy consultant, in the 40th House District being vacated by Rep. Annessa Hartman, D-Gladstone, who is undergoing treatment for cervical cancer.
Naranjo-Rivera said Helm, Sollman and Nguyen are among a group of moderate Democrats, a “Mod squad” that Working Families hopes to replace with more progressive candidates who she says make up a much larger base of the Democratic party than incumbents, and party leaders, realize.
“We need to move past this idea that people are anointed to their seats. The reason we have democratic elections is to actually see what the will of the people is,” she said.
Other incumbent Democrats facing a challenger:
- Rep. Tawna Sanchez, in the 43rd House District encompassing North and Northeast Portland, is challenged by Cye Sterling, a Democratic Socialist and member of the Army National Guard.
- Rep. Nancy Nathanson, in the 13th House District in Eugene, is challenged by Kathy Cantrell-Damewood, a retired teacher and realtor.
- Rep. Susan McLain, in the 29th House District in Hillsboro, is challenged by Mark Watson, a Hillsboro School Board member and founder of a software company.
- Rep. Jason Kropf, in the 54th House District in Bend, is challenged by Andrew Caruana, a mental health counselor and disability rights advocate serving on local and state accessibility, equity and health advisory committees.
- Rep. Mark Gamba, in the 41st House District in Milwaukie, is challenged by Priyesh Krishnan, a data scientist.
- House Speaker Rep. Julie Fahey, in the 14th House District in West Eugene, Bethel and Venetta, is challenged by Erik Glass, who owns a small courier and freight loading business.
- Rep. Paul Evans, in the 20th House District in Monmouth, is challenged by Ruby Clark, a member of the National Guard and a geospatial engineer.
- Rep. Farrah Chaichi, in the 35th House District in Beaverton and Aloha, is challenged by Johan Arteaga Cruz, who works for a family and child services nonprofit.
- Sen. Lisa Reynolds, in the 17th Senate District in West Portland, is challenged by Autumn Sharp, an operations manager at the nonprofit environmental group Ecotrust.
Other races to watch
Among the legislative primary races stacked with the most Democratic candidates are the Gorge-based 52nd House District being vacated by Republican state Rep. Jeff Helfrich who is running instead for Sen. Christine Drazan’s 26th Senate District seat as Drazan runs for governor, and southern Oregon’s 3rd Senate District, now represented by retiring Sen. Jeff Golden.
Teachers Nick Walden Poublon and David Osborn, Cascade Locks City Council member Bernard Seeger, and Hank Sanders, a legislative aide for his mother, Portland Democratic state Sen. Lisa Reynolds, have all filed to run in the Democratic primary for the 52nd House District seat, one of few districts in the state that does not vote predictably with one party.
The 3rd Senate District now represented by Golden has a five-way Democratic primary, with retired attorney and former congressional hopeful Jim Crary, health care consultant Denise Krause, nursing professor Cristian Mendoza Ruvalcaba, attorney Tonia Moro and Medford City Councilor Kevin Stine vying for the chance to replace Golden.
Democrats are hoping to grow their legislative majority in several Senate districts where Republican incumbents cannot run for reelection due to participation in a six-week walkout in 2023 in protest of several Democratic bills.
Nathan Soltz, chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon, said Democrats hope to flip the 11th Senate District seat in the Salem-Keizer-Woodburn area currently held by Republican Sen. Kim Thatcher, and the 16th Senate District Seat in Tillamook held by Sen. Suzanne Weber. Both districts tend to favor Republicans.
In the 11th Senate District, former Woodburn state Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon and Salem City Councilor Virginia Stapleton are vying for the Democratic nomination. The winner will face former state Rep. Tracy Cramer, of Gervais, who is running unchallenged in the Republican primary, and who narrowly lost her bid for reelection to the House in 2024 to now-Rep. Lesly Muñoz.
Democrats are hoping to fill Weber’s vacated seat in the 16th Senate District with one of three candidates: former state Sen. Rachel Armitage of St. Helens, nurse and Air Force Veteran Aaron Dickie or and tax consultant Jordan Gutierrez. Whoever wins will be up against one of three candidates running for the seat in the Republican primary.
“Once the voters make their decision in the primary, we’re confident that they’re going to send us the best candidate that they have for that area. And then we’re going to step in and do what we can to make sure that we elect those folks in November, and that we expand our majorities in the Legislature,” Soltz said.
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