Nonaffiliated candidate who hoped to challenge Salinas in November ends campaign

Unlike the major party candidates who paid a $100 fee to the Oregon secretary of state to run for Congress, nonaffiliated candidates have to collect signatures from 1% of the votes cast in their district during the last presidential election. 

For Faler, that meant collecting about 3,500 valid signatures from registered voters in the Willamette Valley-based district and having them verified by the secretary of state before Aug. 25. Oregon law requires nonaffiliated voters to collect signatures or hold an assembly of electors, which would require Faler to gather signatures from more than 500 supporters in the same place at the same time. 

With two weeks until the deadline, Faler said his campaign fell short with just less than 3,000 signatures, though he was aiming to have 4,500 in case some were invalid.

This nonaffiliated Oregonian is running for Congress. His campaign looks different than most

“The obstacle to obtaining that number of signatures with pen and paper, unless one has an existing army of volunteers or the financial wherewithal to hire lots of paid circulators, is virtually doomed,” Faler said. 

He raised $15,000 for his campaign from individual donors. He framed his campaign as a rejection against special political and corporate interests. 

Faler said he hopes to run again in 2028. Until then, he said he’ll push lawmakers to consider updating the signature collection process to allow for digital signature collection. 

“I think we’d succeed if we had the ability to do this digitally, because that’s where people are hanging out,” he said. “The new town square is social media. It’s in digital format.”

Salinas, who is in her second term, will run against former Dundee mayor and Republican David Russ in November. The Cook Political Report rates their race as a “solid Democratic” district in 2026. 

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