OREGON
      Nov. 3, 2020 U.S. Senate                                      

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+Jeff Merkley (D) i
 		1,321,047
 		56.91%
Jo Rae Perkins (R)
 		912,814
 		39.32%
Gary Dye (L) 42,747
 1.84%
Ibrahim Taher (PGP)
 42,239
 1.82%
misc.
 2,402
 0.10%

2,321,249
Registered voters: 2,944,588.  Ballots returned: 2,413,890.
Plurality: 408,233 votes (17.59 percentage points).
 OR Secretary of State



Notes:  As expected Sen. Jeff Merkley (D), running for a third term, comfortably defeated semi-retired insurance agent Jo Rae Perkins (R); also running  were Gary Dye (L), who has worked as an engineer, and Ibrahim Taher (PGP), a philosopher. 

Merkley served as speaker of the Oregon House before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2008.  A national progressive leader, he was mentioned as a possible 2020 presidential candidate, but ruled out a run on Mar. 5, 2019 (+).

Perkins, a grandmother from Albany, has worked as as a real estate agent, personal banker, financial advisor and insurance agent.  She ran for U.S. Senate in 2014 (obtaining 2.8% in the Republican primary), U.S. House in 2016 (finishing second in the Republican primary) and U.S House again 2018 (finishing third in the Republican primary), and was a supporter of, or at least dabbler in, the QAnon conspiracy theory.

In the May 19, 2020 state primaries four candidates competed for the Republican nomination.  Perkins finished first with 178,004 votes (49.22%) followed by Paul Romero, Jr., who previously ran for Congress in the 2nd CD in 2016 and 2018, with 109,783 (30.36%), Robert Schwartz with 40,196 (11.12%) and John Verbeek with 29,382 (8.13%).  Merkley was unchallenged in the Democratic primary.

The race was not competitive.  Perkins attracted national coverage looking into her QAnon support, but there were no debates, and it was extremely lopsided financially.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Merkley campaign spent $8.1 million in the cycle and finished with cash on hand of $3.8 million while the Perkins campaign reported spending less than $125,000 (>).


Campaign Managers:
Jeff Merkley:  David Chase
Campaign manager on Kirkpatrick for Congress (AZ), Aug. 2017-Nov. 2018.  Chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen (NV), Jan.-Aug. 2017; campaign manager on Ruben Kihuen for Congress, May 2015-Nov. 2016.  B.A. in political science from St. Mary's College of Maryland, 2011.

Jo Rae Perkins 



See also:
Oregon Secretary of State: 2020 State Voters' Pamphlets - General Election | Primary Election.

Sara Sidner.  "The US Senate candidate who took a QAnon pledge."  CNN, Aug. 22, 2020.

Will Steakin and Meg Cunningham.  "Republicans wrestle with conspiracy-theory advocate winning Senate primary."  ABC News, May 22,2020.
Merkley lit. missing
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