OREGON
     Nov. 8, 2022 U.S. Senate                                      

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+Ron Wyden (D) i
1,076,424
55.83%
Jo Rae Perkins (R)
788,991
40.92%
Chris Henry (P)
36,883
1.91%
Dan Pulju (PG)
23,454
1.22%
misc.
2,197
0.11%

1,927,949

Registered voters: 2,985,820.  Ballots returned: 1,997,689.
Plurality: 287,433 votes (14.91 percentage points).

 OR Secretary of State




Notes: 
As expected, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) won a fourth term, defeating Jo Rae Perkins (R), who was also the GOP's 2020 Senate nominee, Chris Henry (P) and Dan Pulju (PG). 

Wyden, 73, chairs the Senate Finance Committee. 
He was elected to the Senate in a January 1996 special election to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Bob Packwood (R).  Wyden was first elected to Congress in  an upset in 1980, and previously founded and led the Oregon chapter of the Gray Panthers.  In the May 17 Democratic primary Wyden won 89% of the vote over a couple of challengers. 

Seven candidates competed for the Republican nomination in the May primary.  Perkins, from Albany, had run for office half a dozen times, most recently as the Republican nominee against Sen. Jeff Merkley in 2020.  During that campaign she was linked to QAnon but denied being a supporter.  On Jan. 6, 2021 she was in Washington, DC during the protests but did not go in the Capitol.  Other leading candidates were Darin Harbick, a businessman from McKenzie Bridge; Grant County Commissioner Sam Palmer, Prineville Mayor Jason Beebe; and Christopher Christensen, a home finance specialist from Beaverton.  Of 353,303 votes tallied, Perkins
finished first with 33.0% of the vote, followed by Harbick (30.7%), Palmer (12.2%), Beebe (11.3%) and Christensen (8.1%). 

The Pacific Green Party held its nominating convention on June 4, and selected Dan Pulju, a Eugene resident who works as a poll interviewer and is an anti-war activist.  This was his first campaign.  Pulju did do some door-do-door canvassing; among his top issues was ending "forever wars."

The Oregon Progressive Party nominated Chris Henry, a Teamster truck driver and perennial candidate.  Henry served a co-chair of Pacific Greens before leaving the party in 2010.  He first ran for office in 2008, challenging U.S. Rep. David Wu in CD-1, and has run every two years since including twice for governor (2014 and 2018) and twice for treasurer (2016 and 2020).  Henry says he has "built political capital" with each campaign.  Working full time as a driver, he mostly conducted his campaign via social media, although he did make an in-person appearance for the Willamette Week's endorsement interview.  Among his top issues was campaign finance reform.  

There was some drama in the campaign for the Constitution Party nomination.  Amid rumors of a "hostile takeover," the party voted to remove Michael Stettler from consideration; according to a release there was "
written evidence that clearly implicates long-time gubernatorial candidate Paul Romero of collusion with Michael Stettler, who was running for US Senate, to entrap the voting members of the Constitution Party of Oregon during their duly convened nominating convention, which took place May 21 in Springfield, Oregon."  The nomination ultimately went to Jo Rae Perkins. 

The Libertarian Party held its own primary on June 17; beer brewer John Newton defeated Will Hobson.

Financially the race was extremely lopsided.  The Wyden campaign raised $13.8 million, spent $13.6 million and had cash on hand of $3.6 million compared to $114,204 raised and $144,952 spent for the Perkins campaign (
>).

Perkins' vote total lagged behind that of GOP gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan, who ran a competitive race (850,347 versus 788,991).  Perkins obtained a slightly larger share of the vote than in her 2020 campaign against Merkley (40.92% versus 39.32%) but fewer votes than in 2020 when the presidential campaign boosted turnout.

Henry and Pulju both crossed the 1% threshold.  (In Oregon, minor parties maintain their ballot status either by meeting a minimum registration level or by obtaining more than 1% of the vote cast in a statewide race).


Campaign Managers:
Ron Wyden:  Tim Leahy
State outreach director for Sen. Wyden from Oct. 2017.  Managed Wyden's 2016 campaign, Jan. 2015-Nov. 2016. 
Finance director on Jeff Merkley for Oregon, June 2011-Dec. 2014.  Legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson (IL), Jan. 2009-Jan. 2011.  Associate at The Ashmead Group, 2006-09.  Citizen outreach director at the Fund for Public Interest Research, Jan. 2005-Aug. 2007.  B.S. in American political studies/public administration from Northern Arizona University, 2001.



See also:

Oregon Secretary of State: 2022 State Voters' Pamphlet.
For candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate to put a 325-word statement in the state voters' pamphlet required submission of 500 signatures by Aug. 16 and payment of a fee of $3,000.  The pamphlet allows candidates to get their message to all Oregon voters—within the limitations of the 325-word format.  For minor party candidates with limited resources, the candidate statement in the voters' pamphlet is almost obligatory. 

Editorial Board. "Endorsement Interviews for U.S. Senate."  Williamette Weekly
, Oct. 2022: challengers, incumbent.

Adam Duvernay.  "U.S. Senate race: Republican, minor party candidates hoping to unseat incumbent Wyden."  Register-Guard, Oct. 2, 2022.

Staff.  "The Index: Find 'Know Your Candidates' interviews for 2022 Primary."  KATU, 2022.

Caitlyn N. May.  "Albany's Jo Rae Perkins was present for D.C. insurrection."  Democrat-Herald, Jan. 14, 2021.











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