Oregon Democrats on track to take historic number of state House seats

If current leads hold, Oregon Democrats are on track to hold a record number of seats in the Oregon House in 2027.

Democrats led in 39 of the 60 House races, with double-digit leads in some of the state’s most competitive races. If those leads hold, they’re set to surpass their previous record of 38 seats won in 1974, another year where Democrats nationwide made huge gains nationwide.

Voters in Salem, Springfield, the North Coast and Clackamas County wielded outsized power in the future makeup of the state House.

Results so far show that in those races, Republicans’ desire to make gains in the House by taking several seats formerly held by Democrats have gone unmet, and the Oregon House is slated to benefit from a nationwide shift to the left among voters upset with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

Democratic lawmakers in the state appear poised to keep the 37 House seats they currently hold for the next two years, and to add two additional seats, further cementing their hold on the 60-member chamber.

Senate Democrats are also poised to grow their majority for a 19-11 party split in the Senate. The Democratic majority continues to hold the three-fifths supermajority necessary to pass new taxes or increase existing ones without Republican support, but not the two-thirds majority needed to maintain a quorum and pass bills if Republicans walk out.

Democrats poised to gain seats 

In Salem, an entrenched Republican appears at risk of losing to a progressive Democrat in the 21st House District. Occupational safety professional Michael Welsh as of Tuesday night was 10 points ahead of Republican Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, who has spent a decade-plus in the state Legislature during the past three decades.

In the Columbia River Gorge’s 52nd House District, one of the most competitive and expensive races in the midterms, Hank Sanders, a 25-year-old Democrat, former journalist and legislative aide to his mother, Portland-area Sen. Lisa Reynolds, was ahead by roughly 10 points against Republican Scott Hege, a 16-year county commissioner and former executive director of the Port of The Dalles.

Democrats were also outperforming Republicans in districts the GOP targeted to flip.

Springfield City Councilor Kori Rodley, a Democrat, is on track to beat Republican Adam Wilson, a wealth adviser, for the 7th House District seat being vacated by Rep. John Lively, a Springfield Democrat, who has served in the Legislature for 14 years.

In Clackamas County, Democrats are holding onto the 40th House District seat formerly held by Democratic state Rep. Annessa Hartman, of Gladstone, who did not run for reelection.

West Linn High School teacher Michael Sugar, a Democrat, had a significant lead Tuesday evening on Republican police officer Adam Baker, who narrowly lost to Hartman in 2022.

On the North Coast, voters as of Tuesday night were backing incumbent state Rep. Cyrus Javadi, a Democrat, in a tight race against Republican Max Sherman, a retired high school teacher who taught agricultural sciences in Tillamook and Canby for the 32nd House District. Javadi, a two-term Republican, switched parties last year due to “extreme politicians in today’s Republican Party,” whose values he no longer aligns with, he said at the time.

In Woodburn, incumbent Democratic Rep. Lesly Muñoz led Republican mental health counselor and former Woodburn School Board member Noemi Legaspi by about 10 points. Muñoz, who has served a single two-year term representing House District 22 and Legaspi, both Latinas, campaigned hard to win over voters in the district with the state’s highest Hispanic population: nearly 48% of residents.