Oregon Primaries: Overview and Live Results
May 19, 2020
Oregon holds its regularly-scheduled primary elections Tuesday. With a long history of mail-in voting, the state was not forced to change the date due to the pandemic. Ballots can be returned by mail or dropped off at official drop boxes across the state. In either case, ballots must be received by 8:00 PM local time.1 1The entire state, except for a portion of Malheur County in the southeast corner of the state, is in the Pacific Time Zone. Live results will appear below after 11:00 PM Eastern Time.
President (Democratic): Firmly entrenched as the presumptive nominee, Joe Biden won all 29 delegates in last week's Nebraska primary. Notable in that it was the first time this year it has happened. Heading into Tuesday, Biden has 1,464 of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the nomination. 61 additional delegates are available in Oregon.
Looking ahead, Hawaii (24 pledged delegates) results are expected on Saturday. After that the next contests are June 2, which, due to schedule changes, has become one of the busiest dates on the Democratic primary calendar. 479 delegates, across 7 states and the District of Columbia are available. It is mathematically possible that Biden could cross the 1,991 threshold on that date, although he'd have to win almost every available pledged delegate starting from today.
Congressional: There is a contested GOP primary for U.S. Senate, as well as for both parties in each of the state's five congressional districts. However, there isn't expected to be all that much to see here in the fall. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley should cruise to a 3rd term in November, and Democratic incumbents in the state's 1st, 3rd and 5th districts are also seen as safe.
In the 4th district, 17-term incumbent Democrat Peter DeFazio is seen as safe by most analysts, although Cook and Politico rate the district as 'Likely Democratic'. This district is more evenly split politically, with Hillary Clinton winning here by just 0.1% over Donald Trump in 2016.
In the state's lone GOP-held district - the 2nd - incumbent Greg Walden is retiring after 11 terms. There are competitive primaries in both parties to succeed him, although the seat is seen as safely Republican come November. The mostly rural district covers the eastern 2/3 of the state. In terms of land area, it is the 6th largest congressional district in the United States, trailing only the 2nd district in New Mexico among states that have multiple districts.2 2The four largest are the at-large districts in Alaska, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota.
