Demo­c­ra­t­ic vot­ers in Ore­gon’s brand new 6th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict have cho­sen State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andrea Sali­nas to car­ry the par­ty’s stan­dard in the com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion, ear­ly elec­tion results indicate.

As of press time, Sali­nas was in first place with 37.59% of the vote. Car­rick Fly­nn was in sec­ond with 18.86% of the vote. Cody Reynolds was in third with 11.55%. Sev­er­al oth­er can­di­dates were fur­ther back with less than 10% of the vote.

The recent­ly cre­at­ed 6th Dis­trict, which stretch­es from Tigard in the Port­land metro area to south of Mon­mouth and Dal­las, is a west­ern Willamette Val­ley dis­trict abut­ting the Coast Range that encom­pass­es the state cap­i­tal of Salem and its sub­urbs, as well as com­mu­ni­ties like McMin­nville and Newberg.

Ore­gon gained the dis­trict fol­low­ing the reap­por­tion­ment con­duct­ed in the wake of the 2020 cen­sus thanks to its pop­u­la­tion growth.

The 6th was drawn by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic-con­trolled Ore­gon Leg­is­la­ture to be a dis­trict favor­able to Democ­rats. The 6th vot­ed for Joe Biden and Jeff Merkley in 2020, along with oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates run­ning that year like Sec­re­tary of State Shemia Fagan and Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ellen Rosenblum.

The 6th is not as Demo­c­ra­t­ic as its north­ern neigh­bors the 1st and 3rd, which are con­sid­ered safe Demo­c­ra­t­ic, but it is more Demo­c­ra­t­ic than its east­ern neigh­bor, the new 5th Dis­trict, which meets the cri­te­ria for a swing dis­trict. The 6th’s south­ern neigh­bor, the 4th, has a rel­a­tive­ly sim­i­lar Demo­c­ra­t­ic lean.

Large fields of can­di­dates declared on both sides for the 6th.

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic field con­sist­ed of nine con­tenders, with Sali­nas and rival Car­rick Fly­nn draw­ing much of the mon­ey and endorse­ments. House Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­er­ship decid­ed to get involved in the con­test on Fly­n­n’s behalf, a move that was not well received in Ore­gon by Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists or voters.

Sali­nas coun­tered with a robust net­work of local sup­port as well as nation­al sup­port of her own from Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren and Wash­ing­ton State’s own Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jaya­pal, the Chair of the Con­gres­sion­al Pro­gres­sive Cau­cus, two wide­ly respect­ed lead­ers with­in the pro­gres­sive movement.

Though Fly­nn was backed with a huge tor­rent of cryp­to-aligned inde­pen­dent spend­ing, vot­ers opt­ed for Sali­nas, who has state + fed­er­al polit­i­cal expe­ri­ence and strong pro­gres­sive posi­tions on a range of issues.

“Andrea’s expe­ri­ence is what sets her apart in a crowd­ed pri­ma­ry field,” her web­site explains. “She doesn’t just hold pro­gres­sive val­ues – she has deliv­ered pro­gres­sive vic­to­ries. She’s worked as a Unit­ed States con­gres­sion­al aide and pol­i­cy advi­sor to three Mem­bers of Con­gress includ­ing Sen­a­tor Har­ry Reid, Con­gress­man Pete Stark, and Con­gress­woman Dar­lene Hooley.”

Sali­nas was endorsed by Gov­er­nor Kate Brown, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ellen Rosen­blum, and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, along with The Ore­gon­ian, Willamette Week, and The (Yamhill Coun­ty) News-Reg­is­ter.

“Thank you to every sin­gle per­son who made this vic­to­ry pos­si­ble tonight! I am ready to win this seat in Novem­ber & work to expand access to abor­tion care, tack­le the cli­mate cri­sis, & low­er the cost of pre­scrip­tion drugs,” Sali­nas tweet­ed after observers and media out­lets called the race in her favor. 

“Thank you to my sup­port­ers,” Fly­nn tweet­ed. “Obvi­ous­ly, these are not the results we were hop­ing to see tonight. I con­grat­u­late State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andrea Sali­nas on her vic­to­ry and offer my full sup­port. I will be out there knock­ing on doors and call­ing vot­ers as a vol­un­teer for her campaign.”

“It is vital that this seat turn blue and Democ­rats retain con­trol of the House,” Fly­nn added in a classy fol­low-up tweet. “I believe she’ll win this fall and become a strong voice for the vot­ers of this dis­trict in Con­gress.”

If elect­ed, Sali­nas would be the first Lati­na to rep­re­sent Ore­gon in Congress.

Sali­nas will like­ly face Repub­li­can Mike Erick­son in the gen­er­al elec­tion. Erick­son is the cur­rent top vote get­ter in a field of Repub­li­cans that is about as crowd­ed as the field Sali­nas was a part of in this ground­break­ing primary.