After days of paral­y­sis, the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is final­ly start­ing to get orga­nized so it can con­duct busi­ness. A Speak­er has been cho­sen (Kevin McCarthy, who endured fif­teen rounds of bal­lot­ing) and the mem­bers of the 118th Con­gress have tak­en their oaths. There are cur­rent­ly 222 Repub­li­can mem­bers and 212 Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­bers, with one vacan­cy — not count­ing non­vot­ing del­e­gates such as D.C.‘s Eleanor Holmes Norton.

The Pacif­ic North­west has three new mem­bers of Con­gress who have not served in the insti­tu­tion before: Marie Glue­sesenkamp Perez of Wash­ing­ton, Andrea Sali­nas of Ore­gon, and Lori Chavez-DeRe­mer, also of Oregon.

The offi­cial con­gres­sion­al por­traits for each of our region’s new mem­bers is now avail­able. Below, you can view the por­traits and read the mem­bers’ biographies.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D)

Rep­re­sent­ing Wash­ing­ton’s 3rd Con­gres­sion­al District

Biog­ra­phy:

Offi­cial con­gres­sion­al por­trait of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Marie Glue­senkamp Perez

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Marie Glue­senkamp Perez is a fifth-gen­er­a­tion Wash­ing­ton­ian, for­mer small busi­ness own­er, and work­ing mom who serves as South­west Washington’s inde­pen­dent voice in Con­gress. As the daugh­ter of an immi­grant and pas­tor, Marie learned by exam­ple the impor­tance of work­ing for her community.

Marie earned her degree in eco­nom­ics at Reed Col­lege and co-owned an auto repair and machine shop with her hus­band, Dean, before com­ing to Con­gress. They were able to pur­chase their build­ing with the help of an SBA loan and know the dif­fi­cult choic­es small busi­ness own­ers often need to make.

In Con­gress, Marie is fight­ing to make progress on the issues fac­ing South­west Wash­ing­to­ni­ans, defend democ­ra­cy, and lev­el the play­ing field for work­ing fam­i­lies like hers.

Marie lives in rur­al Ska­ma­nia Coun­ty with her hus­band and young son.

Glue­senkamp Perez defeat­ed Repub­li­can Joe Kent in November.

Andrea Salinas (D)

Rep­re­sent­ing Ore­gon’s new 6th Con­gres­sion­al District

Biog­ra­phy:

Offi­cial con­gres­sion­al por­trait of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andrea Salinas

Con­gress­woman Andrea Sali­nas is the proud daugh­ter of a Mex­i­can immi­grant and looks for­ward to serv­ing in Con­gress to lev­el the play­ing field for work­ing fam­i­lies like hers. Her father came to this coun­try as a child and picked cot­ton and toma­toes in the fields of the Rio Grande Val­ley. Her family’s sto­ry is an Amer­i­can sto­ry – one where hard work can pro­vide a path to a bet­ter life.

She was born in San Mateo, Cal­i­for­nia and grew up in Pleas­ant Hill, California.

She was the first per­son in her fam­i­ly to attend a four-year uni­ver­si­ty and earned her degree from Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berkeley.

Upon grad­u­a­tion, Andrea want­ed to serve her com­mu­ni­ty and coun­try by choos­ing a path of pub­lic ser­vice. She served as a US con­gres­sion­al aide and pol­i­cy advi­sor to Sen­a­tor Har­ry Reid and Con­gress­man Pete Stark. Andrea and her hus­band, Chris, moved to Ore­gon upon the birth of their daugh­ter, Amelia.

In Ore­gon, Con­gress­woman Sali­nas served as a dis­trict aide for Con­gress­woman Dar­lene Hoo­ley where she fell in love with the com­mu­ni­ties of the Willamette Val­ley. After work­ing for Rep. Hoo­ley, she served as an advo­cate for labor unions, envi­ron­men­tal groups, and repro­duc­tive rights orga­ni­za­tions. In 2017, she was appoint­ed to the Ore­gon House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and served through the end of her term in 2022. In the Ore­gon House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, she served as House Major­i­ty Whip and was the Chair of the House Health Care Committee.

Con­gress­woman Andrea Sali­nas looks for­ward to serv­ing Oregon’s Sixth Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict in the 118th Congress.

Sali­nas defeat­ed Repub­li­can Mike Erick­son in November.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R)

Rep­re­sent­ing Ore­gon’s 5th Con­gres­sion­al District

Biog­ra­phy:

Offi­cial con­gres­sion­al por­trait of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lori Chavez-DeRemer

Con­gress­woman Lori Chavez-DeRe­mer is proud to rep­re­sent Oregon’s 5th con­gres­sion­al dis­trict that cov­ers Linn Coun­ty, most of Clacka­mas Coun­ty, Deschutes Coun­ty, and parts of Mult­nom­ah and Mar­i­on Coun­ties, in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Pri­or to serv­ing in Con­gress, Lori start­ed her pub­lic ser­vice career in 2002 on the Hap­py Val­ley Parks Com­mit­tee, where she helped build the Hap­py Val­ley 4th of July Fes­ti­val that it is today. Lat­er she won a seat on the Hap­py Val­ley City Coun­cil and became City Coun­cil Pres­i­dent. She was elect­ed to May­or in 2010, becom­ing Hap­py Valley’s first female and Lati­na elect­ed may­or. She was re-elect­ed in 2014. In 2022, she was elect­ed the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to rep­re­sent Oregon’s 5th con­gres­sion­al dis­trict. She is the one of the first Lati­nas and first Repub­li­can woman elect­ed to Con­gress from the state of Oregon.

Lori is a mom and small busi­ness­woman. She is mar­ried to her high school sweet­heart, Dr. Shawn DeRe­mer, and sup­port­ed the cou­ple as he fin­ished med­ical school. Lat­er they found­ed an Anes­the­sia man­age­ment com­pa­ny and opened sev­er­al oth­er med­ical clin­ics in the Pacif­ic Northwest.

Lori and Shawn are par­ents of twin daugh­ters, who are mak­ing their own foot­prints in the world. Annie works as a senior recruiter for Anes­the­sia Asso­ciates North­west while Emi­lie is an assis­tant pub­lic defend­er in Michigan.

Chavez-DeRe­mer defeat­ed Demo­c­rat Jamie McLeod-Skin­ner in November.

NPI con­grat­u­lates our region’s new mem­bers of Con­gress on tak­ing their oaths. We wish them the best as they begin their new responsibilities.