Oregon’s 5th, 6th District races for Congress still too close to call, results

The Oregonian/OregonLive called several key races Wednesday, including the hard-fought race for Oregon governor in which Democrat Tina Kotek prevailed over Republican Christine Drazan.

However, some races remain too close to call, most notably the pivotal contests in the 5th and 6th Congressional Districts. With thousands of outstanding ballots still left to count in key counties, the outcomes of those races were still not clear Wednesday.

County election officials planned to update results Thursday, which could provide more clarity.

Nationally, Republicans inched closer to a narrow House majority on Wednesday but had yet to wrest control from Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her party. The Associated Press had declared Republicans winners in 206 House races compared to 181 for Democrats by Wednesday afternoon, leaving 48 races still outstanding.

Congressional District 5

Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer appears poised to win with a less than a 2.5 percentage-point lead over the Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner.

But there are unspecified thousands of untallied ballots in Clackamas, Marion, Linn and Multnomah counties, which could affect the outcome.

The race is one of the most competitive – and closely watched — in the country this year, after McLeod-Skinner ousted seven-term incumbent Rep. Kurt Schrader in May.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, Chavez-DeRemer led 51.1% to 48.7% and, if her lead holds, she could join Andrea Salinas, who was leading in the 6th District, as Oregon’s first Latinas in Congress.

Congressional District 6

Democratic lawmaker Andrea Salinas holds a narrow 1.55 percentage-point lead over Republican businessman Mike Erickson in Oregon’s new 6th District.

The majority of the district’s voters live in Washington and Marion counties. It’s a tough race to call because many of the votes still to be tallied are in Marion County, where Erickson holds an edge.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, Salinas led with 49.6% of the vote to Erickson’s 48% in Oregon’s first new congressional district in 40 years that stretches from Portland’s southwest suburbs to Salem.

Marion County elections chief Bill Burgess told The Oregonian/OregonLive his office plans to release results from some of 40,000 ballots with votes still to tabulate late in the workday on Thursday.

— Jamie Goldberg; jgoldberg@oregonian.com; 503-221-8228; @jamiebgoldberg

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