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Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales filed with the Federal Elections Commission today to run in the Democratic primary in Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District.
The 3rd District seat will be open next year for the first time since 1996, when now U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) won a special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who moved up to the Senate. Blumenauer, 75, announced earlier this week he would not seek a 15th term in one of the most Democratically dominated districts in the country.
Morales, who runs a public relations firm, first won election in Gresham in 2018 and is now in his second term. He is also active in a variety of other organizations, including East County Rising, which he founded, the Democratic Party of Oregon (he’s the current treasurer), the Community Catalyst Action Fund, and the Oregon Coalition for Common Sense.
As WW reported earlier, now-former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal has also entered the race.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Travis Nelson (D-Portland), a nurses’ union official who succeeded now-Gov. Tina Kotek in representing North Portland’s House District 44, issued a statement today saying he’s still deciding whether he’ll also join the race.
“We need more representation from the nursing profession in Congress, and to my knowledge, a male nurse has never been sent to Congress. Furthermore, we need more LGBTQ+ representation, and a Black LGBTQ+ man has never been elected to Congress outside of the state of New York,” Nelson said in a statement. “I plan to arrive at my decision this week.”