Intel Engineer Rakes in Cash for a Congressional Bid

“It became clear to me that what we needed in Washington was more people with a scientific mindset.”

Intel E5200 Pentium Dual-Core Processor. (lungstruck / Flickr)
By Rachel Monahan

Matt West, an Intel engineer running for Oregon’s newly created 6th Congressional District, is announcing a sizable haul for his first quarter of fundraising: $619,000. Of that, $437,000 is from the candidate himself, the campaign tells WW.

The numbers put the political outsider into serious contention in the Democratic primary, where he will face state Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Lake Oswego) and former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith. Neither Salinas or Smith has reported fundraising from the latest quarter, though Smith reported earlier and raised $115,000 by the end of September.

West tells WW he’s spurred to run by the climate disasters Oregon has faced in recent years as well as the pandemic.

“It became clear to me that what we needed in Washington was more people with a scientific mindset to solve these problems at their source,” West tells WW, adding he hasn’t ruled out further donations to his own campaign.

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