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Two Washington County legislative races that are bellwethers for the direction of Oregon Democrats remained too close to call as of midday Wednesday, and more clarity isn’t coming anytime soon.
After early tallies on election night, the Senate District 15 race pitting incumbent Janeen Sollman (D-Hillsboro) against challenger Myrna Muñoz, an educator, showed Sollman with a 7.8 percentage point lead. But after results from a third batch of ballots were released around midnight, Muñoz had gained a lot of ground and now trails by only 2.31 percentage points, a difference of 203 votes. The Washington County Elections website says no further numbers will be released until Friday.
So far, the turnout in District 15 for Democratic voters is 33.7%. In the May 2022 primary, Democratic turnout in Washington County was 49.1%, so a lot of ballots are likely still to be counted. Given that mailed-in ballots will be accepted through May 26, anything could happen.
The District 15 race was perhaps the most watched legislative primary in the state because it pitted incumbent lawmakers against interest groups that are usually Democrats’ biggest backers. Environmental activists and public employee unions funded Muñoz’s challenge to Sollman because they were angered by several votes she took in recent legislative sessions, including one to reconsider how schools are funded. Sollman’s Senate colleagues backed her with healthy contributions, and the contest is a test of the party establishment against its ascendant left flank.
The race for an open Beaverton House seat has followed the same trajectory as Senate District 15 but is even closer. On election night, Beaverton City Councilor Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg, like Sollman the more moderate candidate, led her opponent, Beaverton School Board member Dr. Tammy Carpenter, 52.4% to 47.2% in House District 27. But the most recent count shows Hartmeier-Prigg’s lead has narrowed to six-tenths of a percentage point, a difference of 57 votes. Turnout in that race is higher, at 38.5%.
Like Muñoz, Carpenter is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, increasingly a key bloc in Portland metro-area elections.
In the third metro-area legislative race many observers tracked closely last night, state Rep. Daniel Nguyen (D-Lake Oswego) holds an insurmountable 76%–24% lead in House District 38. Washington County is scheduled to release its next count on May 22 at 4 pm.
Other races in which incumbents faced challengers proved unsuspenseful.
State Rep. Susan McLain (D-Forest Grove) brushed aside a challenge from Mark Watson, a Hillsboro School Board member, for House District 29. McLain chairs the House Transportation Committee and the Joint Committee on the Interstate Bridge, where she oversaw the failed transportation tax package and the ballooning price tag on the I-5 bridge. Voters did not ding her for those fiascos; she’s winning 76% to 24%.
In a statewide contest, Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson handily defeated challenger Chris Lynch; the latest tallies show her leading 68% to 32%. The post is nonpartisan, but Stephenson has been supported by labor and other pillars of the Democratic Party. She faced criticism for decisions by the Bureau of Labor and Industries on prevailing wages that benefited labor but raised the cost of low-income housing construction.
