This Oregon House district was the tightest in the 2016 presidential race, but not this time

The Beaver State backed Joe Biden 57-41, which was a bit larger than Hillary Clinton’s still convincing 52-41 showing from four years ago, and he improved on Clinton’s margin in all five congressional districts. Biden, who likely benefited from a decline in third party voting, also took the same four congressional districts Clinton won, and he made important gains in the competitive 4th District. (You can find a larger version of our map here.)

This seat, which includes the southern Willamette Valley and Oregon’s coast, was the closest of any of the nation’s 435 congressional districts four years ago, having supported Clinton 46.1-46.0—a margin of 554 votes. Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio, who was first elected in 1986, had never failed to win re-election by double digits, but he faced his first well-funded challenge in decades this year from former Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos. Democrats spent heavily late in the game to protect DeFazio, who won 52-46. Biden won by a smaller 51-47 spread, but it was a veritable landslide compared to 2016.

Biden also took the 5th District 54-44, an improvement on Clinton’s 48-44 win in this Salem-area seat. However, Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader ran a little behind the top of the ticket, winning his seventh term 52-45 in a contest that attracted no serious outside spending. Indeed, this was the first time Schrader had failed to win re-election by double digits since the 2010 GOP wave, when he turned back a credible foe 51-46.

Biden’s two strongest showings were, unsurprisingly, in the Portland area’s 1st and 3rd District, which are also held by Democrats in the House. Biden took Rep. Suzanne Bonamici’s 1st District in the western Portland suburbs and North Coast 63-34, a move to the left from Clinton’s 57-35 win. Biden also dominated in Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s Portland-based 3rd District, winning it 74-23 compared to 71-22 for Clinton.

Trump had no trouble again carrying the 2nd District in rural eastern Oregon, which has long been the GOP’s best area of the state, though his 56-42 showing was a bit weaker than his 57-36 performance in 2016. It didn’t make much of a difference for Cliff Bentz, though, who easily won the race to succeed his fellow Republican, retiring Rep. Greg Walden, 60-37.  

A decade ago, Oregon’s Democratic governor and state Senate reached a compromise with the state House, which was evenly split between the two parties, to pass a congressional map that made only small changes from the one in use in the 2000s. This time, though, Democrats have full control of state government.

Oregon’s GOP legislators are infamous for using walkouts to stop the Democratic majority from passing progressive legislation, but if they obstruct redistricting, newly-elected Democratic Secretary of State Shemia Fagan would take over the process for legislative lines, while congressional maps would likely get kicked to the courts.