Democrat Salinas takes narrow lead in race for Oregon’s new District 6 in Congress

Democratic state Rep. Andrea Salinas took an early, however small lead over her Republican opponent, Mike Erickson, on Tuesday night time.

Oregon’s sixth Congressional District stretches throughout Salem, Polk County, Yamhill County, and a few suburbs southwest of Portland. This district has the most important Latino inhabitants of any Oregon congressional seat, with 21% figuring out as Hispanic within the 2020 census, a lot increased than the statewide common 14%.

Majority Democrats in Oregon’s Legislature had the higher hand in designing the district final 12 months, carving out a area the place voters closely favored Democratic candidates in earlier elections. Even so, the district turned considered one of many races the place Democrats confronted a troublesome problem. Many influential polls just like the Prepare dinner Political Report referred to as the race a tossup, and a few others like FiveThirtyEight predicted a slight Republican lead.

Salinas is a state consultant in Oregon who says her father immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico in 1950. She centered her platform on points that are usually huge considerations amongst Latino voters, together with lowering well being care prices and supporting employees’ rights. Her marketing campaign favored social service initiatives as options to many key voter considerations, like homelessness and crime.

Erickson characterised himself because the pro-business candidate. Whereas Salinas campaigned for higher working situations for farmworkers, Erickson centered his messaging towards the farmers who ran the companies. He referred to as for stricter immigration insurance policies, saying he was going to assist “end the wall.” Additionally in distinction to his opponent, Erickson has been staunchly anti-abortion.

Erickson forged Salinas as having soft-on-crime insurance policies. Coincidentally, each candidates mentioned they’ve fathers with 30-year backgrounds as law enforcement officials, they usually level to that as signifiers of how they’ll deal with public security — although this place in Congress wouldn’t give them management over native crime-fighting initiatives.