Politics- Democrat Val Hoyle is running against Republican Alek Skarlatos in Oregon's 4th Congressional District.
- The 4th District covers a sprawling rural swath of the southwest corner of the state.
Democrat Val Hoyle faces off against Republican Alek Skarlatos in Oregon's 4th Congressional District.
Democratic incumbent Rep. Peter DeFazio, Oregon's longest-serving congressman first elected in 1986, announced he would not run for re-election, leaving the seat vacant.
Oregon's 4th Congressional District candidates
With DeFazio vacating his seat, Oregon's 4th Congressional District will see a new face for the first time in nearly four decades.
Hoyle, a Democrat from Springfield, Oregon, currently serves as Oregon's labor commissioner. Before her election as labor commissioner, she represented the residents of West Eugene and Junction City in the Oregon House of Representatives.
She won DeFazio's endorsement to replace him in Congress.
Skarlatos, Hoyle's opponent, is a former Oregon National Guardsman who completed a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan with the US Army National Guard in 2015. He served in the National Guard for five years.
Skarlatos was unsuccessful in his first two attempts for public office: once in 2018 for Douglas County commissioner, then for a second time in 2020 when he ran against and lost to DeFazio in the race for Oregon's 4th Congressional District. But DeFazio won by only 5 percentage points, the narrowest victory of his congressional congressional career.
There are three other candidates on the ballot: Mike Beilstein, Levi Leatherberry, and Jim Howard.
Voting history for Oregon's 4th Congressional District
Oregon's 4th Congressional District covers a sprawling rural swath of the southwest corner of the state and includes the college towns of Eugene and Corvallis.
Joe Biden had a 4 percentage point margin of victory over President Donald Trump under the district's previous boundaries in 2020. While the geographic changes that resulted from the once-in-a-decade redistricting process following the 2020 US Census weren't that dramatic, they were enough to make the territory more friendly for Democrats.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Hoyle has raised $2.2 million, spent $2 million, and has $188,000 cash on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Skarlatos, has raised more than $3.9 million, spent almost $3.7 million, and has $380,000 left to spend, as of October 19.
As of November 4, more than a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have together spent about $3.4 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.
What experts say
The race between Hoyle and Skarlatos is rated as "lean Democratic" by Inside Elections, "lean Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.