By GRANT STRINGER/The Oregonian
Democrat Val Hoyle defeated Republican Alek Skarlatos in the race for the 4th Congressional District on Tuesday night.
Partial results tallied as of Wednesday morning showed Hoyle with 51% of the vote and Skarlatos with 43%.
Hoyle’s victory marks an important — but not unexpected — win for the Democrats in a district where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by more than 40,000. Pundits consistently gave Hoyle the edge in the race, even as Republicans’ chances in Oregon’s 5th and 6th districts continued to improve throughout the fall. Those races remained too close to call Tuesday.
The 4th District seat is open this year because Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio is retiring after 35 years in the office. The redrawn district now includes all of Lincoln County, Eugene, Corvallis, Roseburg and smaller southwest Oregon communities. There are about 173,300 registered Democrats, 132,200 registered Republican and 175,000 unaffiliated voters in the district.
Voters in Lincoln County also favored Hoyle over Skarlatos, after the first release of ballots Tuesday night. Hoyle got 11,947 votes in Lincoln County, Skarlatos 8,784 and three minor party candidates a total of 1,275.
DeFazio endorsed Hoyle, a Democratic former state lawmaker wrapping up a term as Oregon’s labor commissioner. Skarlatos is a former Army National Guard soldier whose role thwarting a terrorist attack on a French train in 2015 made him a hometown hero and led to numerous TV and movie appearances. He ran unsuccessfully against DeFazio in 2020.
Nonpartisan political analysts considered the 4th District competitive, but leaning Democratic. Last year, Democrats in the Legislature gave Hoyle the edge when they drew new boundaries for the state’s congressional districts and added the new 6th District, part of a strategy to control five of Oregon’s six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats currently control four of five seats.
Skarlatos touted endorsements from national Republicans including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and had more money to spend than Hoyle. He raised $4 million and spent $3.8 million, compared to Hoyle’s $2.2 million raised and $2.02 million spent through mid-October, according to the Federal Elections Commission.
However, outside Republican groups didn’t invest significantly in the race, preferring to instead pour dollars into Oregon’s more competitive 5th and 6th districts.