Preview

SALEM, OREGON – In what may end up being the most head-spinning race of the midterm cycle, another Republican who, like embattled Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion, and who is already threatening to contest the results of the election should he lose, may be poised to sweep a Democratic-leaning district in central Oregon.

So far, all indicators suggest Mike Erickson, a millionaire businessman and scandal-plagued perennial candidate for public office, is outpacing the fundamentals in his race against state representative Andrea Salinas. The two are squaring off for Oregon’s new Sixth Congressional District, which stretches west from the state capital, Salem, and takes in a slice of the southwestern Portland exurbs.

Salinas, a policy-focused progressive who worked for the late Majority Leader Harry Reid and other members of Congress, has yet to define herself and her opponent to voters after emerging from a primary that featured unprecedented amounts of outside spending and the interference of the national party. Her lack of name recognition has grown increasingly concerning with only days remaining before ballots are sent out in Oregon’s vote-by-mail election.

Erickson, meanwhile, has used his personal fortune to put millions of dollars in ads on the airwaves following a relatively easy primary election. Salinas’s own polling, which shows her with a razor-thin lead, admits that name recognition is still a significant barrier for her candidacy.