Oregon State Senate elections, 2026

2026 Oregon Senate Elections
Primary	Pending
General	November 3, 2026

2026 Elections
Choose a chamber below:

Elections for the Oregon State Senate will take place in 2026. The general election is on November 3, 2026.

The Oregon State Senate is one of 88 state legislative chambers with elections in 2026. There are 99 chambers throughout the country.

Party control

See also: Partisan composition of state senates and State government trifectas

Party	As of March 2025
	Democratic Party	18
	Republican Party	12
	Independent	0
	Independent Party of Oregon	0
	Vacancies	0
Total	30

Candidates

Note: The following list includes official candidates only. Ballotpedia defines official candidates as people who:

• Register with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline
• Appear on candidate lists released by government election agencies

This list will be updated after the candidate filing deadline has passed and the official list of candidates becomes available. Please contact us if you notice an official candidate missing from the list or the inclusion of a candidate who withdrew.

Primary

General election

Voting information

See also: Voting in Oregon

Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.

Competitiveness

This section will be updated with information about the competitiveness of state legislative elections in Oregon. For more information about Ballotpedia's Competitiveness Analysis of state legislative elections, please click here.

Process to become a candidate

See also: Ballot access requirements for political candidates in Oregon

For major party candidates

See statutes: Chapter 249, Sections 020, 068 and 056 of the Oregon Revised Statutes

A major party candidate can gain access to the ballot via one of two methods: by paying a filing fee or by filing a nominating petition.

Filing fee

A candidate of a major party can have his or her name printed on the ballot by filing a declaration of candidacy with the Oregon Secretary of State and paying the requisite filing fees. Filing fees are as follows:^[1][2][3]

Filing fees for major party candidates in Oregon
Office sought	Fee
United States Senator	$150
Governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, labor and industries commissioner, United States Representative	$100
State senator and state representative	$25

Nominating petition

A candidate of a major party can have his or her name printed on the ballot by filing a nominating petition with the Oregon Secretary of State. Signature requirements are as follows:^[4]

Petition signature requirements for major party candidates in Oregon
Office sought	Required signatures
United States Representative	The lesser of 1,000 signatures or 2 percent of the number of votes cast in the district for president by members of the candidate's party*
Governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, United States Senator	The lesser of 1,000 signatures or 2 percent of the number of votes cast for president by members of the candidate's party**
State senator and state representative	The lesser of 500 signatures or 2 percent of the number of votes cast in the district for president by members of the candidate's party***
*"Signatures must be obtained from 5 percent of the precincts in one-fourth of the counties in the congressional district." **"Signatures must be obtained from at least seven counties and be comprised of electors from 5 percent of the precincts in each of those counties." ***"If the district is within one county, signatures must be obtained from 10 percent of the precincts. If the district is in more than one county, signatures must be obtained from at least two counties and be comprised of electors from 6 percent of the precincts in each of those counties."

For minor party candidates

Recognized minor parties (as defined in this article) are not permitted to participate in primary elections and instead must select candidates by nominating convention.

For unaffiliated candidates

An unaffiliated candidate can gain access to the ballot via one of two methods: nomination by individual electors or nomination by an assembly of electors.

Nomination by individual electors

See statutes: Chapter 249, Section 740 of the Oregon Revised Statutes

An unaffiliated candidate must submit the appropriate filing form with the Oregon Secretary of State and obtain approval to circulate the nominating petition prior to collecting signatures. Once approval has been obtained, circulators must gather signatures equal to at least 1 percent of the total votes cast for all candidates for presidential electors in the most recent general election within the electoral district for which the nomination is being sought.^[5]

The Oregon Secretary of State does not calculate in advance the number of signatures required for each office. Instead, the number of required signatures is determined when candidates obtain approval to circulate nominating petitions.^[6][7]

Nomination by assembly of electors

See statutes: Chapter 249, Section 735 of the Oregon Revised Statutes

An unaffiliated candidate must submit a candidate filing form signed only by the candidate. Upon receipt of the form, the Oregon Secretary of State will review the document and provide approval to organize an assembly of electors. The candidate must coordinate with the secretary of state to determine the time of the assembly. Once scheduled, notice of the assembly must be published at least once in at least three newspapers of general circulation in the electoral district in which the assembly seeks to nominate candidates. The notice must include the time and place of the assembly, offices for which nominations will be made, and the names and addresses of at least 25 active registered voters who want the assembly held and who are eligible to participate.^[8]

Final approval to convene the assembly is granted once the candidate files a copy of the published notice with the secretary of state. An affidavit verifying that notice of the assembly was published in accordance with statutory requirements must be included with the copy of the notice. This affidavit must be signed by the newspaper's owner, editor, publisher, manager, advertising manager, principal clerk of one of the aforementioned, or the printer. The secretary of state will provide a written approval to convene the assembly. This formal approval document will include a petition number, the number of signatures required, the filing deadline, and a signature sheet template.^[9][10]

The assembly itself must meet the following requirements:^[9]

• The assembly must be held in one day in one location and must be completed within 12 hours.
• Assembly participants must be active registered voters within the electoral district from which the assembly is nominating candidates.
• Candidates may only be nominated for offices published in the notice.
• The candidate winning the highest number of voters will be the nominee of the assembly for that office.
• Only assembly-goers may sign the approved signature sheets.
• All signers on a signature sheet must be registered voters in the same county.
• Once the required number of registered voters are present, they must remain in assembly until candidates have been nominated, signature sheets signed, and the convention adjourned.

Signature requirements for nomination by an assembly of electors are described in the table below.^[9]

Signature requirements for nomination by an assembly of electors in Oregon
Office sought	Required signatures
United States Representative	500 signatures obtained at the assembly
Governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, United States Senator	1,000 signatures obtained at the assembly
State senator and state representative	250 signatures obtained at the assembly

Once the nomination process has been completed, the assembly is adjourned. The secretary of state collects all completed signature sheets and stamps each sheet under the last signature line signed to ensure that no additional signatures are added. Signature sheets will be then be returned to the presiding officer at the assembly, who in turn must submit the signature sheets to the appropriate county-level election official for verification. The county-level election official, upon completing the verification process, will return the forms to the presiding officer of the assembly. The candidate or presiding officer of the assembly must then submit to the Oregon Secretary of State a candidate filing form with the certificate of nomination completed by the presiding officer and secretary of the assembly and notarized, the verified signature sheets, and the proof of published notice affidavit. The Oregon Secretary of State will then determine whether the filing packet and petition are valid.^[9]

For write-in candidates

Write-in candidates are not required to submit candidate filing forms in advance. In the event that a write-in candidate is nominated or elected, the election official will notify the candidate by sending a write-in candidate filing form. To accept the nomination or office, the candidate must complete, sign, and return the form to the election official.

Qualifications

See also: State legislature candidate requirements by state

Article 4, Section 8 of the Oregon Constitution states:

• No person shall be a Senator or Representative who at the time of election is not a citizen of the United States; nor anyone who has not been for one year next preceding the election an inhabitant of the district from which the Senator or Representative may be chosen. However, for purposes of the general election next following the operative date of an apportionment under section 6 of this Article, the person must have been an inhabitant of the district from January 1 of the year following the reapportionment to the date of the election.
• Senators and Representatives shall be at least twenty one years of age.
• No person shall be a Senator or Representative who has been convicted of a felony during:
  • The term of office of the person as a Senator or Representative; or
  • The period beginning on the date of the election at which the person was elected to the office of Senator or Representative and ending on the first day of the term of office to which the person was elected.
• No person is eligible to be elected as a Senator or Representative if that person has been convicted of a felony and has not completed the sentence received for the conviction prior to the date that person would take office if elected. As used in this subsection, “sentence received for the conviction” includes a term of imprisonment, any period of probation or post-prison supervision and payment of a monetary obligation imposed as all or part of a sentence.
• Notwithstanding sections 11 and 15, Article IV of this Constitution:
  • The office of a Senator or Representative convicted of a felony during the term to which the Senator or Representative was elected or appointed shall become vacant on the date the Senator or Representative is convicted.
  • A person elected to the office of Senator or Representative and convicted of a felony during the period beginning on the date of the election and ending on the first day of the term of office to which the person was elected shall be ineligible to take office and the office shall become vacant on the first day of the next term of office.
• Subject to subsection (4) of this section, a person who is ineligible to be a Senator or Representative under subsection (3) of this section may:
  • Be a Senator or Representative after the expiration of the term of office during which the person is ineligible; and
  • Be a candidate for the office of Senator or Representative prior to the expiration of the term of office during which the person is ineligible.
• No person shall be a Senator or Representative who at all times during the term of office of the person as a Senator or Representative is not an inhabitant of the district from which the Senator or Representative may be chosen or served on represent. A person shall not lose status as an inhabitant of a district if the person is absent from the district for purposes of business of the Legislative Assembly. Following the operative date of an apportionment under section 6 of this Article, until the expiration of the term of office of the person, a person may be an inhabitant of any district.

Salaries and per diem

See also: Comparison of state legislative salaries

State legislative salaries, 2024[11]
Salary	Per diem
$35,052/year	$157/day

When sworn in

See also: When state legislators assume office after a general election

Oregon legislators assume office the second Monday in January following the election.^[12]

Oregon political history

Trifectas

A state government trifecta is a term that describes single-party government, when one political party holds the governor's office and has majorities in both chambers of the legislature in a state government.

Oregon Party Control: 1992-2025
Seventeen years of Democratic trifectas  •  No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Presidential politics in Oregon

2024

See also: Presidential election, 2024

2020

See also: Presidential election, 2020

2016

See also: Presidential election, 2016

Oregon presidential election results (1900-2024)

• 16 Democratic wins
• 16 Republican wins

Redistricting following the 2020 census

Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed new state legislative maps into law on September 27, 2021. The maps were approved by the Oregon House of Representatives, 31-18, and approved in the Oregon State Senate 18-11.^[13] These maps took effect for Oregon’s 2022 legislative elections.

See also

Oregon	State Legislative Elections	News and Analysis
Oregon State Executive Offices Oregon State Legislature Oregon Courts	2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 Oregon elections: 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015	Party control of state government State government trifectas Partisan composition of state legislatures Partisan composition of state senates Partisan composition of state houses

External links

• Oregon State Senate

Footnotes