Current Oregon US Congressional Districts Map
By Jim Ellis
July 2, 2021 — Oregon earned a sixth congressional seat in the 2021 apportionment, but exactly where that district will be placed on the Beaver State’s new map is not particularly obvious.
Like most states, Oregon handles redistricting through the legislative process and Democrats have firm control of all three legs of the legislative stool. In addition to Gov. Kate Brown (D), the party has a 18-11 margin in the state Senate with one Independent. Their majority in the state House of Representatives is similarly large, 37-22, with one vacancy. Yet, the partisan breakdown of the state might make drawing a solid 5D-1R map surprisingly somewhat difficult.
Currently, the five congressional districts are not obviously gerrymandered, as the seats are drawn in block form. Naturally, all but two cluster around the Portland metropolitan area, the state’s dominant population region.
The five incumbents are all senior, with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Washington County) being the most junior with her original election coming in a special 2012 contest. The delegation dean is House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) who was first elected in 1986.
As you can see from the following chart, using 2019 population numbers since the Census Bureau will not be delivering census tract data to the states until after Aug. 15, the five districts are remarkably equivalent in relation to population size.
| DISTRICT | INCUMBENT | 2020% | POPULATION | REG. VOTERS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BONAMICI | 64.6% | 858,875 | 570,186 |
| 2 | BENTZ | 59.9% | 841,022 | 598,375 |
| 3 | BLUMENAUER | 73.0% | 853,116 | 588,614 |
| 4 | DeFAZIO | 51.5% | 820,504 | 588,508 |
| 5 | SCHRADER | 51.9% | 844,220 | 578,609 |
The population figures suggest that each district will have to shed between 115,000 to 155,000 people in order to create six CDs with equal population, likely a number around 710,000 individuals for this state.
