Oregon New Members 2023

Rep.-elect Val Hoyle (D-Ore.-4)

DATE OF BIRTH: Feb. 14, 1964
RESIDENCE: Springfield, Ore.
OCCUPATION: Oregon commissioner of labor and industries
EDUCATION: B.A., Emmanuel College
FAMILY: husband, Stephen Hoyle; two children

• Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Commissioner Val Hoyle is heading to Capitol Hill to represent the state’s 4th Congressional District and fill the seat of outgoing Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio.

DeFazio, who is stepping down after more than three decades in Congress, endorsed Hoyle in the race. She defeated Republican Alek Skarlatos and three other smaller-party candidates.

Hoyle was elected to her nonpartisan commissioner position in 2018 after serving as a state representative for nearly a decade, with three years as House majority leader. She left the Oregon House of Representatives to make a bid for secretary of state in 2016 but lost in the Democratic primary.

Running to represent a district that includes the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, Hoyle prioritized campaign topics such as reproductive health, climate and the environment.

— Julia Mueller 

Rep.-elect Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.-5)

DATE OF BIRTH: April 7, 1968
RESIDENCE: Happy Valley, Ore.
OCCUPATION: small-business owner
EDUCATION: B.S., California State University, Fresno
FAMILY: husband, Shawn DeRemer; two children

• Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer is heading to the House after beating Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the race to represent Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. 

Chavez-DeRemer’s public service career has been rooted in Happy Valley, Ore., a city southeast of Portland. 

She’s worked on the Happy Valley Parks Committee and served on the city council, becoming the council president. She was the town’s mayor from 2010 until 2018. 

The Republican has positioned herself as a counter to what she calls “the radical left” in Oregon and in the nation more broadly, including Democratic stances on the economy, gun ownership and immigration.

Chavez-DeRemer is a descendant of immigrants from Mexico and was Happy Valley’s first elected Latina mayor.

She and her husband, Shawn DeRemer, founded Anesthesia Associates Northwest, an anesthesia management company, and together they run a number of medical clinics in the region.

— Julia Mueller

Rep.-elect Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.-6)

DATE OF BIRTH: December 1969
RESIDENCE: Oswego, Ore.
OCCUPATION: legislator; advocate
EDUCATION: B.A., University of California Berkeley
FAMILY: husband, Chris Ramey; one child

• Democrat Andrea Salinas will arrive in Congress after fighting grueling a primary and general election for Oregon’s newest House seat representing the 6th Congressional District.

Salinas, who served five years in the state House before being elected to Congress, was recruited by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s campaign arm to run for the seat, which represents a population that is roughly 20 percent Hispanic.

In the primary, Salinas beat a political newcomer with more than $13 million in outside support, much of it from a cryptocurrency-linked super PAC.

In the general election, Salinas beat Republican businessman Mike Erickson, who outspent Salinas largely by self-financing his campaign.

Salinas and Republican Rep.-elect Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who was elected in a neighboring district, will become the first Hispanics to represent the state in Congress.

Salinas is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant farm worker who earned his U.S. citizenship after serving in Vietnam.

— Rafael Bernal