The outcome of the race was up in the air Tuesday night when the polls closed, and the margin remained razor-thin as ballots were counted: Merkley led in the counting Tuesday night, and Smith took the lead early Wednesday morning. When the last votes came in, Merkley emerged victorious, pushed ahead by voters from the heavily Democratic counties home to the cities of Portland and Eugene.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Merkley won by a margin of 43,000 votes out of 1.6 million cast.
Smith called Merkley at 8:40 a.m. PST Thursday to concede the race. About an hour later, Merkley spoke to supporters and members of the media at Portland State University.
“This is the beginning of a transformational change for America,” he told the crowd, pledging to work with the incoming Obama administration “to put this country back on track.”
“There’s a lot of work for us to do together,” he said. “It’s time for a very different approach.”
Merkley spoke of an effort that would not be limited to the majority party.
This is a time for a “problem-solving, bipartisan approach” to the country’s pressing concerns, he said.
First elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1998, Merkley became its speaker in 2006 when Democrats gained a majority in the chamber. He will join Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) as the state’s junior senator when the 111th Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2009.
The shift gives Oregon a two-Democrat Senate team for the first time in 40 years. Smith was also the lone Senate Republican on the West Coast and is Oregon’s first incumbent senator to lose in more than four decades.
From Old Nassau to Oregon
Merkley graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford in 1979 before coming to the Wilson School, where he earned an MPP in 1982.
Between his degrees, Merkley interned at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he met Eric Schwartz GS ’85, now a visiting lecturer in the Wilson School.
“His friends out East did everything we could to support his candidacy, to introduce him to the Washington community, to make sure that a broad network of friends from the Wilson School were supportive of his campaign,” said Schwartz, who flew out to Oregon on Tuesday morning to watch the returns with Merkley.
Schwartz said his classmate and close friend had been confident about the results since polls closed on election night.
“I think his spirits, from election day through today, have been very high,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I think he’s very excited about the prospect of representing Oregon. I think he’s very happy that the very grueling campaign is over. And he’s extremely excited for the opportunity he now has in front of him.”
After graduating from Princeton, Merkley was selected a Presidential Management Fellow and worked in the Pentagon for the secretary of defense under the Reagan administration. He then worked at the Congressional Budget Office for a time before returning to Oregon in 1991, when he became executive director of Portland Habitat for Humanity.
Merkley will become the second alumnus in the next U.S. Senate, joining Sen. Kit Bond ’60 (R-Mo.), who was first elected in 1986. Merkley is not the only new Princetonian headed to Capitol Hill next January. Jared Polis ’96 (D-Colo.) was victorious Tuesday night in his quest for the Colorado’s second congressional district. Polis is the first openly gay man to be elected to Congress. Likewise, Leonard Lance GS '82 (R-N.J.) won the race for New Jersey's seventh district.
The three men will join Rep. Jim Marshall ’72 (D-Ga.) and Rep. John Sarbanes ’84 (D-Md.), who were elected to their fourth and second terms, respectively.
A Democratic tidal wave
Merkley is one of several Democrats to take over a Republican seat, following Democratic victories in Virginia, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Colorado and North Carolina. The victories, including Merkley’s, currently give the Democrats 55 seats in the upper chamber. Two independent senators also caucus with the majority.
Three more races involving Republican incumbents have yet to be decided.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is leading Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D-Alaska) by slightly more than 3,000 votes out of 210,000 cast.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) leads comedian Al Franken (D-Minn.) by just 721 votes out of more than 2.4 million votes.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) appears headed for a Dec. 2 runoff with former State Rep. Jim Martin (D-Ga.) after both candidates failed to get a state-mandated majority with Libertarian Allen Buckley on the ballot.
Correction: The original version of this article failed to mention that Leonoard Lance GS '82 was among the Princeton alumni elected on Tuesday.
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