Merkley, Jeff, 1956-

Jeffrey Alan Merkley (born October 24, 1956) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Oregon since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Merkley served as the 64th speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009. Before his election to the Senate, Merkley was a five-term member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing the 47th district in central Multnomah County at the eastern side of Portland. Merkley defeated two-term Republican incumbent Gordon Smith in 2008 and was reelected in 2014 and 2020, defeating Republican nominees Monica Wehby and Jo Rae Perkins. Merkley has been an advocate of progressivism in the Senate, and was the only U.S. senator to endorse Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. He was considered a potential candidate for president in 2020, but he chose to run for reelection to the Senate instead.