Pendleton forum lets District 2 Democrats court Eastern Oregon voters

Eastern Oregon voters will get one of their clearest chances to compare the Democratic field for Congress when the Umatilla County Democratic Party hosts a free forum Monday evening at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton. The event runs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Science and Technology Building lecture hall, and it comes just days before the April 28 deadline to register to vote or change party affiliation for Oregon’s May 19 primary.

Four candidates are expected in person: Chris Beck, Peter Quince, Dawn Rasmussen and Patty Snow. Mary Doyle and Rebecca Mueller are scheduled to join via Zoom. For Union County voters, the forum matters because Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District includes La Grande and the rest of Union County, along with most of eastern Oregon.

That district is huge by any measure. It stretches across Baker, Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco and Wheeler counties, plus portions of Jackson and Josephine counties. The current district lines were adopted in September 2021 and first used in the 2022 elections, making this the third congressional cycle under the map voters are using now.

The forum also underscores how much is still unsettled in the district, where Republican incumbent Cliff Bentz is again on the ballot. Bentz, a former Oregon state senator born in Salem in 1952, won reelection in 2024 by nearly two-thirds of the vote against two opponents. He now faces Republican challengers Andrea Carr and Peter J. Larson, while the Democratic side features Beck, Doyle, Mueller, Quince, Rasmussen and Snow.

Ballots for the 2026 Oregon primary are scheduled to begin mailing April 29, which gives voters only a short window after the Pendleton forum to settle on a party affiliation and study the field. For Union County residents, the practical value of the event is simple: it puts the Democratic contenders for a seat that represents much of eastern Oregon in the same room, or the same screen, before voting starts.

With the primary less than a month away, Pendleton’s forum will offer a district-wide snapshot of the race at a moment when voters still have time to act. For Union County, the choice will help determine who carries local priorities from La Grande, Elgin, Island City and the rest of the county into Washington next year.