Union County Candidate Joins Oregon 2nd District Forum on Bentz Challenge

Peter Larson, the Union County Republican on the May 19 ballot for Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, joined a virtual candidate forum that brought the Bentz challenge into La Grande and put Eastern Oregon concerns front and center. U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, who has held the seat since 2021, did not appear.

The April 30 forum ran from 6 to 7:30 p.m., with watch-party doors opening at 5:30 p.m. in Room 210 at Ackerman Hall on the Eastern Oregon University campus. It was organized by League of Women Voters chapters in Deschutes, Klamath, Rogue Valley, Umpqua Valley and Union County, and moderated by journalist Les Zaitz. Along with Larson, the field included fellow Republican Andrea Carr of Klamath County and six Democratic candidates who are competing to advance to November’s general election.

The discussion did not stay at the level of national talking points. Candidates talked about the labor force for Oregon producers, health care costs and wildfire risks, all issues that land differently in a county like Union than they do in urban Oregon. On immigration, the clearest policy overlap came on agriculture: candidates from both parties said the legal process for agricultural visas should be easier, even if they disagreed on the best way to do it. Other comments touched on monopolies, border policy and the balance between enforcement and more humane immigration pathways.

That focus matters in Union County, where the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population at 26,058 and says 22.2% of residents are 65 or older. The county also has a 65.5% owner-occupied housing rate, signs of an older, rooted rural community where changes in federal policy can hit home quickly. Grande Ronde Hospital says it is the only hospital in Union County, a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital with more than 800 employees and more than 80 providers serving more than 25,000 local residents and the wider eastern Oregon region.

Wildfire was just as real a backdrop. Union County’s 2026 Community Wildfire Protection Plan identifies 57 communities at risk and says the county’s wildfire risk to homes is higher than 94% of counties in the nation. That gave extra weight to any discussion of emergency planning, home hardening and federal support for rural fire response.

A recording of the forum is expected to be posted later, giving voters another chance to compare the candidates before the May 19 primary and the November 3 general election. For now, the race remains a test of whether challengers can move beyond broad rural promises and offer specific answers for Eastern Oregon.