By SHAANTH NANGUNERI/Oregon Capital Chronicle

SALEM — A state senator from the southern Oregon coast announced Tuesday that he would seek the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

The campaign of Sen. David Brock Smith, a Republican from Port Orford, pointed to his long roots in southwest Oregon, describing him as a third-generation resident and former restaurant owner who led his family’s business for 45 years.

But he faces an uphill battle if he ends up representing the GOP in November. Sen. Jeff Merkley, who is running for another term, has held the seat since winning election in 2008. Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since the 1990s, and only two members of the GOP have won statewide races since 2000. The upcoming midterm elections are expected to prove beneficial for Democrats nationwide hoping to capitalize on discontent with the White House and Congress, currently controlled by Republicans.

Smith’s announcement cited his experience before working in Salem as a former leader of Port Orford’s Chamber of Commerce and in local governments at the city and county levels, saying he has worked to balance budgets and support residents and businesses.

“Oregonians are tired of partisan bickering, political grandstanding and headlines that produce nothing but noise,” Brock Smith said in a statement. “I’ve never operated that way. As your next United States senator, I won’t start now. My focus will be squarely on the people of Oregon. I’ll fight to make everyday life more affordable for working families, restore safety to our streets, address addiction and homelessness with accountability, and ensure every Oregonian’s voice is heard and respected in Washington.”

The former state representative served in the Oregon House for about six years and reached the Oregon Senate when county commissioners appointed him in 2023 to fill the coastal Senate seat of Republican Dallas Heard, who had resigned. Brock Smith appears to be the only elected official running for the GOP nomination, and he has developed a reputation in Salem for working across the aisle. He’s a member of the bipartisan Oregon Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, which advocates for protecting hunting, recreational shooting, trapping and fishing, and of the bipartisan Coastal Caucus.

There is little drawback for Brock Smith to run for the position. Since his state senate term ends in 2029, he wouldn’t have to forfeit his position in the Legislature in order to try his hand at the U.S. Senate election. He did not immediately respond to a text message requesting an interview on Tuesday and walked into an elevator in the Capitol when asked about the top issues he was prioritizing as a candidate.

Oregon’s 1st Senate District, which Brock Smith currently represents, encompasses Curry County as well as portions of Coos, Jackson and Douglas counties, and it heavily leans in favor of the GOP. Smith has sometimes taken positions to the right of his Republican colleagues in Salem.

For instance, he has claimed that human actions don’t contribute to climate change, despite widespread scientific consensus that human activity is the phenomenon’s principal driver. Brock Smith also signed onto a letter urging then-Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to join the state of Texas in its 2020 lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of that year’s presidential election in four battleground states, though the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the suit the same day the letter was issued.

After now-House Speaker Rep. Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, accused the Oregon Republican lawmakers who signed onto the letter of complicity in the violence surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection, Brock Smith clarified that he had “already accepted President-elect Biden.” He told Willamette Week that he supports “any individual’s right to peacefully protest” and condemns “unlawful riots and acts violence whenever and wherever they occur.”

Thousands of Oregonians also excoriated his 2025 bill that would have asked voters to decide whether to repeal the state’s decades-old mail voting law. Though the bill failed to pass, conservative activists are circulating a similar petition to end vote-by-mail in the state and establish an in-person voting day.

But Brock Smith has also had to battle misinformation from his opponents on the right. He urged one of his fellow Republican primary opponents in 2024 to stop spreading false claims suggesting that he is tied to the Chinese Communist Party, threatening to sue under state law. His opponents in that race also seized upon his backing of a law that set in motion a state-backed study of the benefits and disadvantages of offshore wind production, claiming it was evidence he supports offshore wind turbines.

It’s a theme that could continue into the upcoming GOP primary. Brock Smith’s most prominent opponent for the Republican nomination is the perennial candidate Jo Rae Perkins, who has publicly spread conspiracy theories from QAnon, a loose-knit right-wing political movement claiming that President Donald Trump is fighting an elite group of pedophiles. Perkins was the Republican nominee for Oregon’s U.S. Senate elections in 2020 and 2022.