Yetter

SALEM — U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz easily outdistanced his Republican challengers for the U.S. House in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, according to late-night reports on the Tuesday, May 17, primary election.

Bentz has more than 58,800 votes as of 7:27 a.m. May 18, earning 76.59% of the vote. Challenger Mark Cavener has 14,388 votes and Katherine Gallant is in a distant third place with 3,933 votes.

In Union County’s, Bentz received 3,241 votes out of 4,154 collected for the position. Cavener, of Klamath Falls, the founder of the Election Integrity Education Institute of Oregon, garnered 700 votes and Gallant, a political commentator and writer from Ukiah. finished with 201. The county’s results are unofficial.

Bentz was elected to represent Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in 2020.

The Malheur County native will move on to November’s general election to face Democrat Joe Yetter, who thumped Adam Prine in the primary election.

Yetter, who is from Douglas County, easily won his party’s nomination with 20,111 votes, while Prime garnered just a little over 8,000 votes.

Yetter, a retired Army doctor from Azalea, received just over 900 votes in Union County of 1,346 votes cast in the Democratic primary, while Prine, a farmhand from Medford, finished with 401.

Union County’s results are as of 1 a.m. May 18 and are unofficial.

Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District includes all or part of 20 counties across northern, eastern, central, and southern Oregon.