PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In their battle for Congress, national Republicans and Democrats have kept a keen eye on the Pacific Northwest, home to two of the most competitive U.S. House elections in the country.

The GOP-held 5th Congressional District in Oregon and the Democratic-held 3rd Congressional District in Washington state are considered a tie, meaning both parties have a good chance of winning.

Both districts are purple — meaning a mix of Republican red and Democratic blue — and feature new incumbents who narrowly flipped their seats in the 2022 midterm elections. And since voter turnout is typically higher in presidential elections than in midterms, political experts say they will be watching to see which candidates can mobilize more voters — particularly moderates and independents.

“These races could determine who controls the House of Representatives in the next Congress,” said Chandler James, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Oregon. “The Pacific Northwest is kind of the center of a lot of activity.”

Washington’s 3rd Congressional District

An intense rematch is unfolding in southwest Washington, where first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is defending her seat against Donald Trump-backed Republican Joe Kent. Both candidates are trying to portray the other as the extreme choice.

The Republican-leaning district with extensive farmland and the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, narrowly went for Trump in 2020, making it a crucial target for Republicans this year.

Gluesenkamp Perez has tried to present himself as an independent-minded moderate. Her actions during her term ranged from co-sponsoring a bill protecting medical abortion to voting for a resolution rebuking Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in the EU Dealing with the US-Mexico border. The Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy also ranked her as one of the most bipartisan voters in the U.S. House of Representatives.

She outperformed Kent, bringing in $6.7 million, compared with $1.4 million, according to the most recent quarterly federal campaign finance records.

Kent, a former Green Beret who promoted Trump Lie that the 2020 election was stolenHe has blamed his opponent for what he sees as bad policies from the Biden administration, including its border policies. He cited inflation and illegal immigration as key concerns, while appearing to tone down some of his more extreme positions. In the past, he has called abortion an “evil stain on our humanity” on social media, but in a debate on Monday he said he does not support a federal ban.

“He says exactly what the pollsters tell him, but we know what he believes,” Gluesenkamp Perez replied.

Both have focused on the economic problems facing parts of the region, particularly rural areas, according to Mark Stephan, an associate professor of political science at Washington State University Vancouver.

“They are both trying to claim that they care more about small communities, rural areas and the economic vitality of Southwest Washington than the other,” he said.

Gluesenkamp Perez came close out of nowhere I won the seat two years ago against Kent in a district that hasn’t been in Democratic hands in over a decade. She replaced Jaime Herrera Beutler, a more moderate Republican who lost the 2022 primary in part because she subsequently voted to impeach Donald Trump January 6th Uprising.

There is no registration by party in the state, but presidential primaries require Washington residents to declare a party. In the primary election this March, Republican voters in the district outnumbered Democrats by nearly 30,000. However, a State Department spokesman warned that this gave no indication of who would win.

Oregon’s 5th congressional district

Oregon’s 5th District boundaries were significantly redrawn following the 2020 census. It includes diverse regions spanning part of Portland and its affluent working-class suburbs, as well as rural agricultural and mountain communities and the rapidly growing city of Bend in central Oregon across the Cascade Range.

In the 2022 midterm elections, the first elections held in the 5th after redistricting, Republican U.S. Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer a seat turned around which had been held by the Democrats for about 25 years. But this November she faces a different opponent — Janelle Bynum, a state representative who previously beat her in the district’s general election and enjoys the support and funding of national Democrats.

Bynum was elected to the Oregon House in 2016, representing the suburbs southeast of Portland. She says she would try to codify abortion protections now overturned Roe v. calf adopted into federal law in the event of an election.

Before her election to Congress, Chavez-DeRemer was the former mayor of the Portland suburb of Happy Valley and a small business owner. She has supported Trump and highlighted her support from law enforcement. She says she does not support a national abortion ban, although she previously expressed support for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and whose federal abortion protections were repealed.

If Bynum wins in November, she would be Oregon’s first Black congresswoman. Chavez-DeRemer became the first Latino member of Congress to represent Oregon, joining Democratic U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas in the state’s 6th Congressional District when both were elected in the 2022 midterm elections.

Democrats have a slight advantage in voter registration in the 5th District, but about a third of voters are unvoted and the two candidates have tried to appeal to the district’s purple color. Bynum describes herself on her campaign website as a “pragmatic, common-sense leader,” while Chavez-DeRemer has highlighted her work on bipartisan bills. They both tried to portray their opponent as extreme or radical.

In terms of campaign fundraising, Chavez-DeRemer has overtaken Bynum, taking in about $4 million, compared to $2.4 million for her opponent, according to the most recent quarterly federal campaign finance records.

The individual fundraising divisions of both parties in the U.S. House of Representatives have each set aside more than $6 million for advertising in the Portland media market, which includes parts of Oregon’s 5th District and Washington’s 3rd District.

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Golden reported from Seattle.