Sen. Jeff Merkley won reelection to Oregon's U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Republican state Sen. David Brock Smith, the Associated Press reported. The AP declared Merkley the winner at 11 p.m. Eastern time, giving the Democrat a fourth term.

The race was part of a national wave. Democrats retook control of the U.S. Senate, flipping six seats, according to the AP.

Initial statewide results showed Merkley at 57.06% with 731,076 votes and Brock Smith at 40.24% with 515,659 votes, according to the Banks Post. Chris Henry, the Progressive and Pacific Green Party nominee, drew 1.76% with 22,494 votes. Libertarian Gary Lyndon Dye received 0.87% with 11,167 votes. Those totals include results from all 36 counties.

Washington County turnout

Closer to home, Washington County's elections office reported that 188,102 of the county's more than 410,000 registered voters had returned ballots as of Nov. 3, a 45.84% turnout rate. The county will post updated unofficial results on Nov. 4 at 4 p.m., Nov. 6 at 4 p.m. and weekly on Fridays through November.

Beaverton-area voters had three ballot drop box locations: the Beaverton City Library on Hall Boulevard, the Beaverton Library-Murray Scholls at 11200 SW Murray Scholls Place and the Washington County Service Center East at 3700 SW Murray Boulevard, according to the county.

Statewide, unofficial voter turnout stood at 41.84% as of 9 p.m. on Nov. 3, with 1,300,876 ballots counted out of 3,109,081 active registered voters, according to the Oregon Secretary of State's results page.

The candidates

Merkley was first elected to the Senate in 2008 after serving in the Oregon House of Representatives, including two years as speaker, the Statesman Journal reported. He said his decision to run again came down to three concerns: economic pressures on families, corruption in the federal government and what he described as the erosion of the Constitution under President Donald Trump.

"The thing that really tipped me over to saying yes, hell yes, I'm going to run again was Trump shredding our Constitution," Merkley said, according to the Statesman Journal.

Brock Smith, a state senator from Port Orford, is a third-generation southwest Oregonian and former restaurant owner. He served in local government and the Oregon Legislature, first as a state representative and then as a state senator. He said he has disagreements with Trump but argued voters should evaluate his candidacy independently.

"I felt that this was the moment that was necessary to try to bring Oregonians another option," Brock Smith said, according to the Statesman Journal.

Oregon has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 2002. 270toWin had described Merkley as "heavily favored" heading into the election.

Counting continues

Oregon is a vote-by-mail state. Election night tallies are not final, and vote counts will be updated in the following days as more ballots are processed. Washington County's certified final results are scheduled for Nov. 30 at 4 p.m. The secretary of state is scheduled to certify statewide results Dec. 10.