Jeff Merkley

Jeff Merkley (born October 24, 1956, Myrtle Creek, Oregon, U.S.) is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and began representing Oregon the following year.

Merkley grew up in Portland, Oregon, and during high school he spent a summer studying abroad in Ghana. The first in his family to attend college, he studied international relations (B.A., 1979) at Stanford University, and during that time he interned with U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield. After an internship with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Merkley earned a master’s degree in public administration from Princeton University in 1982. He then served as a postgraduate fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, D.C. After working as an analyst in the Congressional Budget Office, he returned (1991) to Portland, where he directed the state office of Habitat for Humanity. During that time he married Mary Sorteberg, and the couple later had two children.

In 1998 Merkley successfully ran for the Oregon House of Representatives, and he took office the following year. In 2003 he was elected leader of the Democratic minority, and, when the Democrats gained the majority in the 2006 election, Merkley became speaker of the House (2007–08). He was active in promoting civil equality for gay men and women and in advancing the cause of organized labour, which earned him strong union backing. In 2008 Merkley ran for the U.S. Senate, receiving the nomination of the Democratic and Independent parties. In a closely contested race, he unseated the incumbent, and he entered the Senate in 2009.

Merkley was considered a progressive Democrat who voted reliably with his party. He was a strong proponent of several initiatives of the Democratic leadership and Pres. Barack Obama’s administration, notably the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010). He also introduced legislation that promoted energy independence and that banned workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In addition, Merkley notably supported campaign finance reform and filibuster reform.