As the results rolled in and Democrats took control of Congress Tuesday night, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden wrote a single word on social media that summed up the party’s newfound power: “Subpoenas.”
Wyden is one of at least six longtime Pacific Northwest lawmakers who could rise to powerful positions after Democrats regained control of the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Wyden, 77, is poised to become chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, which oversees policies on taxation, trade, tariffs, health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more. In a statement Wednesday morning, he laid out his plans to crack down on what he called the unjustly rich and powerful, from corrupt bankers to insurance companies to pharmaceutical executives.
“I’m putting the special interests that have worked hand-in-hand with Trump to rip off American families for the last year and a half on notice,” said Wyden, who is in his fifth term in the upper chamber. He added that “when I am chair, they will be forced to answer to the Senate Finance Committee for their role in hurting the American people and enabling Trump’s corruption.”
Wyden isn’t alone. Democrats in Oregon and Washington — many of whom have been in Congress for decades — are in the direct line to chair positions on committees that control everything from federal spending to transportation to armed services.
It’s unclear precisely who will inherit which roles, and how the party plans to use the power voters granted in a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration. Most Democrats in this article did not return an inquiry from OPB on their plans for a new Congress.
The party may be hard-pressed to make significant legislative accomplishments, given President Trump’s veto power. Still, the shift from Tuesday’s election has many Democrats in the region well-positioned to block signature parts of the Trump administration’s agenda and launch high-profile investigations that could roil Congress.
For example, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, who was reelected to a fourth term on Tuesday, is the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget. As chair, he told OPBhe would aim to slash wasteful defense spending and reverse Republican-backed tax breaks like those in the One Big Beautiful Bill, which he and other Democrats view as disproportionately benefitting the wealthy.
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat who has served nearly three decades in Congress, is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, which has the authority to investigate the military’s operations in places like Iran, Ukraine and Latin America.
A week before the election, he told Time that he supported impeachment proceedings against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “I think we have to try, even if it doesn’t succeed,” Smith told Time.
In a statement Wednesday, Smith said the committee would “conduct vigorous oversight” and “demand public transparency and accountability” from the Trump administration. Among many things, he said the committee would investigate wasteful defense spending, the deployment of the National Guard to American cities and the “the blatant and corrosive politicization of our Armed Forces and purging of the ranks based on loyalty and ideology are high on the list.”
“The list of potential oversight topics is long, but the illegal war against Iran is top of mind for me and the American people,” Smith said. “So too are sweetheart deals and favoritism to certain entities and individuals.”
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat in her sixth term, is the vice chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, which helps control federal spending. On Tuesday, as Democrats took back Congress, she wrote on the social media platform X: “This former preschool teacher is going to teach President Trump a simple lesson: The power of the purse belongs to CONGRESS!”
“It’s NOT Trump’s money. Taxpayer dollars belong to the American PEOPLE,” Murray said.
In addition, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat in her fifth term, is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, of Washington, is the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat who is the longest current tenured member of Oregon’s House delegation, is vying for the top job on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
“I’m running to lead the Education and Labor Committee so we can save public education and meet this moment by lowering costs, rebuilding trust with working families, and holding the Trump administration accountable,” Bonamici said in a statement to X.
Democrats will now be jockeying for positions and deciding how much of their political capital to spend on local issues — from homelessness to the environment to transportation — versus pushing back against the president, said Paul Manson, a professor in the Portland State University Center for Public Service.
Having so many politicians in critical roles could influence some issues that are especially critical in the Pacific Northwest. Many are primed to gain such positions due to their long careers in elected office.
“We tend to return our incumbents here in the Northwest,” Manson said. “Seniority is sort of something we accrue a little bit more quickly than some of our other sister states.”
Such authority isn’t unprecedented in the region. Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield, a moderate Republican first elected in 1966, was the chairman of the appropriations committee. Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood, who was elected to five terms before resigning in disgrace in 1995, was the chairman of the finance committee.
But Manson noted that many of these politicians were Republicans.
“Now we’re in this new era,” Manson said. “It is some new ground in that sense just because it’s on the other side of the aisle.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
