Two Democratic challengers hold slim leads in both Marion County Commissioner races after unofficial results were released Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Maria Hinojos Pressey leads Republican incumbent Colm Willis with 50.57% of the vote in the Position 2 race, Salem Reporter reported. Sara Duncan leads incumbent Kevin Cameron with 50.42% in the Position 1 race.

A Democrat has not won a Marion County commissioner election since 1976. If either lead holds, it would mark the first Democrat elected to the board in 50 years.

The results remain unofficial. According to KGW, vote totals are expected to change as the county processes and reports more returns in the days after the election.

Both races feature younger Democratic women challenging Republican incumbents on the three-member board.

Willis, 40, has held the Position 2 seat since winning election in 2018 and was reelected in 2022, according to the Statesman Journal. He led the Board of Commissioners as chair during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Santiam Canyon wildfires, according to his county biography. Willis lives in Stayton with his wife and seven children.

Hinojos Pressey, 31, moved to Salem in 2020 and serves as deputy director of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, which advocates for Oregon farmworkers and working Latinx families, the Statesman Journal reported. She also serves as president of the Salem Area Mass Transit District board and was elected to the Salem-Keizer Public Schools board in 2021, according to the Statesman Journal.

Cameron, 70, has been a Marion County commissioner since he was appointed in 2014, according to the Statesman Journal. He won elections for the seat in 2014, 2018 and 2022. Before joining the board, he served as a state representative from 2005 to 2014.

Duncan, 32, grew up in Salem and works as development manager for Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste. She was appointed to the Salem Area Mass Transit District board in 2021 and reappointed in 2025, the Statesman Journal reported. The commissioner race is her first run for public office.

Both challengers secured cross-nominations from the Working Families and Independent parties. Marion County commissioners serve four-year terms and earn $145,000 per year. Danielle Bethell holds the third commissioner seat, and her term runs through 2028.

Updated results are typically released several times a day until the count is complete, according to KGW.