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 8 p.m. Pacific time. The victory gives the Democrat a fourth term representing Oregon in the Senate.

Merkley's win came on a night when the AP reported Democrats retook control of the U.S. Senate, with six seats flipping from Republican to Democrat nationwide. If Democrats hold the chamber, Merkley would be well-positioned to chair the Senate Budget Committee, OPB reported.

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 included results from all 36 counties.

A former Salem lawmaker

Merkley served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, including two years as House speaker, before his first Senate election in 2008, according to the Statesman Journal. He had considered retiring after nearly 30 years in public office.

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.

The challengers

Brock Smith, a state senator from Port Orford, is a third-generation southwest Oregonian and former restaurant owner. He said he had disagreements with Trump but argued voters should evaluate his candidacy independently of their feelings about the president.

"Oregon is in trouble," Brock Smith said. "I felt that this was the moment that was necessary to try to bring Oregonians another option."

Henry, a truck driver and former aircraft mechanic, has run in Oregon elections for nearly two decades, in part to maintain ballot access for minor parties in the state.

Salem-area races on the ballot

The U.S. Senate race shared the ballot with several closely watched Salem-area contests. In state Senate District 11, which covers parts of Salem, Keizer, Woodburn and Gervais, Democrat Virginia Stapleton faced Republican Tracy Cramer to replace outgoing Sen. Kim Thatcher, according to OPB's pre-election coverage. That race drew more than $2.3 million in combined contributions, the Statesman Journal reported.

In House District 21, Democrat Michael Welsh challenged Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, in a contest that attracted more than $1 million combined. And in House District 22 near Woodburn, Republican Noemi Legaspi challenged incumbent Rep. Lesly Muñoz, D-Woodburn.

Counting continues

Oregon is a vote-by-mail state. The Oregon Secretary of State's results page showed unofficial statewide voter turnout of 41.84% as of 9 p.m. on Nov. 3, with 1,300,876 ballots counted out of 3,109,081 active registered voters.

Dozens of drivers dropped off their ballots at the drive-through drop box next to the Marion County Courthouse on Court Street in Salem the morning of Nov. 3, the Statesman Journal reported.

Election night tallies are not final. Vote counts will continue to be updated as more ballots are processed. The secretary of state is scheduled to certify statewide results Dec. 10, according to the Statesman Journal.