Astoria, Oregon waterfront and town view
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Cyrus Javadi holds House District 32 after switching parties

ByMegan Harlow

Astoria and the Columbia River. Photo: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Rep. Cyrus Javadi held Oregon House District 32 through Clatsop and Tillamook counties in unofficial returns, leading Republican Max Sherman by about four points in Wednesday’s Clatsop County update — a win that lands a year after Javadi left the GOP for the Democratic Party.

District-wide tallies reported by county clerks and local outlets put Javadi ahead by roughly the same margin. Sherman, a retired teacher from Hebo, kept the race competitive in Tillamook County precincts even as Clatsop leaned toward the incumbent.

Javadi won the seat as a Republican in 2022. He switched his registration to Democrat in September 2025, arguing the national party no longer matched the coastal district he represents. The party change made HD 32 one of the North Coast’s clearest tests of whether ticket-splitters would follow a known name across the aisle.

A split night on the coast

The neighboring open Senate District 16 seat moved the other way. Republican Courtney Bangs led Democrat Rachel Armitage by about five points in early counts, with Independent Melisa Finkle also on the ballot. Together, the two results leave the North Coast with a Democratic House member and a Republican senator — a familiar mix for a region that often splits tickets.

In the 1st Congressional District that covers the coast, Democrat Suzanne Bonamici led Barbara Kahl comfortably on election night. Gov. Tina Kotek won a second term statewide, the Associated Press reported. Local measures, including the Clatsop Care nursing bond, drew as much attention as the legislative lines.

What Javadi inherits

The next session will open with unfinished coastal fights over housing supply, nursing-home capacity after the Care Center bond, tsunami readiness and the cost of living for workers who keep summer towns running in January. Javadi’s party switch means he will caucus with the House majority rather than the minority he joined as a freshman Republican.

Certification runs through late November. Until then, the lead is unofficial. For voters who backed Javadi under two different party labels across two cycles, the test is whether the coastal priorities he campaigned on — working ports, health access, and keeping young families from leaving — show up in committee work when Salem reconvenes.

Sherman’s campaign leaned on the party switch itself, asking voters whether they still recognized the representative they elected in 2022. Javadi leaned on casework and local appropriations. Early returns suggest enough Clatsop voters preferred continuity over the party label. Tillamook’s stronger showing for Sherman is a reminder that the district is not one media market. Holding HD 32 from Salem will mean traveling both counties as often as the freshman Republican once did.

House District 32 covers fishing ports, dairy land, tourism strips and timber edges. No single message travels cleanly from Astoria to Hebo. Javadi’s survival after a party switch suggests personal brand and casework still outweigh national party brands on this stretch of coast — at least in a midterm when Democrats were otherwise gaining ground statewide.

Bangs’ lead in SD 16 will face the same certification calendar. If both results hold, coastal legislators will arrive in Salem used to splitting credit and blame for the same highways, beaches and hospital districts. Joint town halls may be harder; joint asks for coastal earmarks may be smarter.

Lobbyists who work coastal bills already know both caucuses. What changes is the whip count when a housing or land-use vote splits Democrats. Javadi’s coastal exceptions requests will now be inside-family arguments rather than cross-aisle favors. That can be faster — or more bruising — depending on the speaker’s patience for district carve-outs.

Unofficial is not final, and both campaigns know it. Victory parties still wait on the last batches of envelopes. What does not wait is constituent mail: HD 32’s inbox will fill with bond follow-ups, housing complaints and road asks whether the margin is four points or fourteen.

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