Maria Cantwell

On October 2, a contingent of west coast Democratic senators will headline a fundraiser for Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) in his quest to join them in the Senate, according to an email invitation sent by the Merkley campaign Thursday.

Jeff Merkley may have won a 45%-41% victory in yesterday’s Democratic primary, but it’s rare for a challenger who barely ekes out a primary win to oust incumbent United States Senators in the general election.  Of the twenty challengers to unseat incumbents in U.S. Senate races since 1996, only one did so after winning a primary by a narrower margin than Merkley did.  That was in 1996, when Peter Fitzgerald won a 52%-48% victory over Loleta Didrickson in the Illinois GOP primary, and then went on to defeat incumbent Carol Mosely-Braun. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S.  read more »

November 28th, 2007 - Washington, D.C. - Northwest Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) have unveiled legislation to eliminate an outdated tax exclusively applied to footwear that disproportionately impacts lower-income families with young children.  The Affordable Footwear Act (S. 2372) will remove a regressive tax that raises the price of lower valued footwear and costs American families nearly $800 million a year.