Jeff Merkley — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Serves as the junior United States Senator from Oregon, first elected in 2008.
Served as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009.
Launched Oregon's first Individual Development Account (IDA) program.
Earned a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University in 1982.
Received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Stanford University in 1979.

Biography

Jeffrey Alan Merkley is the junior United States Senator from Oregon, a position he has held since his initial election in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he was reelected in 2014 and 2020. During his tenure in the Senate, Merkley has been an advocate of progressivism and was the sole U.S. senator to endorse Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries.

Prior to his election to the U.S.