Andrea Rose Salinas (born December 6, 1969) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2023. Oregon's 6th congressional district includes all of Yamhill and Polk counties, the part of Marion County that includes Salem and Woodburn, a small piece of Beaverton, and the suburban communities to the southwest of Portland, including Tigard, Tualatin, and Sherwood. A member of the Democratic Party, Salinas previously served as the Oregon State Representative for the 38th district, which includes the City of

Lake Oswego Lake Oswego ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily in Clackamas County, Oregon, Clackamas County, with small portions extending into neighboring Multnomah County, Oregon, Multnomah and Washington County, Oregon, Washington counties ...

and portions of southwestern Portland, from 2017 to 2023. She is one of the first two

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

women (alongside Lori Chavez-DeRemer) elected to the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

from Oregon.

Early life, education, and career

Salinas's father emigrated from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. She was born in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

, and grew up in Pleasant Hill. She graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. In 2004, Salinas registered as a federal lobbyist on behalf of the National Treasury Employees Union. She lobbied for two years before moving to Portland, where she later lobbied from 2015 to 2017.

Early political career

After graduating from Berkeley, Salinas was a legislative aide to U.S. Senator

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2 ...

and U.S. Representatives Pete Stark and Darlene Hooley. She then worked as the legislative director of the Oregon Environmental Council. She left the Oregon Environmental Council to start her own legislative consulting practice. Before joining the Oregon House of Representatives, she was the Oregon Vice President of Strategies 360, a political consulting firm. In September 2017, Salinas was appointed to fill the vacancy in district 38 of the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the upper house being the Oregon State Senate. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of ...

created when Ann Lininger was appointed to the Clackamas County

Circuit Court Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

. Salinas completed Lininger's term, and was reelected in 2018 and 2020. In the 81st Oregon Legislative Assembly, she served in the leadership team as the majority whip. She also was the chair of the House Committee on Health Care.

U.S. House of Representatives

2022 election

In November 2021, Salinas announced her candidacy to represent Oregon's new congressional district. This announcement came with controversy, as she did not live in the district. But living in the district is not a requirement for Congress. Salinas said that if she won the race, she would move into the district. On November 8, 2022, Salinas won the open seat with 50.0% of the vote, defeating Republican Mike Erickson. After the election, Erickson filed a lawsuit against Salinas over a television ad. The lawsuit initially sought to block her from taking office. He sued under a state law that allows a judge to set aside election results if the judge determines that a false statement by the victor swayed voters enough to change the election's outcome. During a December hearing, Erickson indicated through his attorney that he did not wish to overturn the election results, but was still seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages because of Salinas campaign ads that said he had been charged with drug possession. Salinas was represented by the Portland law firm Markowitz Herbold PC and the Elias Law Group. In the 118th Congress, Salinas was the freshman representative for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Caucus memberships

* Bipartisan Rural Health Caucus * Congressional Progressive Caucus * Congressional Hispanic Caucus * New Democrat Coalition * Congressional Coalition on Adoption Caucus

Committee assignments

* Committee on Agriculture * Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

Tenure

Salinas has cosponsored legislation to provide $300 million in federal funding for

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

services in public schools. In 2023, Salinas and Diana Harshbarger introduced a

bipartisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing Political party, politica ...

bill to provide $10 million for

telehealth Telehealth is the distribution of Health care, health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunications, telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminde ...

services in rural areas.

Personal life

Salinas is

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. She is married to Chris Ramey. They have one child.

Electoral history

References

External links

Congresswoman Andrea Salinas
official U.S. House website
Andrea Salinas for Congress
campaign website * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Salinas, Andrea 1969 births 21st-century American women politicians American politicians of Mexican descent American Roman Catholics Catholic politicians from Oregon Democratic Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Oregon Female members of the United States House of Representatives Hispanic and Latino American members of the United States Congress Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Oregon Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Living people Politicians from Lake Oswego, Oregon Politicians from Portland, Oregon Politicians from Tigard, Oregon University of California, Berkeley alumni Women state legislators in Oregon 21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives