Sen Ron Wyden has rasied xx. Rep. Kurt Schrader has $1 million in the bank. Challenger Alek Skarlatos is back after raising and spending xx in a losing 2020 congressional effort.

As a small state of 4.24 million people and only one major media market – Portland – the fundraising totals of Oregon’s delegation to Washington, D.C. are dwarfed by some of the key political players on Capitol Hill.

But Oregon’s biggest campaign wallets on the federal front pale compared to the biggest contribution “rainmakrers.”

Nationwide, Senate and House candidates have raised $982 million in the first nine months of 2021, the latest public report available. The near-even partisan split is reflected in fundraising. Democrats have raised about $6 million more than Republicans.

The biggest totals are reported by incumbents. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., who won a 2020 special election and must defend the seat this year, reports raising $44 million. In second is U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who raised $30 million for his re-election bid this year.

Eleven House members – six Republicans and four Democrats, have raised over $5 million in the current two-year election cycle so far.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has $9.4 million, followed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., with $9.3 million. They would likely switch jobs if the GOP can win a majority in the House.

U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former Navy SEAL with a staunchly conservative voting record is third, with just under $8.2 million. He made waves earlier this month when he slammed members of the far-right Freedom Caucus in Congress for seeking headlines instead of a consistent voting record.

“”There’s two types of Members of Congress: There’s performance artists and legislators,” Crenshaw said. “We have grifters in our midst… in the conservative movement. Lie after lie after lie.”

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., has raised $7.6 for her bid to hold onto her district in once bedrock Republican Orange County in California.

The rest of the group are well-known names in the bitter partisan media battles.

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., is the House GOP Whip – the person in charge of keeping Republicans a solid voting block. He’s raised $7.5 million.

Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was a lead manager of the first impeachment effort against President Donald Trump. He’s raised $6.5 million.

Two lawmakers who represent the farthest political poles of their parties are next. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, became an instant star of the left wing of the Democratic Party when she won a 2018 primary challenge against a 10-term Democratic moderate. She has $6.4 million.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Georgia, is a vocal firebrand of the right wing of the Republican Party. She’s raised $6.3 million

Nina Turner is a symbol of the kind of cash that can flow into a close primary. The victory of Ocasio-Cortez was a wake-up call for moderate Democratic lawmakers who suddenly felt vulnerable.

Turner was the progressive candidate who narrowly lost a special election for a House seat in Ohio. Like Creshaw’s critique of congressional Republicans, Turner blasted congressional Democrats for failing to pursue an aggressive progressive agenda.

“You know what’s going to happen? Democrats are going to get crushed come 2022,” Turner told Ohio’s Spectrum News 1. “You asked us in 2020 to give you the power, we gave it to you, and all we are getting is trinkets right now, and barely that.”

Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is a leader of the most conservative and pro-Trump elements in the House. He’s seen as a possible challenger to McCarthy for the speakership if Republicans take the House.

Pelosi refused to assign Jordan to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by pro-Trump protestors. The committee is now looking at communications between Jordan and the White House during the incident. He’s raised $5.25 million

Five Democrats and five Republicans make up the top ten fundraising spots among House candidates.

The only other candidate to top $5 million so far doesn’t fit neatly into a political pidgeonhole: Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming.

The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney rose to House Republican Caucus Leader last year and has the kind of bankroll party leaders often accumulate in elections – $5.1 million.

But Cheney’s money isn’t so much for the general election as the suddenly contentious GOP primary.

Cheney was elected with 67% of the vote in Novemeber 2020, the same night that Trump won the state with 70% of the vote.

As Trump and his most ardent supporters continued a drumbeat of false claims that he had won the election, Cheney balked at the effort. When Trump backed a “Stop the Steal” campaign of lawsuits and demonstrations to block Biden from taking office, Cheney called the effort undemocratic and issued a a 21-page compilation of court rulings against Trump, along with citations that Congress and the vice-president could not, as Trump claimed, oveturn state certified electoral votes.

Immediately after the Jan. 6 riot, Cheney voted to impeach Trump. The equivalent of an indictment was sent to the Senate, where it fell short of the xx votes required to remove a president from office.

After initially winning a vote of confidence from the caucus to retain her party position, she was forced out as Republicans rallied around Trump’s allegations and downplayed the riot’s ties to the White House.

Cheney bucked the GOP House leadership by accepting a position on the committee investigating the riot, where she has been an aggressive questioner of the role of Trump, right-wing groups and even the words and possible actions of fellow House members.

Trump in turn encouraged a primary challenge of Cheney and has endorsed Harriet Hageman, whose prior election experience was a third-place finish in the 2018 Republican primary for governor.

Cheney hasn’t softened her view on Trump, responding “Bring it” when Trump called for a GOP primary challenge. During a speech to a business group in San Francisco in August, she called Trump “an ongoing, clear and present danger to this democracy.”

New district maps scramble political landscape

The Democratic majority of the Legislature drew and won approval of a congressional map that splintered chunks of the big Portland bloc of Democratic votes into pieces of four districts.

The densely populated urban areas offset Republican swaths in the suburbs and rural west of the Cascades – a tactic called “cracking” in redistricting politics.

Even more Republican-tilting areas were added to the lone U.S. House seat held by Republicans – a move called “packing” in political parlance. The 2nd Congressional District that includes most of eastern, central and southwestern Oregon.

The district was held for 20 years by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, who became chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Commerce when the GOP controlled the House prior to the 2018 election.

In 2018, Walden raised $5.3 million to head off the insurgent candidacy of Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner of Crooked River Ranch, who pulled in $1.3 million. Walden had the closest race of his career – but still won 56% to 39%.

With Democrats regaining control of the U.S. House, Walden lost his chairmanship. He announced he would not run in the 2020 election.

Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, looked to leave the Legislature for Congress. He won 31% of the vote in the May 2020 Republican primary – coming out on top of a field of 11 candidates.

In November, Bentz won with slightly less than 59.9% of the vote against 36.9% against Democrat Alex Spenser and 3.1% for Libertarian Robert Werch.

Oregon is a relatively small state of 4.24 million people in a nation of 333 milliion people. Not surprisingly, the dollars raised by incumbents from the state are small compared to elsewhere.

Ten House members – six Republicans and four Democrats, have raised over $5 million in the current two-year election cycle so far.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has $9.4 million, followed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., with $9.3 million. They would likely switch jobs if the GOP can win a majority in the House in November.