As of midnight, Krause is leading Republican Brad Hicks by 7,551 votes, a margin of 53.8% to 42%.
This campaign has become the most expensive state senate race in Oregon, with millions of dollars spent on both sides. It has become the race that decides if Democrats retain their supermajority in the state senate. Both candidates have bitterly fought for this seat, covering Ashland and most of Medford, which is being left vacant by Democrat Jeff Golden, who chose not to run for a third term.
Krause retired to the Rogue Valley after a long career as a population health professor in Mississippi. She talked a lot about expanding and protecting access to healthcare in the state, echoing her personal fight with insurance companies while battling breast cancer.
"What I'm really excited about is not just sitting here being a victim of our hospital crumbling or the financial catastrophe happening with education," she said at an election watch party Tuesday night. "But let's start looking at the future that we want to see here in Oregon, and let's start building it. Let's be proactive."
Krause has also said she will focus on addressing the cost of living and housing crisis facing Southern Oregonians.
She faced former president of The Chamber of Medford and Jackson County and Republican Brad Hicks. He said he came out of retirement because he thought that Democratic control of the state for years has hurt Oregon’s economy.
Hicks raised over $2 million for his campaign, almost a million more than Krause. TV ads and political mailers for the two candidates flooded southern Jackson County ahead of the election.
But the increased spending from Hicks wasn’t enough to overcome the uphill battle in this district, as there are significantly more registered Democrats than Republicans. This race echoed a similar failed effort to flip the seat in 2022, when Republican Randy Sparacino lost to incumbent Golden despite a huge fundraising advantage.
"Either way, I'm proud of the race that we've run," said Hicks Tuesday night. "And and I'm happy for all these supporters here. So we're still hopeful."
Despite there being ballots left to count, it appears the chances for Hicks appear very slim. Based on the number of ballots cast for this state senate race in 2022, there could be just a few thousand ballots outstanding. Turnout would need to be significantly higher than the last election, and all of those ballots would have to go to Hicks for him to have a chance at victory.
Based on preliminary results from the other state senate races, Krause’s win would mean Democrats will hold onto their three-fifths supermajority, allowing them to pass new taxes with Republican support.
Krause said she wants to address Republican concerns that Oregon's economy is not doing as well as it could. She said a lot of it can be blamed on pressure from the federal government, but there's some legislative issues that she's like to fix.
"Sometimes we get legislation put in place, and it was maybe a good idea at the beginning, but now as we're down the road, it's not quite the right fit," Krause said. "I think we need to go back and revisit these things and make sure that they're still right-sized, they're being of maximum efficiency. So I think there's a lot of opportunity in that."
Ballots are still being counted and will be accepted up to a week after the election as long as they were postmarked by election day.
Reporters Jane Vaughan and Justin Higginbottom contributed to this story.
