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Some Oregon congressional races this fall could prove nail-bitingly close. The contest to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer is not one of them.

Former state Rep. Maxine Dexter virtually punched her ticket to become the state’s newest congresswoman by winning the Democratic primary in May. In Oregon’s ultra-blue 3rd Congressional District, she faces no serious competition in the general election.

That makes Dexter’s situation far different than many other Oregon Democrats on the hunt for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives this year. While U.S. Reps. Andrea Salinas and Val Hoyle are sweating out contested reelection bids, and state Rep. Janelle Bynum is in a high-stakes battle to unseat a GOP incumbent in the razor-thin 5th Congressional District, Dexter’s schedule has been relatively relaxed.

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She is still raising money, but not for herself. There are other Democrats around the country who can put the cash to better use.

She is still knocking on doors, but not in her district, which stretches east and south from inner Portland, scooping up Mount Hood and much of the Columbia River Gorge. Dexter has instead been helping Bynum, Salinas and some statehouse Democrats.

“When you’re knocking on doors trying to convince people in a solid-blue district to vote blue, that’s not a great use of time when we have swing members,” Dexter said recently.

And she is meeting regularly with Blumenauer, the bowtie-clad, bicycle-crazy politician who is retiring after 28 years as the quintessential Portland congressman. When Dexter, 51, sat down with OPB on a recent October morning, she had just come from breakfast with Blumenauer.

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“It is amazing,” she said of the assistance. “We literally are riffing trying to figure out how I can be doing the things I want to do and elevating some of the work that he’s been doing, but doing it in my own way.”

Dexter’s days, in other words, are spent trying to assure that she is the most effective congresswoman she can be after being sworn in on Jan. 3. If she can help Democrats retake the House, and prove a capable and active freshman lawmaker, Dexter believes her chances of accomplishing her larger goals are far higher.

“Anybody who’s entering Congress would be well advised to look at how Maxine is handling her transition,” Blumenauer said in an interview. “I think it’s going to serve the people of our district very, very well in this next Congress and for years to come.”

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A two-term state lawmaker and critical care physician, Dexter ends her final hospital shift on Dec. 31. She is most focused on influencing national health care policy. She hopes to pave the way for Oregon and other states to try innovative funding models that center patient health over profit motives. She also wants to protect access to abortion, tackle constituent concerns and take steps to stop climate change.

And she acknowledges that, in a climate of intractable partisanship and tight congressional margins, little is guaranteed.

“I want to get things done,” she said. “Is Congress the place to do that? We’ll see. I’m not going there to waste my time.”

A decisive primary

Democrats dominate the 3rd Congressional District like no other in the state. Anchored by their stronghold in Portland’s liberal east side, registered members of the party outnumber Republicans by more than 150,000 voters — nearly a third of the district.

So when Blumenauer announced his intention to retire last year, the real contest to be his successor was the Democratic primary.

By the time Dexter entered that race last December, she had significant competition. Former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal had staked out a place as an early frontrunner, and Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales boasted a broad network of connections in Oregon and Washington, D.C.

But Dexter brought bona fides as a progressive, policy-focused lawmaker. In the state House, she talked often about the devastating opioid overdoses she saw too often as a doctor, convincing colleagues to pass a bill expanding access to the life-saving drug naloxone. She also helped craft a bill that aims to address the state’s housing shortage by requiring cities to meet goals for adding new units, a bill that she says is her proudest achievement in Salem.

Those accomplishments were not the only factors helping Dexter to victory. Spending connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee flooded into the race, both in the form of donations to Dexter and millions spent attacking Jayapal.

Related: Maxine Dexter reports a massive fundraising haul that appears tied to pro-Israel group

It was just one example this year of the group targeting progressive candidates it believed were not supportive of Israel — in this case Jayapal — and it was enough to ensure Dexter prevailed. She wound up winning the seven-candidate race handily, beating runner-up Jayapal by nearly 15 percentage points.

“I was a means to an end for them taking out somebody that they didn’t want,” Dexter said. “I never asked for AIPAC support. The reason they supported me is because I had a path to win.”

At the time, Dexter didn’t live in the district. She and her family lived in Northwest Portland, not far from Forest Park.

Members of the U.S. House are not required to reside in their district, but Dexter has now moved to North Portland, near the bustling business districts of North Williams and North Mississippi Avenue.

While she is overwhelmingly likely to prevail, Dexter isn’t the only person running to replace Blumenauer. The general election contest features four other candidates, including Estacada attorney Joanna Harbour, a Republican who has run for the seat twice before.

Harbour won around a quarter of the vote in her two races against Blumenauer. Neither she nor three minor-party candidates running this year responded to a questionnaire OPB sent.

‘Have my back’

Being in a safe Democratic seat means Dexter could have a long congressional career ahead of her. After all, Blumenauer held the seat for nearly three decades. Before him, now-U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden spent eight terms representing the 3rd Congressional District.

It also means that Dexter isn’t being hammered this election with the attacks that many other Democrats face over concerns about high prices on consumer goods and public drug use in Oregon.

Dexter told OPB that falling inflation shows that President Joe Biden has successfully stabilized the economy. But she acknowledged that her party has sometimes failed to competently steer policies like Measure 110, Oregon’s now-defunct drug decriminalization law.

“We do have governance challenges in Oregon — and I’m sure other states — where we fail to implement well-intended policies,” said Dexter, who supported Measure 110 in 2020 when voters overwhelmingly approved it. “What I have felt and experienced in government is that it’s like a fear of admitting that you were wrong, and that is a failure. We have to be willing to just say, ‘Yeah, I tried this. It was a well-informed policy, here’s why, but we got it wrong and we’ve got to do better.’”

Dexter is also keenly aware that representing an extremely blue district comes with pitfalls. She knows she will face pressure to take overtly progressive stances at times when bipartisan negotiation might be more effective.

“I will be able to take courageous positions that a swing member, a purple-district member can’t,” she said. “So what’s more courageous? Is it taking a far-left position that’s never going to pass ... or is being courageous being bipartisan, and expecting that a district that’s very blue understands that to be effective, you have to be bipartisan?”

Dexter didn’t offer a single answer to that question. On issues like abortion rights and access to transgender care, she said, she will be unwavering in her support. On other matters, she looks forward to compromise.

“I’m dedicated to building good, durable policy, and that means that I’m listening to my Republican colleagues and my very far-left progressive constituents,” she said. “What I ask people is to have my back when I’m being criticized for working with Republicans. You can’t say you want Congress to work and then criticize somebody for working with others.”