Why Oregon is a swing state

[All Along The Watchtower]

Oregon, like many Western states (California, Washington, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico) has a majority urban/metropolitan population that has trended heavily towards the Democrats. The Republicans have seen their biggest gains in vote share in more rural and sparsely populated parts of the state.

Part of the advantage for the Democrats here is that they can focus just on the major metropolitan areas and still win. The Republicans have to devote resources to both the rural areas as well as the suburbs if they want to win in Oregon. Same thing is true in the aforementioned other Western states.