Jeffrey Alan Merkley is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Oregon since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1999 to 2009 as the representative for the 47th district in the Oregon House of Representatives, which covers central Multnomah County on the eastern side of Portland; he was the speaker of the House during the last two years of his tenure.

Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR–WA metropolitan statistical area. Though smallest in area, Multnomah County is the state's most populous county. Its county seat, Portland, is the state's largest city.