Jami Cate

Jami Cate

Republican Party

Candidate, Oregon State Senate District 6

Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

2

Predecessor

Marty Wilde

Prior offices

Oregon House of Representatives District 17

Successor: Ed Diehl

Predecessor: Sherrie Sprenger

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Compensation

Base salary

$35,052/year

Per diem

$157/day

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Next election

November 3, 2026

Education

Bachelor's

Oregon State University, 2009

Personal

Birthplace

Lebanon, Ore.

Religion

Christian

Profession

Farmer

Contact

Official website

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

Jami Cate (Republican Party) is a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 11. She assumed office on January 9, 2023. Her current term ends on January 11, 2027.

Cate (Republican Party) is running for election to the Oregon State Senate to represent District 6. She declared candidacy for the 2026 election.^[source]

Biography

Jami Cate was born and lives in Lebanon, Oregon. Cate earned a bachelor's degree in crop and soil science from Oregon State University in 2009. Cate's career experience includes working as a farmer.

Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Cate was assigned to the following committees:

• House Housing Committee
• Joint Legislative Audits Committee
• Joint Ways and Means Committee

2021-2022

Cate was assigned to the following committees:

• Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee
• Economic Recovery and Prosperity Committee, Vice chair

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2026

See also: Oregon State Senate elections, 2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for Oregon State Senate District 6

Incumbent Cedric Hayden and Jami Cate are running in the general election for Oregon State Senate District 6 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Cedric Hayden (R)
		Jami Cate (R)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

2024

See also: Oregon House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Incumbent Jami Cate defeated Ivan Maluski in the general election for Oregon House of Representatives District 11 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jami Cate (R)	73.8	26,148
		Ivan Maluski (Unaffiliated)	25.9	9,159
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	112

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 35,419
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Nina Brenner (D)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Nina Brenner advanced from the Democratic primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11 on May 21, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Nina Brenner	96.6	2,553
		Other/Write-in votes	3.4	89

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,642
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Incumbent Jami Cate advanced from the Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11 on May 21, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jami Cate	99.1	7,689
		Other/Write-in votes	0.9	72

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,761
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Cate in this election.

2022

See also: Oregon House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Incumbent Jami Cate defeated Mary Cooke in the general election for Oregon House of Representatives District 11 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jami Cate (R)	74.5	24,892
		Mary Cooke (D / Working Families Party)	25.3	8,458
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	60

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 33,410
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Mary Cooke defeated Renee Windsor-White and Nina Brenner in the Democratic primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11 on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mary Cooke	35.3	1,119
		Renee Windsor-White	30.8	975
	Submit photo	Nina Brenner	29.7	942
		Other/Write-in votes	4.2	133

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,169
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Incumbent Jami Cate defeated Tyler Collins in the Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 11 on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jami Cate	85.2	8,126
	Submit photo	Tyler Collins	14.5	1,384
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	31

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 9,541
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Heather Dillon (R)
• Luke Zedwick (R)

2020

See also: Oregon House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Oregon House of Representatives District 17

Jami Cate defeated Paige Hook and Tim Dehne in the general election for Oregon House of Representatives District 17 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jami Cate (R)	69.2	26,398
	Submit photo	Paige Hook (D / Working Families Party)	28.8	10,988
	Submit photo	Tim Dehne (Pacific Green Party)	1.8	693
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	60

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 38,139
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 17

Paige Hook advanced from the Democratic primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 17 on May 19, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Paige Hook	95.3	4,147
		Other/Write-in votes	4.7	206

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,353
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 17

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 17 on May 19, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jami Cate	26.6	2,903
	Submit photo	Scott Sword	26.3	2,870
	Submit photo	Timothy Kirsch	15.7	1,715
		Bruce Cuff	13.0	1,414
	Submit photo	Susan Coleman	9.2	1,004
	Submit photo	Dylan Richards	8.7	952
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	37

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,895
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Pacific Green Party convention

Pacific Green Party convention for Oregon House of Representatives District 17

Tim Dehne advanced from the Pacific Green Party convention for Oregon House of Representatives District 17 on June 6, 2020.

		Candidate
✔	Submit photo	Tim Dehne (Pacific Green Party)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Cate's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jami Cate has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Jami Cate asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Jami Cate, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for.  More than 23,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.

You can ask Jami Cate to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing info@jamicate.com.

2024

Jami Cate did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Jami Cate did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Jami Cate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cate's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Jami Cate is a 5th generation farmer from Lebanon, Oregon, and is passionate about our rural communities, as well as our natural resource industries.

She has dedicated much of her life to volunteering, and has led organizations like the century-old Lebanon Strawberry Festival, which brings families together and economic vitality to her town. Jami fought to find a balance of preserving tradition while growing the event and improving community safety, organizational policy, and demanding financial transparency. Balance is a critical leadership quality that Jami believes is lacking in our State Legislature.

Having worked on her family's farm from a young age, Jami is very familiar with the struggles faced by local business owners, and the burden to adapt to constantly changing regulations. She recognizes the need for our rural industries to be better represented in the legislature, and feels those industries are the foundation of our state's economy.

When not busy on the farm or volunteering around the community, Jami is an avid hiker and mountaineer, and loves exploring all that Oregon has to offer.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• No new taxes.
• Meaningful wildfire and forest mangement legislation
• Economic development and transportation expansion

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As an avid hiker, I want to work on policies that help with managing the forests for a healthy economy and healthy forests that don't burn so catastrophically. We need to reduce the fuel loads in our national and state forests. This can create jobs and also healthy forests for all to enjoy.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

Though I think prior government experience can be of benefit, the Oregon Legislature is designed as a citizen's legislature for real people, with real jobs, and real life experience coming together to represent our communities.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

The legislature is essentially a team effort so building relationships with others is critical to passing meaningful legislation. Especially in times so divisive, the ability to have working relationships from both parties is critical in ensuring the best interest of the people are represented.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Jami Cate campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Oregon House of Representatives District 11	Won general	$83,582	$71,414
2022	Oregon House of Representatives District 11	Won general	$148,783	$175,401
2020	Oregon House of Representatives District 17	Won general	$149,525	N/A**
Grand total			$381,890	$246,815
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Oregon

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of Oregon scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show].
In 2024, the Oregon State Legislature was in session from Februrary 5 to March 7. Humane Oregon: Senate and House Legislators are scored on bills related to animal issues. National Federation of Independent Business Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues. Oregon League of Conservation Voters Legislators are scored on their votes related to the environment.

2023

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show].

In 2023, the Oregon State Legislature was in session from January 17 to June 25. Humane Oregon: Senate and House Legislators are scored on bills related to animal issues. Oregon AFSCME Legislators are scored on their votes on labor issues. Oregon League of Conservation Voters: Senate and House Legislators are scored on their votes related to the environment. The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2022

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show].

In 2022, the Oregon State Legislature was in session from February 1 to March 4. Humane Oregon: Senate and House Legislators are scored on bills related to animal issues. National Federation of Independent Business Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues. Oregon AFSCME Legislators are scored on their votes on labor issues. Oregon League of Conservation Voters: Senate and House Legislators are scored on their votes related to the environment. Oregon State Chamber of Commerce Legislators are scored on their stances related to taxes, economic development, housing, environmental regulations, and business.

2021

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show].

In 2021, the Oregon State Legislature was in session from January 21 to June 26. Humane Oregon: Senate and House Legislators are scored on bills related to animal issues. Oregon League of Conservation Voters Legislators are scored on their votes related to the environment. Oregon State Chamber of Commerce Legislators are scored on their stances related to taxes, economic development, housing, environmental regulations, and business. The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

See also

2026 Elections

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Government

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Newsletters

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External links

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Candidate

Oregon State Senate District 6

Website

Facebook

Officeholder

Oregon House of Representatives District 11

Website

Personal

Facebook

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Marty Wilde (D)	Oregon House of Representatives District 11 2023-Present	Succeeded by -
Preceded by Sherrie Sprenger (R)	Oregon House of Representatives District 17 2021-2023	Succeeded by Ed Diehl (R)

[show]

Current members of the Oregon House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Julie Fahey

Majority Leader:Ben Bowman

Minority Leader:Lucetta Elmer

Representatives

District 1

Court Boice (R)

District 2

Virgle Osborne (R)

District 3

Dwayne Yunker (R)

District 4

Alek Skarlatos (R)

District 5

Pam Marsh (D)

District 6

Kim Wallan (R)

District 7

John Lively (D)

District 8

Lisa Fragala (D)

District 9

Boomer Wright (R)

District 10

David Gomberg (D)

District 11

Jami Cate (R)

District 12

Darin Harbick (R)

District 13

Nancy Nathanson (D)

District 14

Julie Fahey (D)

District 15

Shelly Boshart Davis (R)

District 16

Sarah McDonald (D)

District 17

Ed Diehl (R)

District 18

Rick Lewis (R)

District 19

Tom Andersen (D)

District 20

Paul Evans (D)

District 21

Kevin Mannix (R)

District 22

Lesly Muñoz (D)

District 23

Anna Scharf (R)

District 24

Lucetta Elmer (R)

District 25

Ben Bowman (D)

District 26

Sue Rieke Smith (D)

District 27

Ken Helm (D)

District 28

Dacia Grayber (D)

District 29

Susan McLain (D)

District 30

Nathan Sosa (D)

District 31

Darcey Edwards (R)

District 32

Cyrus Javadi (D)

District 33

Shannon Isadore (D)

District 34

Mari Watanabe (D)

District 35

Farrah Chaichi (D)

District 36

Hai Pham (D)

District 37

Jules Walters (D)

District 38

Daniel Nguyen (D)

District 39

April Dobson (D)

District 40

Annessa Hartman (D)

District 41

Mark Gamba (D)

District 42

Rob Nosse (D)

District 43

Tawna Sanchez (D)

District 44

Travis Nelson (D)

District 45

Thuy Tran (D)

District 46

Willy Chotzen (D)

District 47

Andrea Valderrama (D)

District 48

Vacant

District 49

Zach Hudson (D)

District 50

Ricki Ruiz (D)

District 51

Christine Drazan (R)

District 52

Jeffrey Helfrich (R)

District 53

Emerson Levy (D)

District 54

Jason Kropf (D)

District 55

E. Reschke (R)

District 56

Emily McIntire (R)

District 57

Greg Smith (R)

District 58

Bobby Levy (R)

District 59

Vikki Breese-Iverson (R)

District 60

Mark Owens (R)

Democratic Party (36)

Republican Party (23)

Vacancies (1)