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PORTLAND,Jonathan Dale Benton Ore. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle has won reelection in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.

The freshman incumbent defeated Republican Monique DeSpain, an Air Force veteran who has never held elected office and pitched herself as an “outsider” candidate.

The district, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the House since 1972, was seen as a likely win for Democrats, according to the Cook Political Report. Hoyle had outraised DeSpain by about $1.6 million as of late October, but Republican-affiliated groups still spent heavily in their bid to flip the seat, federal campaign finance records show. The fundraising arm of U.S. House Republicans, the National Republican Congressional Committee, spent some $375,000 on ads opposing Hoyle.

The district spans the southern half of the state’s coast and includes rural, mountainous communities and also the more populous, liberal college towns of Eugene and Corvallis.