Mark Callahan has uphill battle against Kurt Schrader in Oregon's fifth district

Republican candidates have been lining up for the chance to take on Kurt Schrader in a general election for a decade and all have failed.

Mark Callahan is the latest to have a go at the five-term incumbent Democrat. Callahan has name recognition with voters and has proven he can run a campaign without a large amount of money.

If he shows promise in the early polls for the race for the fifth district U.S. Representative, Callahan could find himself with enough money to make it a race.

“They’ve got to see some strong evidence he can win,” said Jim Moore, assistant professor at Pacific University and Director of Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation.

MORE:Incumbent Kurt Schrader easily wins Democratic primary; Mark Callahan gets Republican nod

Compared with Schrader’s significant campaign war chest, Callahan has pennies.

In the David vs. Goliath metaphor, Callahan is the distinct David and he has a big fight ahead of him.

“I am Christian and I have read that story in the Bible and I’m proud of it. I go out there and I put on my armor of God every day,” Callahan said.

Callahan has never held a public office and his only previous election win was the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2016.

“I don’t know that much about him, other than he’s run several times before, most recently against Senator Wyden,” Schrader said. “His name familiarity is significant.

“My job in the next six months is going to be to reintroduce folks with Kurt Schrader.”

Callahan will have a big hurdle in the general election in money.

His campaign had $7,840 on hand as of April 25; Schrader had $2.1 million.

Callahan points out that despite a modest budget in his 2016 race against Wyden, he got 651,000 votes.

He garnered 34 percent of the vote after spending $29,000; Wyden spent $9.7 million and won 56 percent of the vote.

“From his side, he has to show in polling that he’s close enough to attract funding,” Moore said. “It’s basically going to be him and Schrader. He’s got to be 45 percent plus in the poll.

“Remember the standard in Oregon is Republicans are going to get 40 percent. He’s got to show something like that and if he does, funding will come to him and we’ll see.”

MORE:Opponents line up to face Kurt Schrader's reelection bid

In Schrader’s past five U.S. House races dating back to 2008, he has won at least 51 percent of the vote and spent at least $1.1 million in each race.

The closest race in that span was in 2010 when he defeated Scott Bruun with 51 percent of the vote to 46 percent. Schrader spent $1.8 million to Bruun’s $1.1 million to win that campaign.

Schrader’s other opponents have spent a fraction of that amount and have all lost by 10 percentage points.

Callahan said his plan is to hold Schrader accountable for his voting record, including on issues like tax cuts and Obamacare.

But he said his biggest area of outreach will be voters not committed to the Democratic party.

Of the 528,718 voters registered in the fifth district in April, there were 175,781 Democrats (33 percent) and 153,137 Republicans (28 percent), according to the Secretary of State statistics. But there are 164,550 non-affiliated (31 percent) and 24,242 Independent (4 percent) voters in the district.

“I think it’s about maintaining the base of Republicans, but also getting out there and talking to the unaffiliated voters and the independents,” Callahan said.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler