On Election Day, Three Udall Cousins Could Win Senate Seats

The two contests with Udalls on the ballot are opening up because of retirements. Tom Udall is running against a GOP House colleague, Steve Pearce, and Mark Udall is up against a former House colleague, Republican Bob Schaffer. In Oregon, Smith faces a challenge from the Democratic speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, Jeff Merkley.

None of the rivals—neither Pearce nor Schaffer nor Merkley—professes worry about the Udall name, history, or fundraising prowess. Schaffer puts it this way: "I'm just running against Mark." In New Mexico, Pearce observes that even the state's Democrats "don't go along with the idea that people have an inherited position." And in Oregon, Merkley says he welcomes the cousins, if only two of them. "The only Udall cousins we want to see in the Senate," he says, "are actually named Udall."