Republican state senators will announce a new leader on Friday, and a source says Sen. Fred Girod of Lyons will assume the position.

Girod will succeed Sen. Herman Baertschiger Jr. of Grants Pass, who became GOP leader after Jackie Winters of Salem bowed out of that role following the 2018 election. Baertschiger decided against seeking a third term in the Senate this year in favor of a bid for Josephine County commissioner.

The Senate Republican Office says an official announcement is planned Friday.

Republicans hold 12 seats and Democrats 18 in the current Senate. Seven Democratic seats are up for election, three without incumbents, and nine Republican seats are up in 2020. One of those is for an unexpired two-year term created by Winters’ death in May 2019.

Girod, 69, is a retired dentist. He is a graduate of Stayton High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University, his dental degree from Oregon Health & Science University, and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University.

He was first elected to the Oregon House in 1992 and made a losing bid for the 5th District congressional seat in 1994. He was elected again to the House in 2006 and was appointed to the Senate in 2008 after Roger Beyer resigned with about a year left on his term.

Girod was elected in 2008, 2012 and 2016. He is seeking a fourth term this year from a district that covers largely rural areas of Clackamas, Marion and Linn counties.

He has been on the Legislature’s joint budget committee during most of his Senate tenure.

He is the senior Republican in the Senate. Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas was elected in 2008 after two terms in the House; Sen. Kim Thatcher of Keizer was elected in 2014 after five terms in the House.

Under Baertschiger, Senate Republicans walked out of the 2019 and 2020 sessions to forestall a Senate vote on climate-change legislation that would have put a tax on carbon and instituted a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions. The walkouts denied majority Democrats the 20 senators required to conduct business in the 30-member Senate.

At the close of the 2020 session, Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick of Portland announced she would give up her leadership position, although she is seeking a seventh term in a district that covers Southwest Portland and part of Washington County. Democrats have not announced a successor as caucus leader.