The ballots of voters across Portland were pooled together on Nov. 5, 2024, to elect local businessman Keith Wilson as the new mayor of Portland. This was Portland’s first mayoral election using ranked-choice voting, and KGW reported that in the final round of counting, Keith Wilson won by nearly 50,000 votes against his opponent Carmen Rubio.
Wilson’s campaign was built upon his promise to end unsheltered houselessness within a year as mayor. Of the most likely candidates, he ran the only campaign that focused so closely on the houselessness crisis. As the founder of Shelter Portland, Wilson had been working on their board of directors to solve the Oregon houselessness crisis before he ran for mayor.
Shelter Portland is an organization focused on sheltering those who are houseless in Portland. They have created numerous well-staffed nighttime emergency shelters that exist inside of trauma-informed, pre-existing, facilities that are repurposed at night. These shelters have proven to be cost-effective and incredibly beneficial to the community, and Shelter Portland continues to try to build this network of safe havens.
According to the Shelter Portland website, from 2017 to 2023, there has been a 136% increase in unsheltered houselessness in Portland. The need to address this crisis led Portlanders to elect someone who is “not a political insider,” as Wilson calls himself, but someone with fresh ideas who can offer solutions to a growing problem.
Portland’s newly elected mayor received many endorsements during his campaign, notably from publications such as Willamette Week, along with four important unions, nine elected leaders, and several community leaders. That being said, not everyone believes he can fulfill all of his promises. Aaron Mesh, the news editor for Willamette Week, said, despite endorsing Wilson, “I think he’s set a standard for how he’ll be judged … he set the bar pretty high, saying that he will eliminate unsheltered homelessness within a year.” He continued, saying, “Quite frankly I don’t think he’ll be able to do that, but I do think that we need to see some progress and some sense that the status quo is changing.”
One aspect that Wilson has repeatedly been praised for is bringing in fresh ideas. As a businessman and active citizen, and not an experienced politician, he has presented many new strategies to improve the streets of Portland. Mesh expressed excitement at the prospect of change, saying, “Wilson offered a fresh approach and new ideas for a city hall that, honestly, is in very bad need of being aired out.”
Wilson’s opponents also had very distinct campaigns. The first of these opponents, who was eliminated in the third to last round of voting within the ranked-choice system, was Rene Gonzalez. Gonzalez had many plans to empower Portland police, putting more officers in every district and on street corners of our city. He held a focus on the idea of public safety and how he believed that should be achieved. However, Gonzalez lost some momentum when it came out that he violated campaign finance law by editing his Wikipedia page using taxpayer money and accused a black woman of assaulting him on the MAX Light Rail after she bumped into him a few times, according to The Oregonian.
These incidents harmed Gonzalez’s ranking in the polls, leaving Carmen Rubio as Wilson’s final competitor. Rubio has a history in politics, and a lot of broad ideas she had intended to enact which tackled a variety of issues. However, some voters worried that Rubio was relying on her history in politics and, according to an article from Willamette Week, “she hasn’t voiced a vision for the city,” and is relying too much on her resume and not enough on her ideas. Mesh also expressed concern about Rubio’s “[h]istory of personal irresponsibility surrounding her traffic tickets and license suspensions.”
In the end, Portland chose to elect Keith Wilson, and time will tell the outcome of this decision. Wilson seems nothing if not eager to get to work, saying, “I am very pleased to have won the election. That said, I see no room for celebration. Portland is in crisis and an ‘all hands on deck’ approach is needed to help get it back on track.” He continued, stating, “It will take everyone chipping in if we’re going to experience the Portland Renaissance, which I feel is within our reach.”
Wilson’s message to the youth of today and to the students of Franklin High School, was “Get involved! Show up. Volunteer. Ask questions. And most importantly, listen. Listening to each other — especially these days — is such an undervalued and under-practiced skill.” He also said that, “It is 100% okay to have opinions and to feel passionate about them, but the problems that we are all facing will require us to come together, listen, find common ground, and move forward.”
The future of Portland is in our hands, and it is our responsibility to make decisions that will lead to the best outcome for all. With Keith Wilson as our newly elected mayor, we hope to see some of the positive changes our city needs.
