Despite a lot of concern and excitement—depending on individual perspectives—going into the general election, things remained pretty much status quo in Oregon following the 2022 midterm election.
In the race for governor, Democrat candidate Tina Kotek became the seventh consecutive Democrat to be elected, narrowly winning over Republican candidate Christine Drazan. Independent candidate Betsy Johnson finished as a distant third. Drazen was ahead late in the polls, and it was suspected that Oregon would have the first Republican governor since 1982, yet Kotek pulled through in the end with a very close 47% to Drazan’s 43.6%. Kotek made history in Oregon being the first openly lesbian governor, as well as one of the first in the country.
At the federal level, Ron Wyden was easily reelected to the US Senate; Democrats won four of the six Congressional seats for Oregon. For District 1 the representative is Suzanne Bonamici; District 2 is Cliff Bentz; District 3, which includes Portland, is Earl Blumenauer; District 4 is Val Hotel; District 5 is Lori Chaves-DeRemer; and District 6 is Andrea Salinas. The one surprise to some is that Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer won the race to replace Democrat Kurt Schrader in District 5, which stretches from the edge of Portland to Bend. Schrader lost in the primary to fellow Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner.
The Oregon Legislature has remained under Democratic control, but Democrats did lose their supermajority in the state’s Senate, which may make it more difficult to pass laws that require a 3/5 vote in the Senate for approval. David Marsh, a Government and Social Studies teacher at Franklin High School says, “Without a super majority Democrats may need to cross party lines and get Republican support for any legislation they want to pass into law.” He further explains that, “typically, this results in compromises to ensure the legislation passes, though in our highly partisan environment it could make passing any legislation very difficult as Democrats and Republicans often won’t compromise.”
Also of note, Oregonians approved four ballot measures responsible for expanding healthcare, removing references to slavery from the Oregon Constitution, limiting the ability of legislators to walk out without an excuse during the legislative session, and adopting firearms restrictions. Following the adoption of the firearms restrictions, several Oregon sheriffs indicated they would not support or implement provisions of the new law. “The sad truth is that law enforcement [in general] always has the option to choose to enforce laws or not. Sheriffs tend to be more vocal about not enforcing laws they don’t like because of their elected status,” Marsh says, continuing, “this isn’t a new problem but it does show just how polarized politics are in the country and within Oregon.”
Locally, Portlanders approved a measure to update the Portland City Charter, and, in so doing, fundamentally changed how Portland will be governed in the future. Going forward, Portland will have ranked-choice voting, meaning voters can rank candidates in order of preference. The new charter reform establishes four geographic districts with three city council members elected into each district, which means a lot more representation for all Portland citizens. In an interview, Raahi Reddy, City of Portland Charter Commissioner, commented, “I think Portlanders are finally ready, they’re just exhausted by the level of crisis and the inability of the city to really meet these changes that are happening around climate, around housing and houselessness […] I think Portlanders are just ready for change.” These kinds of changes to the charter are almost never passed, but this year it seems as though Portlanders are hopeful to see significant differences in the way Portland is governed.
Citizens shouldn’t expect to see a drastic change in the way Oregon runs things. Luckily, the biggest difference in Portland aims to bring nothing but positive change to Portlanders.
