Dr. Beaudreux

Oregon elections are all but wrapped up so here are my winners and losers this year. Winners: 1. Pacific NW Dem Gubernatorial Wining Streaks. Tina Kotek won another term as Oregon's Governor this week by what is, for Oregon, a landslide margin for a Gov race. This extends a remarkable run of dominance for Dems in the Pacific NW as Oregon last elected a Republican Governor in 1982 and our neighbor to the north Washington last did so in 1980. 2. The Status Quo in Portland. I'll admit to being a little surprised with just how easily all six incumbents to Portland's City Council got reelected this year but such proved to be the case. Meaning no net change in the City Council's composition for at least two more years. 3. Hispanic voters sending Republicans a message. As we saw nationally, Hispanic voters shifted hard left this year and you can likely attribute all three Dem state legislative pickups (2 in the state house and 1 in the state senate) to this trend as all 3 districts that flipped are among the most Hispanic in the state. In addition, HD 22 in Woodburn (which is majority Hispanic) went from nearly tied in 2024 to an 18% victory for Democrats this year. 4. Unions. Late in the race for Multnomah County Chair, AFSCME chose to drop their endorsement of Julia Brim-Edwards and instead endorse Shannon Singleton. Singleton ended up winning the race in what I would've called a major upset a month ago but honestly I kind of saw coming. Losers: 1. Christine Drazan. Congratulations Christine Drazan, you tried again to run for Governor after losing four years ago and you managed to do worse this time. Now much of that is due to the lack of a Dem spoiler this year as well as general hatred of Trump in Oregon but once again Drazan fell well short. 2. The Oregon Republican Party. It is hard to imagine where Oregon Republicans go from here. It is not so much that they lost again this year, it is that the path forward seems at best murky for a party that seems to get smaller (and more MAGA focused) every year. Fine by me to be honest. 3. Eli Arnold. After coming close to taking a seat on the Portland City Council two years ago, bike cop (and Portland Metro Chamber darling) Eli Arnold conducted a sudden, high-speed impact test on the asphalt. The asphalt won as Arnold fell well short of knocking out any of the incumbents.