Oregon Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek declares victory in governor’s race

PORTLAND — Democratic incumbent Gov. Tina Kotek declared victory Tuesday night after early election results showed the apparent success of her efforts to reassure voters she was the only viable candidate who would challenge the Trump administration.

Kotek led two-time challenger, Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan of Canby, by more than 7 percentage points in election results posted shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday. Pacific Green Party candidate Brett Smith was in a distant third with 2.5% of the votes counted so far. 

With supporters chanting her first name and her hands clapping in the air, a jubilant Kotek took to the stage in front of supporters of the Democratic Party of Oregon at the Grand Ballroom of Hilton Portland Downtown around 9:20 p.m. The governor declared victory while projecting confidence she could lead the state during her second term, though The Associated Press has not yet called the race in any of the candidates’ favor.

“Because of your work and support, I am proud to stand here as your next governor of the beautiful state of Oregon,” Kotek told hundreds of supporters. “I hope it’s OK, but we have four more years together.”

The governor throughout the race had banked on nationalizing the election to seize upon discontent with the GOP’s control of Congress and the White House and paint her opponent as a willful executor of the Trump administration’s agenda. But significant uncertainty about Kotek’s ability to win reelection emerged in the run-up to November as polling ahead of the race showed that both candidates were competitive with their leads inside the margin of error.

Kotek, who made history as one of America’s first openly lesbian governors, had previously defeated Drazan four years ago by about 67,000 votes in a three-way race featuring nonaffiliated challenger Betsy Johnson, who gained more than 8% of the vote. But since her election, Oregon has struggled to make progress on issues such as rising homelessness, some of the lowest test scores for fourth graders in the nation and persistent unemployment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, factors upon which Drazan seized to attack Kotek.

If Kotek’s lead holds, it would solidify a 40-year winning streak for Democrats who have held the seat since the late 1980s. Only two Republicans have won statewide in the Beaver State since 2000, and Kotek had enjoyed a significant fundraising advantage over Drazan until the final stretch of the race. The two women’s campaigns collectively raised more than $44 million this campaign cycle.

Drazan supporters, gathered at a warehouse near the Hillsboro airport, were dejected as they saw results come in.

“We know Democrats vote early and Republicans vote late,” Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, told supporters.

By 9:30, Drazan supporters were starting to leave the party. The senator took to the stage about thirty minutes later to thank her supporters, saying the race isn’t over while acknowledging that Kotek had already declared victory. Among those in the crowd were Republican state Reps. Shelly Boshart Davis of Albany; Bobby Levy of Echo, Matt Bunch of unincorporated Clackamas County and House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville.

“Now, all the votes haven’t been counted, and I am continuing to pray for the victory for us,” Drazan told supporters at her event. “But as they are hard at work counting every last eligible vote, I wanted to come out and tell you guys that this state continues to be worth fighting for. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to serve the people of this state and make life better for all of you and all of your neighbors, and every single person that lives here because we desperately need it.”

Kotek struggled through the campaign to attract strong support from the left flank of her party. Jonathan Haqq, a former engineer from Southwest Portland who attended the Democratic Party of Oregon’s watch party Tuesday, said he wasn’t necessarily enthusiastic about Kotek’s reelection campaign, calling her first term “meh” and saying she lacked a definite vision for the state.

But Haqq, who has been a Democrat for a decade, said a canvasser for Republican candidate Christine Drazan’s campaign ultimately convinced him to vote for Kotek.

“(Drazan) was on the wrong side of my vote on several issues,” he said. “I don’t even know what she’s saying in her commercials.”

Kotek first came onto Oregon’s political scene as a lobbyist for the Oregon Food Bank in the 1990s after moving from Pennsylvania. She then won election to a Portland-area House seat in 2006, eventually becoming Oregon’s longest serving House speaker from 2013 to 2022, when she resigned to run for her first gubernatorial bid. She has long described herself as a progressive, helping pass major policies such as some of the nation’s strongest protections for immigrants and a wide-ranging paid family leave program.

The governor has spent much of her first term working to streamline the efforts of state agencies, firing multiple agency heads and issuing more stringent, detailed expectations for reporting back to her about their work. She has signed laws to prohibit the corporate takeover of local medical clinics, push back on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, allocate tens of millions of dollars in funding for early learning school programs and stem the state’s shortage of defense counsel.

Kotek on the campaign trail and during this year’s legislative session began to deviate from some of her progressive messaging as she appealed to more moderate voters concerned about a lack of economic opportunity and growth in the state due to an unfavorable business environment harmed by excessive taxes and regulations. A council of economic advisers she convened recommended this summer that the state work to lower taxes, repeal and replace the state’s signature Climate Protection Program and invest more in infrastructure and site readiness.

The road to implementing some of those changes could be bumpy. Kotek is poised to face an increasingly vocal left flank in her party as more candidates elected to the Oregon Legislature come from political backgrounds in alignment with groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America. Her push to appease business groups and economic analysts has already rankled feathers among some progressives within her party.

The governor has vowed to prioritize a variety of issues such as the creation of a separate state agency for adequate oversight over the Oregon State Hospital, a moratorium on new data centers in the state until they can be subject to standardized environmental and labor standards, and the creation of a universal state-funded preschool program. She is also staring down major cuts to the Medicaid system in Oregon known as the Oregon Health Plan, but she has yet to identify specific areas or benefits she would cut or reduce from the program.

One key priority the governor has identified is improving housing and access to it a key priority of her governorship, pointing to Oregon’s bucking of a national trend showing a decline in housing starts in 2026. But the nearly 9,700 home permits pulled so far this year still put Oregon far below her initial goal of 36,000 new homes per year to address decades of underbuilding, a number she has since lowered in response to economic forecasts and market trends.

Kotek on Tuesday blasted the Trump administration as “oppressive” and said she was inspired by how Oregonians have responded to its “unconstitutional” policies.

She also pulled no punches about the work ahead of her and her fellow Democrats, pointing to her efforts to improve unsheltered homelessness in the state, build more housing and improve access to mental health, addiction care and education. But she said the race for a second term was defined by her ability to make progress on those fronts. 

“Are you ready to work?” she asked her supporters, who responded with a thunderous applause. “So now, you celebrate, and then rest up, because we have stuff to do together.”

Staff writer Mia Maldonado contributed reporting from Hillsboro.