Oregon
D held
Not calledDem +0.5closes 11:00 PM ET
0% in · Polls just closed
Lean D
Who's running
Tina KotekDIncumbent
Tina Kotek has been governor since 2023. She beat Christine Drazan by about 3.5 points in 2022 in a three-way race. She won the May 19 primary with 84 percent. Polls show many voters are unhappy with her: only 38 percent viewed her favorably in an OPB poll, and more than 20 percent of her own voters do not like her.
What they say they'll do
- Says Drazan would defer to the Trump administration on immigration, abortion, and mail voting.
- Points to housing bills Drazan voted against.
- Opposes a sales tax.
- Supports a pause on new data centers.
Christine DrazanR
Christine Drazan led Republicans in the Oregon House as minority leader from 2019 to 2021. She was the Republican nominee for governor in 2022 and lost narrowly. She is now a state senator. She won the May 19 primary with about 41 percent over Ed Diehl and Chris Dudley. Trump has not endorsed her.
What they say they'll do
- Overhaul the state's land-use system.
- Says spending went up under Kotek without results on homelessness, housing, or schools.
- Says rural Oregonians cannot afford Kotek's agenda, pointing to the gas tax fight.
- Opposes a sales tax and supports a data center pause.
The tea ☕
- A California carpenters union wrote a record $10 million check on September 16 to an Oregon PAC that had already given $500,000 to Kotek. Nobody involved would say where the money is going.
- The Republican Governors Association gave Drazan $1 million on October 8, her biggest single donation. Nike co-founder Phil Knight, who gave to her in 2022, has not backed her this time.
- The polls flipped in October. Three polls through September had Drazan ahead by 1 to 4 points. Early October polls showed Kotek ahead by 2 to 4. The same thing happened in 2022, when Drazan led most of October and then lost.
- Kotek's campaign calls Drazan an "out-of-touch, MAGA extremist." Drazan casts Kotek as a failed governor and a candidate even Democrats do not like.
- Kotek had $8.3 million on hand in late September, more than eight times Drazan's $965,000.
Sources
- https://www.multistate.us/elections/governor-race/oregon-2026
- https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/08/new-polls-kotek-may-lead/
- https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2026/09/29/10-million-mystery-check-hangs-over-governors-race/
- https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/08/drazan-donation-rga/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Oregon_gubernatorial_election
- https://apps.npr.org/primary-election-results-2026/governors.html