Oregon primary results: Voters set matchups for downballot state executive offices

Ore­gon’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can vot­ers are deliv­er­ing a deci­sive set of wins to can­di­dates seek­ing statewide office in this year’s piv­otal pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycle, pri­ma­ry elec­tion night results show. Though turnout is just 24.03%, with only 723,760 of 3,011,323 vot­ers hav­ing returned bal­lot thus far, the out­comes in key statewide races are evi­dent. Let’s take a look at the matchups in this year’s statewide races.

Attorney General

Long­time AG Ellen Rosen­blum is retir­ing, cre­at­ing an open seat. Two Democ­rats filed to seek the nom­i­na­tion to suc­ceed her: Dan Ray­field and Shaina Max­ey Pomerantz. 

Ray­field is an attor­ney serv­ing as the Speak­er of the Ore­gon House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. He rep­re­sents House Dis­trict 16, which includes Cor­val­lis and Philo­math. He has a strong back­ground in pub­lic ser­vice, hav­ing been first elect­ed to the Ore­gon House in 2014. Through­out his tenure, he has focused on an array of issues, rang­ing from cam­paign finance reform to envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion and access to health­care. He was con­sid­ered the favorite in the race by many polit­i­cal observers. 

Max­ey Pomer­antz is the exec­u­tive direc­tor of Race Talks. She describes her­self as “a bi-racial­ly Black Jew­ish Cal­i­for­nia native with deep famil­ial roots in Port­land.” With a deep-root­ed pas­sion for social jus­tice and equi­ty, Pomer­antz has ded­i­cat­ed her career to address­ing edu­ca­tion­al dis­par­i­ties and advo­cat­ing for under­rep­re­sent­ed com­mu­ni­ties. She has focused on pro­vid­ing men­tor­ship, resources, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents to thrive aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and personally. 

Ray­field cur­rent­ly has 76.39% of the vote and Max­ey Pomer­antz has 22.97%.

On the Repub­li­can side, the can­di­dates were Michael Cross and Will Lathrop.

Cross is an ultra MAGA extrem­ist who brags on his web­site about hav­ing head­ed up an unsuc­cess­ful recall cam­paign against for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic Gov­er­nor Kate Brown (“Flush Down Kate Brown”) and also argues, with­out offer­ing a scin­til­la of evi­dence, that vot­er fraud in Ore­gon is wide­spread. A page on his web­site, which appears dat­ed, declares: “As many of you know, I spent 90 days in 2020 inves­ti­gat­ing vote fraud in Ore­gon. What I dis­cov­ered is shock­ing.  Very soon, I will announce a Spe­cial Pro­gram to facil­i­tate and pro­tect Whis­tle Blow­ers that want to come for­ward to help clean up Vote Fraud.” 

Will Lath­rop describes him­self as an “an expe­ri­enced attor­ney and proven pub­lic ser­vant com­mit­ted to restor­ing our jus­tice sys­tem and rebuild­ing trust in our gov­ern­ment insti­tu­tions.” His web­site lacks the ultra MAGA screeds that Cross’ has, but Lath­rop does indi­rect­ly crit­i­cize Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nance by say­ing: “It’s been painful for me to watch the state that I love suf­fer. Ore­gon is a wound­ed beau­ty — a beau­ti­ful state marred by crime and addic­tion. I rep­re­sent a dawn of new lead­er­ship that will bring last­ing change and ensure a safer, health­i­er future for Oregonians.” 

Lath­rop has 64.27% of the vote, while Cross has 35.13%.

It’ll be Ray­field ver­sus Lath­rop this autumn.

Treasurer

Incum­bent Trea­sur­er Tobias Read is run­ning for a dif­fer­ent statewide office this year — Sec­re­tary of State — so the posi­tion is open. Two Democ­rats com­pet­ed for the nom­i­na­tion: Jeff Gud­man and Eliz­a­beth Steiner. 

Gud­man is a sea­soned finan­cial expert and for­mer city coun­cilmem­ber. With a back­ground in busi­ness and finance, Gud­man has built a career cen­tered on fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty and strate­gic finan­cial man­age­ment. His expe­ri­ence includes serv­ing on the Lake Oswego City Coun­cil, where he was known for his prag­mat­ic approach to bud­get­ing and his efforts to ensure effi­cient use of pub­lic funds. Gud­man’s cam­paign for Trea­sur­er has empha­sized trans­paren­cy, account­abil­i­ty, and lever­ag­ing his finan­cial exper­tise to safe­guard Oregon’s eco­nom­ic health. He advo­cates for poli­cies that pro­mote sus­tain­able finan­cial prac­tices, aim­ing to enhance the state’s fis­cal sta­bil­i­ty and invest­ment returns.

Stein­er is an expe­ri­enced leg­is­la­tor and health­care pro­fes­sion­al who has served in the Ore­gon State Sen­ate, where she has been a strong advo­cate for fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty and eco­nom­ic equi­ty. Her pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence as a physi­cian also informs her approach to pol­i­cy, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of sus­tain­able and eth­i­cal finan­cial prac­tices. Steiner’s cam­paign has high­light­ed her com­mit­ment to ensur­ing that the state’s finan­cial resources are man­aged wise­ly and used to sup­port vital pub­lic ser­vices. Her vision for the Treasurer’s office includes pri­or­i­tiz­ing trans­paren­cy and pro­mot­ing invest­ments that ben­e­fit all Oregonians.

Stein­er is win­ning in a rout, with 77.44% of the vote to Gud­man’s 21.98%.

Stein­er will face Repub­li­can Bri­an Boquist, who was unop­posed for his par­ty’s nomination.

Boquist is one of the Repub­li­can state sen­a­tors who was barred from seek­ing reelec­tion due to hav­ing walked off of the job to par­a­lyze the Ore­gon State Sen­ate. Born and raised on a dairy farm in Tillam­ook, Ore­gon, he has a mil­i­tary back­ground, with decades of ser­vice in the U.S. Army and Nation­al Guard. He ran unsuc­cess­ful­ly for Con­gress in the ear­ly 2000s, los­ing to Demo­c­rat Dar­lene Hoo­ley, Kurt Schrader’s predecessor.

Secretary of State

In 2020, Ore­go­ni­ans elect­ed State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Shemia Fagan to serve as Sec­re­tary of State, return­ing the office to Demo­c­ra­t­ic con­trol. Fagan did­n’t make it through her first term, owing to eth­i­cal­ly ques­tion­able side work with a cannabis con­sult­ing firm while her office was audit­ing the cannabis indus­try, which prompt­ed con­cerns about con­flicts of inter­est. She ini­tial­ly defend­ed her­self and denied wrong­do­ing, but chose to step down last year after com­ing under strong pres­sure to do so.

Ore­gon Gov­er­nor Tina Kotek replaced Fagan with LaVonne Grif­fin-Valade, the for­mer Port­land City Audi­tor and audi­tor for Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty, Ore­gon. Grif­fin-Valade is serv­ing in a care­tak­er capac­i­ty and not seek­ing a full term in the office.

Five Democ­rats and three Repub­li­cans filed for the office.

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates are:

• James Jim Crary, a peren­ni­al can­di­date known for his focus on cam­paign finance reform and gov­ern­ment accountability. 
• Paul Dami­an Wells, an attor­ney and polit­i­cal activist with a pas­sion for social jus­tice and com­mu­ni­ty advocacy. 
• Tobias Read, the cur­rent Ore­gon State Trea­sur­er, known for his exper­tise in finan­cial man­age­ment and investment. 
• Dave W. Stauf­fer, an envi­ron­men­tal engi­neer and anoth­er peren­ni­al candidate.
• James Man­ning, Jr., a sea­soned leg­is­la­tor and retired mil­i­tary offi­cer cur­rent­ly serv­ing in the Ore­gon State Senate. 

The Repub­li­can can­di­dates are:

• Brent Bark­er, a busi­ness­man and com­mu­ni­ty leader with a focus on eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and local governance.
• Den­nis Linthicum, anoth­er Repub­li­can state sen­a­tor who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the effort to par­a­lyze the Ore­gon State Sen­ate and is barred from seek­ing reelection. 
• Tim McCloud, an entre­pre­neur and polit­i­cal new­com­er who argues that he brings a fresh per­spec­tive to the polit­i­cal landscape. 

Read and Linthicum will be their par­ty’s nom­i­nees for the autumn gen­er­al elec­tion. Each has an enor­mous, insur­mount­able lead over their rivals. Read has 70.83% of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic vote and Linthicum has 65.30% of the Repub­li­can vote. 

General election dynamics favor Democrats

Ore­gon has a strong Demo­c­ra­t­ic lean and 2024 is a pres­i­den­tial year, so Lath­rop, Boquist, and Linthicum will be at a seri­ous dis­ad­van­tage. What’s more, Read has run and won statewide before, while Ray­field and Stein­er are well known leg­is­la­tors who aren’t like­ly to lack for resources either. Democ­rats ought to be able to keep of these offices. But pol­i­tics can be unpre­dictable. We’ll take anoth­er look at how these races are unfold­ing in the weeks between now and the gen­er­al election.