After Nearly 40 Years of Democratic Governors, Is Oregon Better Off?

After Nearly 40 Years of Democratic Governors, Is Oregon Better Off?

Opinion

Four years ago, Christine Drazan took 44 percent of the vote to Tina Kotek’s 47 percent. She lost by three points. Since then the numbers have given her argument a lot more to work with.

The decline did not start in 2023, and it would be dishonest to say so. Oregon has had a Democratic governor since 1987, and Kotek served as House Speaker from 2013 to early 2022 before she became governor. That is close to four decades of one party at the top and a decade of the current governor helping run the Legislature. When the same approach keeps producing the same results, voters are allowed to ask whether it’s time to try something else.

Homelessness. HUD counted 17,959 homeless Oregonians in 2022 and 20,142 in 2023. The next two years brought 22,875 and then roughly 27,200, a 19 percent jump in a single year. Oregon has the second-highest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the country, behind only California. Kotek declared an emergency on her first day and has extended it three times. Her office says the effort created or maintained 6,286 shelter beds and rehoused 5,539 people. That is real work, and state officials also say better counting in Multnomah County explains part of the increase. But the count has gone up four years running, and a program that does not move that number deserves a hard look.

Drugs. WalletHub ranked Oregon third worst in the nation for drug use and addiction. Drazan has been on the record about Measure 110 for years. In 2024 she told lawmakers the Democrats’ recriminalization bill would not do enough, and later that spring the Legislature recriminalized possession anyway. She says the goal now is to “cut off access to fentanyl and support programs that help people get clean and stay clean.”

Schools. About 40 percent of Oregon students were proficient in math in 2019. By 2023 and 2024 that was around 32 percent. In 2024-25 it was 31.5 percent. WalletHub ranked Oregon’s school systems 47th last year and now puts them fourth worst in the nation. Scores did tick up last year, the first overall gain since testing resumed after the pandemic. That is welcome news, but it leaves the state far below where it was.

Jobs and business. Oregon lost 18,600 payroll jobs between January 2025 and January 2026 and ranked 48th among the states in job growth. The state’s own economists note that Oregon used to grow faster than the nation. CNBC’s business rankings tell the same story over time. Oregon was 17th in 2017, then 28th in 2024 and 39th in 2025. This summer it fell to 42nd, even though Kotek had set a goal of cracking the top 10. The Tax Foundation ranks Oregon’s corporate tax climate 49th.

Cost of living and safety. The Common Sense Institute ranks Oregon the fifth least affordable state for essentials, and that ranking has not changed since 2019. The average Oregon household now spends about $18,300 more a year on essentials than it did in 2019, compared with $15,400 more nationally. U.S. News ranks the state 46th in crime and corrections.

What Drazan would do. Her plan is specific. She would order a review of the state rules, fees and mandates that drive up costs, veto new tax increases, protect the kicker, speed up permitting so homes get built, and audit homelessness spending, with more weight on addiction recovery, mental-health treatment and measurable results. Her view is that state government has kept growing while families tightened their budgets. Nobody can promise that will fix everything. But it is a real change in direction, and the current direction has been tested for a very long time.

Oregon has not elected a Republican governor in more than four decades. Voters who like the numbers above already have a candidate. Voters who don’t have another choice on November 3.

Sources

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