Oregon Republican nominee for governor Christine Drazan, in pink, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, in red, campaign together at a wedding venue in Aurora, Oregon. (Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
By JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle
AURORA – Republican Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis of Albany had a piece of trivia for the Christine Drazan supporters who filled a barn on Tuesday night: The last time Oregon had a Republican governor, the original “Top Gun” was in theaters.
“It’s time for a sequel,” Boshart Davis said before Drazan, the Republican nominee for governor, took the stage to Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone.”
The evening before county election offices began mailing ballots, hundreds of Drazan supporters – roughly 2,000, according to her campaign – traveled to the rustic wedding venue down a dead-end road lined with yard signs for Betsy Johnson, the nonaffiliated candidate in the race. They were there to hear from Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor of Virginia whose unexpected victory in that state’s 2021 election Drazan hopes to emulate.
Youngkin told the crowd conditions in Oregon resembled those he saw in Virginia last year – schools and businesses locked down because of the Covid pandemic, police feeling disrespected and Democratic leaders trying to “snuff out the spirit of Virginia.”
“Nobody thought that a Republican governor candidate could win in Virginia,” Youngkin said. “Sound familiar, Oregon?”
“This is your moment,” Youngkin told the crowd. “It’s your moment to take back your state, take back your schools, take back your law enforcement and make a statement that just like in Virginia will be heard around the world.”
With less than three weeks until Election Day, Drazan has a better shot at becoming governor than Republicans have had in decades. A poll announced Wednesday by the Kotek campaign showed Kotek leading, but all other polls from the past several months have shown Drazan at a slight advantage.
Drazan has also begun receiving support from Johnson donors – both Nike cofounder Phil Knight and the construction company Knife River Corporation switched in the past few weeks from writing big checks to Johnson to Drazan after polls indicated Johnson was unlikely to win.
President Joe Biden traveled to Portland last weekend to campaign for Kotek, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, will join her for a rally this weekend. Drazan brought Youngkin, whose path she hopes to follow.
“We are 3,000 miles away from the commonwealth of Virginia, but you know what we have in common with them? A commitment to change,” Drazan said.
Supporters waved Drazan signs and swayed with upbeat oldies pumping through loudspeakers – Youngkin took the stage to “Spirit in the Sky” and his speech ended with Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” which served as Bill Clinton’s 1992 theme song.
Drazan leaned into Clinton’s “it’s the economy, stupid” campaign messaging as she took questions from reporters after her speech, laughing when told that Biden described the economy as “strong as hell” when he stumped for Kotek on Saturday.
“Is that the response that he got when he said that from everybody at that event, too,” Drazan asked after laughing. “We have runaway inflation. In the state of Oregon, not just across the country but Oregon in particular, we have one of the highest tax burdens in the nation for families. We are one of the least affordable states in the nation to live, and that is because of Democrat policies that have insisted on raising taxes.”
Drazan also criticized Wednesday’s announcement from Oregon Chief Justice Martha Walters, 72, that she’ll retire by the end of the year, giving Gov. Kate Brown the chance to appoint her replacement. Walters and Justice Thomas Balmer, who also is retiring this year, are the only members of the court who weren’t Brown nominees, and their retirements mean the next governor will take office with a high court entirely appointed by Brown.
“Can you even imagine if a president of the United States within their term would have appointed all of the justices for the US Supreme Court? It’s shocking and it doesn’t serve Oregonians,” Drazan said. “It was a political ploy that shouldn’t have happened.”
Youngkin planned to travel to Arizona on Wednesday to campaign for that state’s Republican nominee, former news anchor and Trump acolyte Kari Lake. Lake is one of the nation’s most prominent election deniers and has repeatedly called the 2020 election “stolen” and “corrupt.”
Youngkin, like Drazan, acknowledged Biden’s victory and has walked a fine line of not embracing fraud claims while trying not to alienate the large share of Republican voters who say they don’t believe in the state’s election system. He told reporters that both Arizona and Oregon deserve Republican governors, and that he’ll work to get Drazan and Lake elected.
- Oregon Capital Chronicle is a nonprofit Salem-based news service that focuses its reporting on Oregon state government, politics and policy.