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Turnout | 66.91% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kotek: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 70–80% Drazan: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections in Oregon |
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The 2022 Oregon gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Oregon. Incumbent Kate Brown took office when fellow Democrat John Kitzhaber resigned on February 18, 2015. She won the subsequent 2016 special election [1] a full term in 2018.[2] Due to term limits, she was unable to run again in 2022.[3]
The Oregonian anticipated the election to have "the first competitive Democratic primary in more than a decade and potentially the closest such race since 2002."[4] Willamette Week anticipated a "wide open field of Democrats", citing the lack of an incumbent.[5] Almost 20 Republican Party candidates ran for the office, including two previous nominees for governor in 1998 and 2016,[6][7] as well as 15 Democrats and some non-affiliates/third-party members.[8] This was the state's first gubernatorial election since 2002 in which there was no current or former governor on the ballot.
In the May 17 primary elections, former Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek was declared the winner of the Democratic primary half an hour after the ballot deadline.[9] The next day, former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan was determined to have won the Republican primary.[10] Notably, the general election featured three prominent female candidates, including former state senator Betsy Johnson, who was a moderate Democrat, running as an independent.
Oregon was considered a possible Republican pickup, as Kate Brown had the lowest approval rating of any governor in the United States at the time and Johnson could have siphoned votes from Kotek.[11][12][13] Nonetheless, Kotek narrowly won the election, becoming Oregon's 7th consecutive Democratic governor.[14] She became one of the first lesbian governors in the United States, along with Maura Healey, who was elected Governor of Massachusetts the same day.[15]
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