Get ready to vote!

Also with me in the studio is OPB reporter Holly Bartholomew, who covers Portland's suburbs.

Hey, Holly.

Hey, Jen.

So Holly's been focused on Washington County this election cycle, and Holly...

You recently worked on a story with another member of the politics team, Bryce Dole, about how Washington County is kind of this microcosm for issues playing out at the national level.

Can you kind of break that down for

us? Exactly.

So some of the issues that we're seeing start to factor into elections on a national level are really concentrated in Washington County.

When the immigration crackdown swept through Oregon last fall, Washington County saw more ICE detentions than any other county in Oregon.

That's according to data from the Portland Immigrants Rights Coalition.

And at the same time, Washington County has 29 data centers, which is more than any other county in the state.

We also learned that this year that a lot of these data centers in Washington County are getting these massive tax breaks, foregoing millions in property taxes that would otherwise go to schools and local governments.

And that has amplified some of these frustrations we're seeing around data centers and their use of water and power that we're seeing all across the country.

You know, and it sounds like another way that Washington County elections kind of mirror national trends is that at both the county and city level, we're seeing progressive Democrats challenging more moderate incumbents.

Is that right,

Holly? Yeah.

That's exactly right.

So in this election and even going back to the May primary, we're seeing progressives, including some Democratic socialists, seize on these frustrations over ICE raids and data centers to challenge some of the more moderate or quote unquote establishment incumbents.

And these challenges from the left, like you said, reflect some big races that we've seen nationally.

I think of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who beat out a more moderate Democrat in the primary for Senate earlier this year.

And that's not, of course, that's not the only one.

All over the country, we're seeing progressives who are frustrated with the Democratic establishment for not getting enough done and failing to stand up to the Trump administration.

And they feel the party needs a stronger, more progressive approach.

And that's exactly what these progressives running for office in Washington County are saying.

They're saying moderate Dems have had power for a while.