Breaking down the Oregon gubernatorial race

Dirk, I wanna start with the, the big picture.

Nationally, Democrats are mounting serious challenges in Senate races in deep red states like Kansas and Texas, getting a ton of attention.

But as I mentioned, the governor's race in very blue Oregon is, according to polls, including an OPB one, a toss-up.

Yeah.

How do you explain that?

I mean, I think one factor is that people are just not happy right now.

In that poll you mentioned, we found that roughly 60% of likely voters, uh, don't think the, the state's headed in the right direction.

About the same percentage have a unfavorable impression of Governor Tina Kotek.

So I think on one level, voters are looking around, seeing a bunch of things they don't like about their state, and thinking about how Democrats have been in control for a very long time now.

Maybe they wanna try something else.

That's one factor.

I think the other factor is that this is just kind of how Oregon works.

We are very blue, as you say, in that we have not elected a Democratic governor for four decades, but it's rarely a blowout.

And, uh, you know, I think in each of the last two gubernatorial races, polling has been very, very close at this time in the race, and it doesn't always end up that way.

Dirk, I wanna start with the, the big picture.

Nationally, Democrats are mounting serious challenges in Senate races in deep red states like Kansas and Texas, getting a ton of attention.

But as I mentioned, the governor's race in very blue Oregon is, according to polls, including an OPB one, a toss-up.

Yeah.

How do you explain that?

I mean, I think one factor is that people are just not happy right now.

In that poll you mentioned, we found that roughly 60% of likely voters, uh, don't think the, the state's headed in the right direction.

About the same percentage have a unfavorable impression of Governor Tina Kotek.

So I think on one level, voters are looking around, seeing a bunch of things they don't like about their state, and thinking about how Democrats have been in control for a very long time now.

Maybe they wanna try something else.

That's one factor.

I think the other factor is that this is just kind of how Oregon works.

We are very blue, as you say, in that we have not elected a Democratic governor for four decades, but it's rarely a blowout.

And, uh, you know, I think in each of the last two gubernatorial races, polling has been very, very close at this time in the race, and it doesn't always end up that way.