AURORA – Oregonians voting in the 2026 governor’s race will decide between two familiar faces: State Sen. Christine Drazan and Democratic incumbent Gov. Tina Kotek.
The Republican state senator from Canby who lost to Kotek by a few percentage points in a three-way race in 2022 took an early lead in the Republican primary for Oregon’s 2026 governor’s race on Tuesday night, and the Associated Press called the race in her favor shortly before 9 p.m. Kotek, meanwhile, was handily defeating her nine lesser-known Democratic challengers.
Speaking to supporters at an Aurora winery shortly after that call, Drazan thanked her primary competitors and called for unity ahead of what she described would be a tough fight to unseat Kotek.
“You probably know lots of people in your life that say ‘I have never voted for a Republican in my life,’ and I’m going to ask you to have conversations with them and say, ‘What about now?’” she said.
State Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio was in second place with 31%, ex-NBA player and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley in third with 16%. Right-wing influencer David Medina and Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell were the only other candidates to receive more than 1%.
Polling leading up to May’s primary had put Drazan in the lead of the GOP’s race, with more than 30% of the vote of likely voters, though a significant portion of them had remained undecided. She has sought to portray herself as the clearest choice for GOP voters to seize control of Mahonia Hall in November, and her win sets upthe third instancein state history where voters have the same option from both parties twice in a row.
Her Republican opponents weren’t giving up Tuesday night. Dudley, watching results come in at his watch party at the Cheerful Tortoise in Portland, couldn’t avoid a basketball metaphor.
“It’s 2nd quarter and you’re down, so you’re not happy about being down. But it’s only the 2nd quarter. So we’ll see,” he said.
Diehl stayed optimistic, saying the night is still young as counties are still counting ballots. He celebrated the overwhelming defeat of a measure that would have increased the state’s gas tax and other transportation fees.
“There is one thing that we want to call now, and that’s the gas tax,” he said. “What that showed all of Oregon is that your voice matters. You stood up to a gas tax that you knew was wrong, and you didn’t accept Gov. Tina Kotek ramming it down your throats. That is a signal that the people of Oregon have a voice, and you will be heard.”
Drazan, 53, grew up in southern Oregon in a family that struggled financially as mills closed in the 1980s. She has spent most of her adult life in and around the Capitol, as a legislative staffer and lobbyist before she won election to the state House in 2018.
Months later, House Republicans chose her as their caucus leader, setting up tense showdowns with then-Speaker Kotek and walkouts over climate legislation and redistricting. Drazan left the House in January 2022 to run for governor, placing second to Kotek in a three-way race that also included nonaffiliated candidate and longtime state Sen. Betsy Johnson.
Drazan returned to the House in 2025 and was reelected as caucus leader before she even took office. She jumped to the Senate last fall when Sen. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles and her former deputy in the House, resigned to take a federal appointment.
Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican as governor since 1982, when then-incumbent Republican Gov. Vic Atiyeh capitalized on his ties to business communities and ability to navigate a severe economic recession. Following the successful push to get an anti-gas tax referendum on the May ballot, the party sees another opportunity to win the position and seize upon growing discontent with Kotek’s handling of issues such as low educational achievement, homelessness and economic development.
The potential rematch is likely to generate familiar opposition from Kotek’s well-funded campaign, the Democratic Party of Oregon and the Democratic Governors Association, who have sought to link the GOP gubernatorial candidate to the Trump administration in the midst of a competitive primary where voters lean further to the right than the general electorate.
Drazan, for instance,has sent conflicting messageson her position related to the president’s attempted deployment of the National Guard to Portland. She has said her focus is on addressing the cost of living and sought to distance herself from what she calls “divisive” national politics.
Senior reporter Alex Baumhardt contributed reporting from Portland and reporter Mia Maldonado from Stayton.
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