Top Oregon GOP gubernatorial candidates slam Kotek, trade few jabs at first debate

The Thursday evening event hosted by the Oregon Republican Party took place in Hillsboro, where a venue has hosted an annual GOP fundraising and networking dinner for the past several years. Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell, state Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, state Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, and former NBA player Chris Dudley met the party’s minimum fundraising requirements to qualify for the debate. Missing from the stage was the conservative influencer and Jan. 6 rioter David Medina, who failed to meet financial requirements established by the Oregon GOP to qualify for participation. 

The 90-minute debate opened with a prayer led by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee and a speech from state Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, who is running for U.S. Senate. Former TV meteorologist  Bruce Sussman and  Angela Todd, a Portland-based right-leaning influencer whose media platform has advocated for a Republican governor, moderated the debate. 

Although Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 1982 and only two Republicans have won statewide elections since 2000, Republicans have seized upon Kotek’s low favorability rankings as well as grassroots energy spurred by a successful signature-gathering campaign Diehl and Starr led to block transportation and gas tax hikes Kotek championed alongside legislative Democrats. Republicans on Thursday slammed her for hampering the state’s business climate and failing to improve upon poor educational outcomes in schools.

“We have a unique situation right now where there’s this common ground that crosses this urban-rural divide: taxes. Everybody’s complaining about taxes. Portland is shedding jobs right now, private sector jobs, they’re complaining about a lot of things the rest of the state has,” Diehl said. “And I will remind Tina Kotek and every voter from now until Election Day what she did with that tax and fee referendum.”

Candidates faced questions around four major issues: Housing and homelessness, business and industry, forestry and environment and community and safety. The last section was cut short due to time constraints. 

The four showed little disagreement to broader solutions for addressing those problems, such as lowering overall taxes or eliminating the state’s corporate activity tax, empowering law enforcement to more aggressively target criminals, and reducing regulations and permit barriers for housing production. 

Perhaps the most controversial moment occurred when Bethell took a swipe at Diehl for loaning himself $190,000 for his campaign and Dudley for receiving a $1 million donation from Nike co-founder Phil Knight.

“I’m obviously not the most-funded candidate on this stage,” she said. “I can’t loan myself money, and Phil Knight is not writing a check.”

Dudley in 2010 came within 23,000 votes of defeating Democrat John Kitzhaber, the closest any Republican gubernatorial candidate has come to winning in Oregon in decades. On Thursday, Dudley repeated several of his campaign talking points, stressing himself as an outsider who would be coming into Salem with a fresh perspective that could cross political divides.

“Salem’s problems will not be solved by somebody from Salem, I think that’s become abundantly clear,” he said. “We need someone.. who can present a vision of what Oregon can be and bring us together to get it that way. We need that, and Oregon can rebound.”

Drazan, who lost by fewer than 67,000 votes in a three-way race with Kotek and nonaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson in 2022, is a long-time figure in Salem who served two separate stints  as House minority leader, including spearheading a quorum-denying walkout in 2020 against then-House Speaker Kotek over cap-and-trade legislation.

“The number one question that we all need to be asking ourselves tonight is, who can beat Tina Kotek and make her a one-term governor? That’s what matters right now,” she said. “I am that candidate. I have the policy background. I have gone toe-to-toe with Tina Kotek. I have been in this fight, and I have the scars to prove it.”

The Democratic Party of Oregon held a virtual press conference ahead of Thursday’s debate, seeking to frame it around the candidates’ unwillingness to challenge President Donald Trump and Republicans in control of Congress. Issuing any sort of stern criticism of the federal administration could prove politically toxic for Republicans seeking to win over primary voters ahead of the general election, though some Oregon Republicans have expressed concern with issues such as the federal government’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

“There is a real disconnect, and that’s why we’re seeing this between Trump’s MAGA Republican Party and Oregonians,” Nathan Soltz, chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon, told reporters. “And that’s why in this primary, they know that they need MAGA backing, they need radical, right-wing support in order to be successful in a Republican primary. But Oregonians don’t share those values.”

Candidates take questions afterwards

Following the debate, all but one of the candidates attended a spin room to address and take questions from the press. A spokesperson for Drazan’s campaign said she would be returning to her campaign headquarters and meet supporters and volunteers for a watch party after the debate. She was the only candidate on stage to directly criticize the federal government for a failure to effectively put out fires on federal lands in Oregon, though she did not name Trump by name.

It’s a continuation of a longer trend for Drazan, who has largely avoided taking public stances on issues such as the federal administration as she attempts to solidify herself as a frontrunner who can remain viable in the general election against Kotek. One debate in Salem set for April 2 fell apart after Diehl and Dudley declined to participate because of Drazan’s absence. Last week, Drazan, who also skipped out on the GOP candidates’ first forum together in January, declined to attend a debate hosted by The Oregonian/OregonLive and KGW. 

One by one, Bethell, Dudley and Diehl spoke to reporters after the press conference. Asked about the lack of discussion about the federal administration, Bethell, for instance, said she believes her fellow candidates “don’t want to make people uncomfortable.” She said she felt that the state and its diverse populations didn’t get to have enough input into the 2025 GOP tax and spending law, adding that the federal government’s immigration policy has impacted Oregon’s agriculture and hospitality economy.

“I believe that some of my opponents wouldn’t want to be in that space because it’s uncomfortable for them to address. But I’m not that candidate,” she said. “I’m happy to talk about my positions and concerns around the president and some of the decisions that he’s made.”

Dudley, meanwhile, quickly brushed off questions about the federal government and Trump administration. When asked what makes him different from Drazan, he said he wasn’t aware of what her policies were and that he was more focused on his own platform. He said he was surprised that “there is not a little more ownership” of the problems facing Oregonians from the state lawmakers on the debate stage.

“People are upset at both sides of the aisle right now, that they haven’t figured out a way to work together and address these core issues,” he said. “I mean, it’s embarrassing for our state, where we are at so many different levels, I don’t always see that level of seriousness so much as just the politics. It’s all about getting re-elected.”

Diehl told reporters that he believes winning the governor’s race will give him the political capital to work on enacting his agenda through the Oregon Legislature. He plans to take issues that don’t make it through state lawmakers to the ballot by continuing his strategy of filing petitions for ballot referendums. Most recently, he has backed an effort by anti-tax activists to undo some provisions disconnecting Oregon from federal tax cuts passed by Democrats in the most recent legislative session.

He also distanced himself from Trump on two issues, saying that he would discuss tariffs with the federal administration “because they’re hitting some of our communities pretty hard” and Oregon is an export-heavy state. He didn’t say he opposed Trump’s attempted deployment of the National Guard to Portland, but noted that “as governor, the National Guard reports to me.”

“I’m 100% Oregon. It’s clear that I’m conservative, but I have not tied myself to him in any way. I never talk about him,” he told reporters. “The only time it comes up is when you guys are talking. I’m traveling all over the state, and I’m doing forums and everything, I am never asked about that, ever.”

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