Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who came to Portland City Hall promising to make dramatic changes to protect renters from rising prices, appears likely to lose her seat to a political newcomer who has pledged more support for property owners and neighborhood associations.
Political scientist and former city employee Mingus Mapps had a large lead over the incumbent in unofficial election returns updated Wednesday morning.
Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly and challenger Mingus Mapps.
OPB
If those results hold, Mapps will become just the fourth Black member to have served on Portland City Council. And Eudaly will become the second incumbent to lose their seat in four years.
In remarks to his supporters on Zoom Tuesday evening, Mapps said he interpreted the early results as a clear call for change.
“I’ll tell you that is a mandate,” he said. “This victory is a sign of just how hungry people are for a new kind of politics.”
In his remarks, Mapps teased a few of the priorities for his term: ending chronic homelessness, adding more affordable housing and creating a public safety system that would be “smaller, fairer, and more effective.”
Mapps went on to thank Eudaly, who he had sparred with a number of times on the campaign, calling her “a champion for renters and inclusion.”
Eudaly was notably less conciliatory in her concession remarks.
“I really think Portland is in for a surprise in the coming months and years when they realize who they’ve elected.”
With the re-election of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler looking likely, Eudaly said she believed Portland was not, as Mapps promised, charting a new course toward consensus, but rather moving backwards.
“We were poised to have one of the most progressive city councils that Portland has ever had and with the reelection of Mayor Wheeler and the election of Mingus Mapps, it’s a step backwards for progress, and it’s a win for big business and the landlord lobby and police unions," said Eudaly after the election results showed Mapps sweeping her out of office. “And I really don’t think it reflects Portland’s progressive spirit.”
“It’s unfortunate that voters couldn’t see clearly.”
