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Supporters listen to Keith Wilson as he addresses the crowd at an election night party Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at Old Town Brewing.
Brandon Swanson / OPB
Keith Wilson has maintained a significant lead in the Portland mayor’s race, enough for the Oregonian/OregonLive.com to declare him the winner.
Wilson, the 61-year-old CEO of Portland trucking company Titan Freight, crossed the threshold of ballots needed to remain in the lead under the city’s new ranked-choice voting system at the 5:10 p.m. update on Wednesday. His top opponents in the race, Portland City Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Rene Gonzalez, have both called Wilson to concede the race.
In this new system, voters rank candidates by preference. Candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated after each round, and their votes are redistributed to voters’ next choices. Candidates must earn at least 50%, plus one of the votes counted to win — which is also called the ballot threshold. After Wednesday’s ballot count, Wilson was the first to pass that threshold. Wilson was also in the lead in the initial ballot release at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
“I’m so humbled,” Wilson told OPB after the Oregonian called his race Wednesday evening. “I’m incredibly happy that we have this opportunity to really bring a different vision to Portland.”
On Wednesday night, Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio was closest behind Wilson’s lead. Yet she called Wilson to concede shortly after the results dropped.
“In terms of our next mayor, I’m glad that we have someone who clearly believes in Portland,” Rubio said in an emailed statement. “My hope for [Wilson] is that he enters city hall with a desire to listen and learn from those who have been working hard to get Portland back on its feet.”
City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez was trailing Rubio in the evening’s preliminary results. Per the results, Wilson pulled in 19,000 votes from people who ranked Gonzalez first to ultimately solidify his lead.
“I have just called to congratulate our next mayor, Keith Wilson, on a race well run,” said Gonzalez in a statement shared with OPB Wednesday evening. “It is time for all Portlanders to rally behind him as we work to make Portland all that we want it to be and a city we can once again be proud of.”
Multnomah County, which oversees city elections, anticipates counting at least 115,000 more ballots this election cycle. It appears that won’t be enough to skew the outcome of this race.
Wilson was the top political outsider in the 19-person mayoral race, competing against three current city commissioners. That became a key talking point: “Electing one of our failed city leaders into the Mayor’s office will double down on the dysfunction of the status quo,” Wilson wrote in a candidate questionnaire submitted to OPB/The Oregonian.
Wilson’s campaign centered on an ambitious plan to end unsheltered homelessness by 2026 solely by expanding the city’s shelter capacity and strengthening the city’s beleaguered partnership with Multnomah County to oversee homeless service programs. He also pledged to crack down on carbon emissions, in part by converting all city vehicles to run on electricity (which Wilson did to all Titan trucks in 2023).
Wilson said he has a plan to transfer ownership of Titan before the new year, as elected leaders in Portland cannot hold second jobs.
Wilson will be the first mayor in Portland’s new form of government. Under this voter-approved change, the mayor will no longer sit on City Council and will instead focus on running city departments alongside a new city administrator. The plan also expands the size of City Council to 12 members. Those councilors will also be decided in this week’s election. Several candidates in those races are leading in early returns, but results remain preliminary.
Wilson said he is eager to get to know his new colleagues in City Hall.
“I look forward in the coming weeks having real intentional conversations with each new councilor to see what vision of Portland they have,” Wilson said. “The message from voters is clear. They want change in how we’re caring for Portland. So we’re going to listen.”