5 key things to know about the 2024 Oregon elections

Editor’s note: For Election 2024, OPB has been diligently following local races, providing comprehensive coverage of campaigns and measures. Check results on the presidential race, key congressional battles and other outcomes at OPB’s elections page.

The 2024 election is in the rearview mirror.

More than 3 million Oregonians who are registered to vote had their opportunity to shape their communities in recent weeks — from selecting local soil and conservation districts and city council seats to deciding taxing levies to electing some of the most powerful state and federal offices.

More details will emerge in coming days and weeks about just how many people participated in democracy, and a few races remain too close to call. But some themes and takeaways are clear.

Here are five big things to know.

Portland elected its most diverse City Council ever

Preliminary results in the Portland City Council race reflect a widely diverse lineup of new leaders. This is partially due to the sheer size of the council, which will increase from five to 12 members next year.

Ranging from ages 28 to 70, the new 12-person council is split equally between men and women. Five councilors are people of color and at least four identify as LGBTQ+.

And, due to the voter-approved plan to split Portland into four districts, this council will be the most geographically diverse — with three councilors representing each district. Only two city council members have lived in neighborhoods represented by East Portland’s District 1 in the city’s history (Jo Ann Hardesty and Randy Leonard, who served at different times). Now, three people will be representing this region in City Hall.

While all incoming councilors are registered Democrats, they broaden city government’s political spectrum. Five candidates earned endorsements from Portland’s Democratic Socialists of America branch, highlighting their commitment to left-leaning issues. Five candidates represent a more moderate lean, drawing support from Portland’s rank-and-file police union, the Portland Police Association, and businesses associations. This balance makes the incoming council more progressive than the current commission, which is made up of centrist politicians.

Out of a large pool of candidates, voters leaned to people with prior government experience, including current City Commissioner Dan Ryan, former City Commissioner Steve Novick, and former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith. And five other incoming councilors have worked for elected officials, ranging from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler to former Gov. Kate Brown.

Increasing diversity in Portland City Hall was a central mission of the 2022 ballot measure in which Portland voters agreed to remake city government by adopting ranked choice voting, creating district representation, and increasing the size of the city council.

Republicans won big nationally, but not in Oregon

At the state Republican election party on Tuesday night, the focus was on the federal level, where President-elect Donald Trump was cruising to victory.

For many of the Republicans in attendance, it made sense to fixate on the national level where they were doing well. A higher percentage of Oregon voters cast their ballot for Trump this election cycle than they did in 2016 or 2020, according to the latest returns. When it became clear Republicans were going to claim the U.S. Senate, the election night crowd erupted into applause and whooping.

A different story was unfolding at the state level. Once again, Republicans failed to secure a single statewide office. Democrats were elected to serve as state treasurer, secretary of state and attorney general. Republican Will Lathrop, running for attorney general, was the most viable Republican candidate and seemingly had the best shot this election cycle of nabbing a statewide seat for the GOP. He was beaten handily by Dan Rayfield, the Democratic nominee.

In the Oregon Senate, Democrats gained a supermajority, giving them an easier path to raise taxes. The balance of the statehouse will remain firmly in Democrats' control.

Oregonians were not in the mood to gamble on policy

Still stinging from a drug decriminalization experiment that many Oregonians believe turned out to be a disaster, voters seemed distrustful this year of shaking up state policy. Three ballot measures that could have ushered in notable changes fell short.

Most dramatically, voters rejected Measure 118, a business tax hike that promised to send payments out to every Oregon resident every year. Faced with a crush of attack ads paid for by big corporations — and the unanimous opposition of virtually every major player in Oregon politics, Democratic and Republican — voters shot down the proposal in a landslide.

Oregonians also opted not to tinker with state elections. Measure 117 would have introduced ranked choice voting to contests for statewide and federal offices, allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The measure got significant out-of-state support, but it was opposed by a significant segment of county clerks — the very people who would be charged with implementing the change. Oregon joined states around the country in declining changes to elections.

Lastly, voters rejected a proposal that would have created a commission to set the salaries of elected officials. Measure 116 was a reaction to a scandal involving former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, who took a questionable consulting contract while in office to supplement her $77,000 state salary. The measure also would have allowed lawmakers to avoid the politically tricky optics of giving themselves a raise. Voters weren’t sold.

Oregonians didn’t say no to everything this year. The passage of Measure 115 will bring Oregon in line with the rest of the country by giving lawmakers the ability to impeach statewide officials. Measure 119, which also passed, will make it easier for cannabis workers to unionize.

Democrats prevailed in high-profile congressional races

Residents of Oregon and Southwest Washington are finally free of the digital deluge of political advertising that have dominated waking hours for many months now. The Democratic Party has won both the race for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, flipping that seat from red to blue, and a rematch in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.

Oregon’s race features a historic win. Democratic state Rep. Janelle Bynum will be Oregon’s first Black member of Congress. Bynum ousted incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, registering her third straight election victory over her fellow Happy Valley resident in the process.

The race was billed as one of the most consequential in the nation and one of a handful that could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives. That control remained undecided as of Friday afternoon.

In Clark County, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez held onto her seat and bested Republican Joe Kent for the second time. Gluesenkamp Perez’s status as a moderate and her extensive campaign outreach and willingness to buck her party to work with Republicans appear to have paid dividends with voters.

Gluesenkamp Perez’s outspoken criticism of the Democratic Party as being out of step with her constituents could add to her national profile as the party attempts to regroup.

Portland’s eastern suburbs have not shifted as Republicans hoped

Legislative Republicans had plenty of opportunities to go on offense this year — and they seemed to zero in on one part of the state in particular.

In East Multnomah County suburbs like Gresham and Troutdale, the party had watched past races finish far closer than Democrats’ voter registration advantage would suggest. Reasoning that “east county” voters were leery of Democratic policies, Republicans poured big money into Senate and House races.

It didn’t work. State Sen. Chris Gorsek, D-Gresham, fended off a well-funded challenge by Republican Raymond Love. And Reps. Zach Hudson, D-Troutdale, and Ricki Ruiz, D-Gresham, withstood a rush of late spending by their GOP opponents to win reelection.

In all, it appears the balance of the state House will remain the same next year, with Democrats holding a 35-25 advantage — one seat shy of a three-fifths supermajority. And the party won an 18-12 supermajority in the state Senate, after flipping a Bend seat that Republicans had controlled for decades.