Incoming state Rep. Christine Drazan, seen here during her 2022 run for governor, is returning to the role of House minority leader.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Republicans in the Oregon House went looking for their sixth leader in as many years on Monday evening — and landed on a familiar name.
Incoming state Rep. Christine Drazan, who used delay tactics and walkouts to exert influence during a prior stint as House minority leader, will once again pilot the caucus during next year’s legislative session.
The Canby Republican prevailed in a closed-door caucus meeting. State Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, told OPB he also submitted his name for consideration.
The vote marks an emphatic return to the Capitol for Drazan, who served in the House from 2019 to early 2022 — including two years as Republican leader — before stepping down to focus on a run for governor. She lost that race to Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and, this year, mounted a successful comeback run for her old seat.
Now, she is back in the leader’s office after current Republican Leader Jeff Helfrich indicated last week that back-biting within the GOP caucus had helped prompt him not to seek another stint in the job.
“I’m deeply honored that my Republican colleagues have placed their trust and confidence in me to serve as their leader,” Drazan said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to fighting alongside them every day for a future that puts the people of Oregon ahead of political partisanship. We have a lot of work to do.”
The House Republican swap is not the only notable leadership change in the wake of the Nov. 5 election.
Senate Democrats announced over the weekend they’d decided to change their caucus leader just five months after picking their last one.
The 18-member caucus opted not to keep Sen. Kathleen Taylor, D-Portland, as Senate majority leader. Democrats instead named state Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, to the post.
Parties routinely elect (or reelect) leadership following elections, but the sudden shift away from Taylor has surprised some political observers. The longtime senator won the majority leader role in June, after then-leader Kate Lieber stepped down to become the Senate’s top budget writer.
State Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, has been named Senate majority leader.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Taylor hasn’t made any obvious public missteps since. In this year’s election, she helped her party defend a hotly contested Gresham Senate seat and flip a Bend seat that Republicans have held for decades. As a result, Democrats will hold a three-fifths supermajority in the Senate next year.
But Taylor’s leadership wasn’t without critics. After she fired policy aides in the Senate Majority Office and then signaled she would get rid of a respected communications staffer, Taylor angered some Democratic senators, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. That created a willingness to challenge her at a weekend retreat on the Oregon Coast.
Neither Taylor nor Jama granted an interview on Monday. Jama, who has served in the Senate for four years and chairs an influential committee on housing, said in a statement he was “honored to have the trust of my colleagues, and I’m grateful for the incredible leadership team at my side.”
As majority leader, Jama will help push his party’s agenda through the chamber. But in reality, the role is secondary to that of Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, the Senate’s top Democrat, who will once again be nominated by his party at the outset of next year’s session. Wagner has broad authority to issue committee assignments and decide which bills are called up for a vote.
Drazan’s approach to leadership, meanwhile, will have a major influence on how the House operates next year.
During her first stint as minority leader, Drazan insisted that her party be consulted on policy by majority Democrats. When she felt Republicans were being steamrolled, she didn’t hesitate to launch tactics aimed at slowing or blocking Democrats’ priorities.
In 2020, House Republicans walked away from the Capitol over objections to climate change legislation Democrats planned to pass. That boycott prevented the House chamber from voting and eventually led Democrats to adjourn the session after passing just three bills.
The following year, Drazan and minority Republicans used parliamentary tactics to slow bills’ passage to a crawl — both by insisting legislation be read in full before a final vote and by speaking at length about even seemingly minor proposals.
That standoff ended when Kotek, then the House speaker, agreed to give the GOP equal footing on committees to draw legislative districts. Kotek wound up backing out of that deal at the last minute, cementing a chilly relationship with Drazan that continues to this day.
Relations between party leaders in the House have warmed since Drazan and Kotek left the chamber. Former Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, found a productive relationship with Drazan’s successor, Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville.
And current House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, worked closely with Helfrich on a number of bills this year, notably passing legislation that will institute campaign contribution limits in Oregon for the first time in decades.
It’s an open question whether Fahey and Drazan will also work well together. Drazan did not immediately respond to a request for an interview Tuesday.
In the Senate, Wagner has worked to improve relationships with Republicans following a weekslong GOP walkout in 2023 that brought the session to the brink of collapse and resulted in most Senate Republicans forfeiting their ability to seek reelection.
But those inroads extend only so far — and signs of possible tension in next year’s legislative session are already emerging.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, sent a letter to other senators saying that Wagner’s leadership had been “plagued by chaos and dysfunction, overshadowing the critical work Oregonians expect us to deliver.”
The reason for Bonham’s letter, he said, were comments Wagner made in a press release that touted “major bipartisan legislation over the past two years.”
While there’s no doubt the Legislature has hammered out weighty deals on semiconductor incentives, housing policy and drug laws, Bonham said Wagner’s version of events conveniently skipped over the bills on gun control and transgender care that prompted the GOP to walk out in 2023.
“His inappropriate response to these concerns resulted in the longest walkout in Oregon Legislative history,” the letter read. “His signature alone, that deemed Republicans ‘disorderly,’ led to six Senate Republicans being barred from seeking reelection in 2024. Next cycle, four of us face the same unjust fate.”
Bonham, who was reelected leader last week, closed the letter saying Republicans are ready to work with Democrats if they “move beyond partisan power grabs, end the culture of chaos, and commit to meaningful cooperation.”
In response, a spokesperson told OPB Tuesday that Wagner is “extremely proud of the Senate’s record of finding common ground during his tenure ... He is looking forward to continuing to actively engage with all members to build policies that benefit Oregonians across the state.”
Democrats will hold a 18-12 supermajority in the Senate next year, theoretically allowing the party to pass nearly any bill without a single Republican vote. House Democrats are hopeful the outcome of a razor-thin race in Woodburn will also give them a supermajority in that chamber.
