First image: Christine Drazan waves to attendees while campaigning in the Westward Ho! Parade in Pendleton, Ore., on Sept. 18, 2026. Second image: Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek shakes hands with Dan Glenn of Pendleton at the VFW Outdoor Cowboy Breakfast in Stillman Park, in Pendleton, Ore.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Both major candidates for Oregon’s governorship were in Pendleton for the storied Round-Up — but that doesn’t mean they were ready to jump in the saddle.
“I’m not a horse rider,” incumbent Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek said Friday. “But maybe one day.”
Kotek’s opponent, Republican Christine Drazan, also passed on mounting a steed.
“Not for me,” she said. “A lot of people jump in the saddle that maybe shouldn’t.”
Equestrian skills can be a huge asset at the Round-Up’s Westward Ho! Parade, an event that requires participants to travel by foot, horseback or wagon wheel as they wind through the city. It’s the capstone of the four-day fall Round-Up, a major national rodeo and regional economic driver that brings upwards of 50,000 people to Eastern Oregon each year.
FILE - This Sept. 17, 2010, file photo shows Democratic gubernatorial candidate former Gov. John Kitzhaber riding a horse in the Westward Ho! parade during the Pendleton Round-Up, in Pendleton, Ore.
Rick Bowmer / AP
Former Gov. John Kitzhaber rode a horse often enough at Round-Up that it drew the attention of reporters who noted that he looked “very rancher-like on his horse in his trademark jeans.” But years after his tenure ended, Kitzhaber dismissed the idea that riding a horse at the parade gave him any sort of political advantage.
“I was mostly terrified,” he said, laughing.
The tradition of political candidates and elected officials attending the Round-Up goes back decades, even as the political map has shifted drastically in recent years. While Pendleton and Umatilla County may not be the deciding factor in a hotly contested gubernatorial race, all of the governors — whether current, former or aspiring — said it was still a key moment to connect with rural voters and constituents.
“If you’re governor, you’re representing the entire state,” Kitzhaber said. “You’re not just representing those seven or eight counties that you need to win an election.”
‘This is the fricking Pendleton Round-Up’
Drazan adjusts her cowboy hat before riding in the Westward Ho! Parade on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Pendleton has a long history as a political campaign stop, even outside the confines of Round-Up week.
Phillip Houk, a former three-term mayor, said John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Barack Obama all stopped through Pendleton on their way to winning the presidency.
Houk took it as a good sign that both Kotek and Drazan wanted to continue the tradition of coming out for the Round-Up.
“I think that it can make a difference,” he said. “I think if you look at the numbers, I think that they’re close. Every vote’s going to count.”
A recent poll showed Drazan, a state senator from Canby, narrowly leading Kotek in a gubernatorial rematch of the 2022 election. If Drazan wins, she would become the first Republican governor to serve Oregon since Vic Atiyeh left office in 1987.
All images: Eli Imadali / OPB.
While the Round-Up might be a favored campaign stop for candidates, it doesn’t exactly serve as a bellwether for the rest of the state. Kitzhaber was the last Democratic gubernatorial candidate to win Umatilla County, a landslide victory during his first reelection campaign in 1998. Since then, Republicans have dominated Umatilla County and the rest of Eastern Oregon, a trend that Kitzhaber’s 2010 political comeback couldn’t reverse.
While Eastern Oregon might be a political stronghold for the GOP, Republican statewide candidates like Drazan still need to compete for votes in the more populous, and Democratic-leaning, Willamette Valley.
It’s a matter of scale. Drazan handily won Umatilla County while getting blown out in Multnomah County in 2022. But due to the dramatic population differences, Drazan still received four times as many votes in her loss in Multnomah County than she did by winning Umatilla County.
Both candidates’ frequent campaign appearances in the Portland area reflect this reality. But both women also argued that attending the Round-Up was more than a detour for them.
“This is the fricking Pendleton Round-Up,” said Drazan, wearing a white western shirt, blue jeans and belt-buckle with a glint of turquoise. “This draws the state together. If you talk to people that are here visiting, they’ve come from all over the state because this is an iconic Oregon experience.”
Kotek, her western outfit accessorized by an Oregon belt buckle and beaded necklaces, said she planned to spend some time meeting with U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, while both were in town.
“You can have those quick conversations,” she said. “But for me, the most important thing is just hanging out with folks, hearing what they love about the Round-Up.”
Politics in the Round-Up city
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek shakes hands with Dan Glenn of Pendleton at the VFW Outdoor Cowboy Breakfast on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
The two current gubernatorial candidates may have been in town for the revelry, but examples of the state’s current issues occasionally intruded.
As Kotek munched on pancakes at a park as a part of a community breakfast put on by a local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the musical act hired to soundtrack the event bantered on stage between country songs. He told the audience how he had recently wanted to order a hamburger at a restaurant but had to pass on it after seeing the price.
“I was never so disappointed in a salad,” he said.
While Kotek chose to watch the parade from the audience rather than participate, organizers set up Drazan with a buggy drawn by two small horses. Drazan’s staging area was right by Pendleton City Hall, where a handful of unhoused people sat on benches behind the crowds gathered for the parade.
While both candidates’ policy platforms broadly focus on the same issues — affordability, education and housing among them — Drazan argued that Kotek’s performance over the past four years proved that Oregon needed a course correction.
“She is the one that’s made affordability worse,” Drazan said in an interview with OPB. “She’s the one that has put a PUC in place that’s allowed utility costs to go through the roof. She’s the one that has driven homelessness through the roof. All of these things are her responsibility as governor of the state of Oregon.”
All images: Eli Imadali / OPB.
Kotek defended her record, saying her administration’s work in her first term would provide a foundation for further progress in a second.
“I’ve never said the job is done, but we are making progress, and I think when people see that, they’re going to support me for another four years,” she told OPB.
Kotek has the support of Kelly Hager. Hager traveled from Medford to attend the Round-Up, a tradition that stretched back to when she was a child and her father would take her. At the community breakfast, Hager shook hands with the governor and introduced Kotek to her own two children.
While Hager said she voted for Kotek in 2022 and planned to vote for her again, she declined to say why she was supporting her over Drazan.
Drazan’s backers at the Round-Up were less shy. Supporters set up shop in a motel parking lot on the parade route, setting up a tailgate that served bratwursts and bloody marys.
Robin McDevitt was among the tailgaters who cheered as Drazan rolled by on her buggy. Although she splits her time between Idaho and Columbia City, a small Oregonian town north of Portland, McDevitt said she grew up in Dayville in Grant County. She was hopeful that Drazan might be the candidate that broke Democrats’ hold on the governor’s office.
Keenan Hayes of Colorado holds onto the horse, Midnight Special, as he bursts out of the chute in the bareback event on Friday.
Eli Imadali / OPB
“I used to be kind of liberal, and over time, I’ve become more and more conservative, because I can’t support liberal politics,” she said.
Former Gov. Kitzhaber said coming out to Pendleton was about more than earning more votes. By spending time in places like Pendleton, it helped him craft initiatives and policies important to the region.
“I think it’s really important for people, particularly from the valley and the metro area, to spend time in these rural communities to understand the world through their perspective,” he said.
Kitzhaber is keeping an eye on the race, but he said he isn’t publicly backing either candidate at this time. Although he served as a Democrat for his entire political career, Kitzhaber said he is now registered as a nonaffiliated voter.