In Christine Drazan’s most recent advertisement, the Republican gubernatorial candidate looks directly into the camera and promises she won’t ban abortions, she won’t cut healthcare, and she won’t let Washington, D.C. control Oregon.
The subtext: Drazan is not MAGA.
Much of the 2026 race for Oregon governor has been defined by the Democrats’ efforts to tie Drazan to President Donald Trump and his policies.
Drazan has tried to walk a fine line all Republicans running for statewide office in Oregon must overcome: To get elected, she can’t alienate her base but she must also appeal to more moderate voters who are persuadable. It’s been more than 40 years since a Republican running for governor has managed to succeed.
If elected, Drazan promised to continue enforcing the state’s sanctuary state laws. She doesn’t believe the 2020 election was rigged. And she said she believes in the integrity of vote-by-mail. All of this messaging is aimed at those moderate voters who have historically voted for Democrats but are tired of Oregon’s struggling schools, persistent housing problems and rising costs.
But mostly, Drazan has tried to pivot from Kotek’s messaging — a near constant drumbeat of pointing to the Trump administration — by focusing on Oregon’s persistent struggles under one-party rule by Democrats.
Her pitch has been fairly straightforward: The state is missing the right leadership. As House Republican Leader, Drazan wasn’t afraid to use procedural maneuvers and walkout tactics to slow the Democratic majority’s policies. As governor, she said she would improve schools, cut taxes and make the state business friendly.
For Ryan Duale, 38, who is an automotive collision repairman, in Milwaukie, Drazan’s message is resonating. Duale, who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, said he’s still digging into Drazan’s stances on the environment. But he’s optimistic the state senator could help give the state’s economy a jump start.
“I’m tired of hearing people saying Gov. Kotek is going to fight Trump. And I didn’t vote for Trump, but I just think it’s a talking point and I don’t agree so much with what the President stands for and does, but I want to focus on what we can do,” Duale said.
Duale said he feels left behind by Democrats who appear to be veering further away from working class people.
“It’s no secret Oregon isn’t a super business-friendly state and I would love to see it thrive, because it’s such a beautiful place,” Duale said.
Duale is the type of voter Drazan is hoping to win over.
Kotek, who is seeking a second four-year term, is not polling well.She’s almost as unpopular in the state as Trump. All public polling so far in the race has suggested it’s nearly deadlocked. The most recent polls suggest Kotek is gaining slightly more momentum.
Drazan and Kotek are familiar political opponents. Drazan was the Republican nominee in 2022, when she lost to Kotek in a rare three-person race that included former state Sen. Betsy Johnson. The two served overlapping tenures in the state Legislature. Drazan was House Republican Leader while Kotek was House Speaker.
In one of her behind-the-scenes videos posted on YouTube, Drazan enters a classic Northeast Portland home in Irvington where a couple who described themselves as “mostly lifelong Democrats” hosted the state senator and perfectly echoed her talking points.
“Considering changing parties and voting patterns is not an easy thing to do,” said Harry Bray, who co-hosted the party with his wife.
“We think [Drazan] is something special. We heard her speak before,” he said on the video. “Her vision is clear and being loyal Oregonians, we felt at a time like this, one needs to think of change.”
Drazan couldn’t have said it better herself.
Whether there are enough Harry Brays to win the governorship remains unclear,
OPB recently sat down with Drazan to talk about her vision for another term. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
In the last four years since you last did this, since you last ran for governor, what would you say is your most significant policy achievement?
I’ve been back for one session and I would say that in that session, it was a session that was dedicated primarily to that gas tax conversation. I am incredibly proud of the work that’s been done over time around wildfire response and homeless youth and a range of other policy issues that I’ve been engaged in and care deeply about. But in that last session that I was in the house, I would say having the ability to be able to stand up on behalf of Oregonians and ensure that a very, very, very expensive, unaffordable gas tax didn’t actually pass through the legislative session is something that I’m actually proud of, which is kind of a backwards and upside down thing to be proud of. But the responsibility fell to me and to our caucus to do that in the house, and we really didn’t have an alternative to that.
Here’s a question I know you’ve been getting a lot. I think that there are Democratically-leaning voters who are considering voting for you, but they are reluctant because they are worried about what your response will be to the federal administration. I’m sure you’ve heard that over and over. So let’s go through some of those. Let’s start with SNAP benefits and healthcare. The federal H.R. 1 bill would slash both of those benefits for low income Oregonians. Is that something that you stand behind, H.R. 1 in general, and what is your response to seeing Oregonians lose their food benefits?
I think it’s important to kind of level set a little bit from my side of how I look at these issues. I was raised in a family that was dependent on food stamps, and the social safety net is really, really important to Oregon families. It was important to my family, and I do not take lightly any changes to these programs. They are federal programs that have a state partnership level to them, and for SNAP in particular, that program has always included a work requirement, and they’re now taking a keen eye to what Oregon’s error rate looks like for SNAP benefits. Oregon needs to be accountable with its money, and so we are delayed in having any impact from how bad our error rates are because our error rates are so bad we’re actually being given sort of a safe harbor period to fix it. But for the federal government to demand that states that are implementing a fully federal program where we don’t actually have the kind of match in SNAP we do for administration, but not for match the way we do for Medicaid, for them to say you need to use that money wisely so that the most vulnerable citizens have access to it, I think is fair.
Democrats have spent a lot of money calling you MAGA. They’ve basically based a lot of their campaign on that. Are you MAGA?
I’m Christine Drazan, an Oregon Republican. I have been in politics in Oregon in one capacity or another since I was fresh out of college. I am not new to public service and I certainly am my own person. I always think the thing about the sort of quick and easy limit who you are as a person and give you a label is intended to divide us. I’m tired of being divided, period. I’m sick of it. I think it’s beneath Oregonians. I don’t think that it’s what most Oregonians want for themselves and their relationships at work or in their neighborhoods. I think that people are tired of feeling like we’re all opposing each other all the time. We’re not at war with each other. We’re fellow Oregonians. We all want this place to be better. We love living here. And so for my part, I talk about it all the time.
I am my own person and I have held my own party accountable and I have held the Democrats accountable in equal measure. As governor, I will serve the people of this state no matter who’s in the White House and no matter what brand of Republican comes out next. A few years ago it was the Tea Party. There’s always something.
One thing on your record that I’m a little unclear on is vote by mail, which is another topic