Republican holds slight advantage in Oregon governor’s race: poll

Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan is leading her Democratic opponent Tina Kotek by 2 percentage points in the race to become Oregon’s next governor, according to the latest Nelson Research poll.

About 43 percent of Oregon likely voters backed Drazan while roughly 41 percent supported Kotek, the poll showed.

Another 5 percent supported Independent candidate Betsy Johnson, a former Democrat and state lawmaker who has complicated the race for the two leading candidates.

Drazan holds a similar lead to the one she had in an Emerson College-The Hill survey released last month, which had the GOP nominee at 36 percent support to Kotek’s 34 percent.

In that poll, 19 percent of likely voters had supported Johnson.

Drazan is a former minority leader of the state’s House of Representatives, while Kotek is a former state House speaker.

If Drazan wins, she would be the first Republican to govern Oregon since the 1980s.

Both Drazan and Johnson spent a good part of a debate last month attacking Kotek for what they say are anti-police policies and supporting the rioters who razed Portland during a wave of summer protests in 2020.

Kotek has tried to distance herself from such accusations and in turn claimed she was the only candidate capable of addressing the rising issue of homelessness in Oregon.

The Nelson Research poll was conducted Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 among 577 likely voters. The margin of error was 4.1 percentage points.