Commentary: Amid big changes, Oregon goes steady-state

Across red and purple states, the election news Tuesday was big: Massive changes in places where few would have expected them, flips of control of both sides of the Congress. As for Oregon, well, it went along its usual path. You could even say that the national election results may mean more change for Oregon than its own state results did. The big Oregon contest this year, the one that generated serious effort on both the Democratic and Republican sides, was the race for governor. In the second faceoff between incumbent Democrat Tina Kotek and the Republican challenger Christine Drazan, the result was close to what it was in 2022. Even the roster of counties won by Kotek is remarkably similar. One question sometimes asked about an incumbent officeholder seeking re-election is, did they lose any major base of support — any large group of votes — since the last election?

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