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Nike co-founder Phil Knight wrote a $2 million check to the Bring Balance to Salem political action committee last month.
Knight’s Feb. 15 contribution to the PAC, which supports Republican legislative candidates, only showed up in filings with the secretary of state on March 15 because committees currently have 30 days to disclose transactions. (That disclosure window shortens as the calendar moves closer to the May 21 primary.) The Oregon Capital Chronicle first reported Knight’s new contribution.
Earlier this month, lawmakers adopted campaign finance limits to reduce the influence of large donors on statewide and legislative races. They did so after years of inaction on campaign finance limits because of the threat of dueling ballot measures penned by reformers and public employee unions aimed at the November ballot. Because lawmakers acted, Knight and other big donors will operate in future under the new contribution limits lawmakers passed.
But not for a while. If Gov. Tina Kotek signs House Bill 4024, as expected, the law would go into effect 91 days after the end of session—March 7—but the new limits wouldn’t be effective until Jan. 1, 2027.
There was discussion of implementing limits in January 2025, but elections officials determined that would be impossible. Implementing them in January 2026 would split the 2025-26 election cycle in a way that could disadvantage some candidates, so the parties agreed that the new limits would go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
The law would limit contributions to $3,300 per candidate per election (the primary and the general are for purposes of the law considered separate elections) or $5,000 per two-year cycle to a PAC that supports multiple candidates, such as Bring Balance to Salem.
Knight, by far Oregon’s wealthiest person (Bloomberg pegs his net worth at $40.5 billion), has long been Oregon’s largest individual donor. In the 2022 governor’s race, he gave the unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson $3.75 million and Republican nominee Christine Drazan $1.5 million.
Jason Kafoury, a Portland lawyer who is part of Honest Elections Oregon, the architects of Initiative Petition 9, the proposed ballot measure that gave reformers leverage, says Knight’s check illustrates the point he and his allies have been making.
“This billionaire’s $2 million donation is exactly why we have worked for decades for contribution limits—and to prevent billionaires from dominating our elections,” Kafoury says.