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Portlanders now know the probable winners of a dozen seats on the 2025 City Council.
It’s a diverse group. The 12 include longtime union leaders, policy wonks, an economist, a nonprofit director, and one sitting city commissioner for continuity.
Naturally, the interest groups that have something to lose or gain at the city—the business community, nonprofit contractors, labor unions—are already counting votes to see if they have a majority that will further their policy interests.
We’re counting, too. In fact, we made a power ranking of who has the ears of the city councilors, ordering from 1 to 5 who had the best election night.
1. LABOR UNIONS
The Northwest Oregon Labor Council, a coalition of the biggest public-sector unions in the city (including Oregon AFSCME, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and LiUNA), endorsed eight out of the 12 future city councilors: Tiffany Koyama Lane, Candace Avalos, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Dan Ryan, Eric Zimmerman, Olivia Clark, Jamie Dunphy and Steve Novick.
Those unions all represent city employees. Several labor contracts at the city are close to expiring, meaning negotiations are either imminent or ongoing. Some of the demands made by the labor unions have made the current City Council bristle, so the turnover promises a new era of solidarity.
Laurie Wimmer, executive secretary-treasurer of the Labor Council, says the political action committee convened this fall by her group, which included the fire union and the Portland Association of Teachers, is “pleased that 11 of the 12 city councilors will be labor-friendly endorsed candidates.” (The 12th, Sameer Kanal, is also labor-friendly—he just got in the race late.)
2. THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA
The socialist group, which wants an end to evictions and investments in Israel, endorsed and aggressively knocked doors for only two candidates across all four districts: Tiffany Koyama Lane in District 3 and Mitch Green in District 4. Both won seats on the council. Moreover, an additional three candidates are likely to at least be friendly with DSA’s policy aims: Sameer Kanal in District 2, Candace Avalos in District 1, and Angelita Morillo in District 3. So five out of 12 are likely open to the group’s aims.
“The election results are exactly what the Portland Metro Chamber feared when they opposed democratic reforms to City Council in the first place,” says Brian Denning, co-chair of the DSA in Portland. “Included amongst the new council will be both of our endorsed candidates, three members of DSA, and five councilors who signed our renters’ bill of rights pledge. We know the bosses and real estate interests will pivot to opposing our agenda—but we have the power of a working-class movement tired of political inaction here and abroad.”
The DSA’s policy priorities, Denning adds, include addressing “Portland’s cost-of-living crisis, ecological threats from corporations like Zenith Oil, and the spiraling U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza.”
3. SOCIAL JUSTICE NONPROFITS
These include the Latino Network, the Coalition of Communities of Color, and Verde, which all benefit from city grant funding. That means they have something to protect.
Lucky for these nonprofits, they have one especially strong advocate on the future council—Candace Avalos, who will surrender her current job as executive director of Verde—and a handful of others that are friendly to them, including Morillo, Green, Pirtle-Guiney, Dunphy and Novick.
Jenny Lee, director of a political action committee set up by social justice organizations in support of progressive candidates this electioncycle, says that “ranked-choice voting has resulted in the type of City Council we envisioned, with a wide range of backgrounds, gender parity, and diversity in race, age and experience.” Seven of the PAC’s endorsed candidates won a seat on the City Council.
4. PORTLAND METRO CHAMBER
The chamber of commerce, formerly known as the Portland Business Alliance and long a driver of policy in City Hall, secured four candidates likely to support most of its policy aims. The four include Dan Ryan, Olivia Clark, Eric Zimmerman and Loretta Smith. Others that the Metro Chamber also endorsed—but are less likely to move in lockstep with the business community’s desires—include Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Steve Novick.
That gives the Metro Chamber a likely six out of 12 supporters on the City Council—that means it’ll compete, but it might not win. That’s a humbling result for a faction used to getting its calls returned first.
The chamber’s political action committee, United for Portland, spent only modest amounts promoting City Council candidates. Instead, it spent the bulk of its money on former Mayor Sam Adams’ bid for Multnomah County commissioner. No dice: Shannon Singleton beat him.
The chamber says it’s nevertheless pleased with the 12 members of the new council. “Half of the newly elected council was directly supported by United for Portland,” says the Metro Chamber’s vice president of public affairs, Jon Isaacs. “While there will be some ideological differences on the new council, we observed throughout the campaign that there was broad agreement on the big priorities of ending unsheltered homelessness, jumpstarting housing production, improving public safety, and re-establishing Portland’s cleanliness and livability.”
5. PUBLIC SAFETY UNIONS
Perhaps no interest group seemed to have as much momentum going into the election as the unions that represent cops and firefighters. But it’s not clear what kind of coalition the public safety unions can cobble together now.
The police union has five winners on the City Council that it endorsed: Eric Zimmerman, Olivia Clark, Steve Novick, Dan Ryan and Loretta Smith. Five out of 12 is a strong showing, though the Portland Police Association’s endorsement of Novick is a bit of a puzzler, considering his reputation as a staunch progressive during his last City Council term.
Aaron Schmautz, president of the PPA, says the union is “committed to working with all of our newly elected leadership to continue moving towards a woven and comprehensive approach to addressing our most pressing issues.”
Schmautz declined to say whether he felt the PPA had enough votes on the City Council to push forward its policy aims, such as increasing the number of sworn officers to 1,000.
The Portland Fire Fighters’ Association saw four of its endorsement picks land on the council. While three were also endorsed by the police union, the fire union also endorsed Jamie Dunphy in District 1—a bit of a surprise.