Skip to main content
Political newcomer Rene Gonzalez appears poised to unseat first-term City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a hotly contested Portland City Council race that became a referendum on crime, homelessness and an anemic downtown.
Early returns on Tuesday evening show Gonzalez leading Hardesty by a 13-point margin, 56% to 43%.
Ballots are expected to arrive well into Wednesday, and it’s not uncommon for initial margins to substantially widen or narrow as batches of votes are counted.
At the Gonzalez watch party in the campaign’s downtown office headquarters, whoops and cheers erupted when preliminary results hit the television screen. Gonzalez, in a navy suit and red tie, threw his fist into the air when the results popped up.
The crowd was predominantly white and well-dressed. Cookie trays, an array of Mexican food, beers and seltzer waters were scattered in the different crevices of the campaign’s office space. Visitors spoke excitedly. Outside the doors were three security guards in plainclothes. No music played over the speakers inside.
“We couldn’t ask for a better place than where we are,” Gonzalez said, joined by his parents onstage.
Half a mile away in a low-lit jazz bar, over 100 Hardesty supporters sitting at wooden tables around the bar paid no attention to the results on the screen at the back of the bar. Instead, the Norman Sylvester Band crooned “Respect” by Aretha Franklin on the stage. People sipped wine and beer, chatting. Only 10 or so supporters peered at the projected results, looking disappointed. Hardesty was nowhere to be seen.
It felt not like an election party, but a weekend night at a jazz club.
Fifteen minutes after the first results came in, Hardesty took the stage, all smiles.
“We don’t know what we don’t know yet. But here’s what we do know: that Portlanders understand the choice ahead of us. We will be a city where all of us will thrive, or we’ll go back to saying, ‘Anything’s just fine. Nothing to see here,’” Hardesty said. “I love this city…you guys know me. It doesn’t matter what my title is. I’m going nowhere.”
She added: “We’re going to party for a little bit. Here’s what I know: I don’t have a lemon drop martini in my hand, and that’s a problem. And the second thing I know to be true: We are here to party. We have worked hard. We have put it all out there. And now it’s time for us to have a good time.”
Gonzalez, a lawyer and small business owner, ran on a platform of restoring law and order to Portland’s streets. He supports a ban on unsanctioned camping that would send houseless people through the criminal justice system and wants to beef up the police force, calling himself a “cheerleader” for police.
His platform stands in stark contrast to that of Hardesty, the first Black woman elected to City Council and a consistent critic of the Portland Police Bureau. Hardesty has seen a dramatic decline in her political fortunes since 2020, when she capitalized on the energy of street protests to eliminate a unit of the Police Bureau. Since then, rising gun violence and vandalism have left her on the losing side of several City Council votes. Last week, she was the lone “no” vote on the council against Mayor Ted Wheeler’s plan to build mass sanctioned campsites and ban street and sidewalk camping.
She’s also the only City Council member on the ballot this fall in an election season when being an incumbent has been viewed as a millstone.