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Democratic Sen. Shemia Fagan (East Portland) is comfortably leading Republican state Sen. Kim Thatcher (Keizer) for Oregon secretary of state.
Fagan, 39, who hasn't lost a race since she first ran for David Douglas School Board, was a late entrant into the Democratic primary. After Rep. Jennifer Williamson (D-Portland) quit the race in advance of a WW story on her campaign expenditures for travel, public employee unions recruited Fagan into the race.
She outspent Thatcher 3 to 1, and in a year when Democrats eagerly came to vote out President Donald Trump, her victory is to be expected.
But Republicans apparently kept the race competitive enough for donors to keep the fight going. That's despite the fact that Thatcher has taken hard-line Republican positions on immigration and vote by mail (she raised concerns about its security, like President Trump).
As of 10 pm, Fagan has 52% of the vote to Thatcher's 42% with the remainder going to third-party candidates.
"It appears likely that I will be your next secretary of state," said Fagan.
Speaking to the Democratic Party of Oregon online live feed, she noted the many changes to Oregonians' lives caused by the pandemic: "The one thing that has not changed is resiliency of the Oregon vote-by-mail system," she said, adding the importance of waiting for all the votes to be counted.
"As our country waits for the results of our presidential election, we get to show them how we do it here in Oregon," she said. "That it doesn't matter if we get the results when we want them, it matters that we get the results right. We will wait as long as it takes for every vote to be counted."
Fagan said she and Thatcher had not yet spoken, and she expected they would talk tomorrow.