Oregon lesbians win gov primary, lead in House contest
Oregon voters now have a chance to elect the first lesbian governor of a West Coast state and could send the first lesbian from the region to Congress following the outcome Tuesday in the state's party primaries.Oregon Speaker of the House Tina Kotek handily won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in the Beaver State.
Running against two opponents, Kotek received 57% of the vote according to unofficial returns May 18. While the Republican primary race had yet to be called, the minority leader of the state's House of Representatives, Christine Drazan, was in first place with nearly 24% of the vote.Should Kotek win the race come November, she would be the country's first lesbian governor and only the second LGBTQ top statewide official in the three-state West Coast region.
Bisexual Oregon Democratic Governor Kate Brown is termed out of office this year."My heart is full of gratitude. Because of you, because of the team that we built, and because of grassroots power across the great state of Oregon — we have won the Democratic primary for governor," Kotek wrote in a May 18 email to supporters.In the closely watched race for Oregon's newly drawn 5th Congressional District, former Santa Clara City Councilmember Jamie McLeod-Skinner is so far leading with 61% of the vote against the incumbent, Congressman Kurt Schrader (D-Canby).
But a balloting snafu has delayed the vote count, with just 53% of precincts having reported results as of Wednesday morning."Clackamas County — the most populous county in our district — had a printer error with smeared barcodes on some of their ballots, which will delay election results," McLeod-Skinner's campaign explained in a May 17 email three hours after the polls closed at 8 p.m.
