Three governor races to watch. Oregon first:
Perhaps most surprisingly, Oregon could see a Republican back in the governor’s office for the first time since 1987.
Oregon’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan is currently leading her Democratic opponent Tina Kotek by 0.4 percentage points, 37.8% to 37.4%, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average.
A third-party candidate, Betsy Johnson, could siphon votes away from Kotek and give Drazan the victory on Election Day.
The candidates had their final debate this week, giving voters one last chance to see all three women matched up against each other.
“The stakes are really high, in part because there’s a large number of undecided voters in Oregon,” Christopher Stout, associate professor of political science at Oregon State University, told KGW 8. “I think in almost any election, people have already decided who they’re going to vote for. But in this case, because we have three really qualified candidates, a lot of voters are trying to make their final decision.”
Stout noted that Drazan “set the tone” of the debate early on in the night.
“Her response was that we need to show compassion and understand what they’re going through,” Stout said about Drazan’s response to a question about homelessness, noting it was evident Drazan was courting independent voters. “This kind of hearkens back to an idea of a ‘compassionate conservative’ that we saw in the early 2000s with George W. Bush.”
More information on this race can be found here.