Of the 32 candidates our member-led process chose to endorse, 25 won outright, 4 advanced to a runoff in November, and 3 came up short.
Shemia Fagan, our choice for Secretary of State, had a historic come from behind victory due to late voters breaking heavily for Fagan after the state’s largest newspaper called the race for her opponent. Our Union, along with many other partners, put in hundreds of hours making calls, sending texts, and getting out the vote in the final days of the campaign. This field effort was likely the deciding factor in our progressive champion advancing to the November general election.
Two SEIU 503 members ran in this election. Homecare worker Deb Patterson received more than 90% of votes in the Democratic Senate District 10 Primary and will have a competitive fight to win the general election in November. PSU worker Rob Fullmer found himself running against a physician during a pandemic and wasn’t able to reach his goal of representing the people of House District 36, but ran an impressive, grassroots campaign.
Khanh Pham won an astounding 86% of votes in a highly contested election against a former Multnomah County Chair and, without an opposing candidate in the November election, will be the first Asian American to represent House District 46, which has some of the highest densities of Asian Americans in Oregon. WLnsvey Campos won a difficult race to advance to the general election to represent Beaverton and Aloha in House District 28. Nafisa Fai endured attacks and negative campaigning to secure the plurality of votes and advance to a November runoff for Washington County Commissioner.
There’s still work to do in the November General Election, but our Union has positioned ourselves to have elected leaders across Oregon who will fight for working families. Here are the outcomes of races for candidates SEIU 503 endorsed.
Federal
Jeff Merkley, U.S. Senate ✅
Suzanne Bonamici, Congressional District 1 ✅
Earl Blumenauer, Congressional District 3 ✅
Peter DeFazio, Congressional District 4 ✅
Mark Gamba, Congressional District 5 ❌
Statewide
Shemia Fagan, Oregon Secretary of State ✅
Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon Attorney General ✅
Tobias Read, Oregon State Treasurer ✅
Oregon State Senate
Deb Patterson, Senate District 10 ✅
Kate Lieber, Senate District 14 ✅
Kathleen Taylor, Senate District 21 ✅
Oregon State House of Representatives
Paul Evans, House District 20 ✅
Brian Clem, House District 21 ✅
WLnsvey Campos, House District 28 ✅
Debbie Boothe-Schmidt, House District 32 ✅
Dacia Grayber, House District 35 ✅
Rob Fullmer, House District 36 ❌
Rachel Prusak, House District 37 ✅
Khanh Pham, House District 46 ✅
City of Portland
Ted Wheeler, Portland Mayor RUNOFF
Carmen Rubio, Portland City Commissioner Position 1 ✅
Multnomah County
Sharon Meieran, Multnomah County Commission Seat 1 ✅
Jessica Vega Pederson, Multnomah County Commission Seat 3 ✅
Lori Stegman, Multnomah County Commission Seat 4 ✅
Beaverton
Denny Doyle, Beaverton Mayor RUNOFF
John Dugger, Beaverton City Council Seat 3 ❌
Washington County
Nafisa Fai, Washington County Commissioner Seat 1 RUNOFF
Eugene
Lucy Vinis, Eugene Mayor ✅
Salem
Virginia Stapleton, Salem City Council Ward 1 ✅
Trevor Phillips, Salem City Council Ward 3 ✅
Vanessa Nordyke, Salem City Council Ward 7 ✅
Lane County
Laurie Trieger, Lane County Commission Seat 3 RUNOFF