Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan brought her campaign to Philomath on Tuesday and told a crowd of more than 60 people gathered at Miller Timber that she’s counting on small towns to help power a second run at the governor’s office.
Drazan, a state senator from Canby, is seeking a rematch with Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek after losing to her by less than 4 percentage points in a three-way race in 2022. She won the Republican nomination in this year’s May primary out of a 14-candidate field.
The event was staged in the Miller Timber parking lot, where Matt Mattioda — the company’s chief forester and senior vice president of cut-to-length systems — led a 37-minute question-and-answer session with Drazan covering her reasons for running again, priorities for a first term, housing affordability, forest management, business opportunities, homelessness and drug addiction, general cost-of-living concerns, and Oregon Initiative Petition 28, a measure that would reclassify hunting, fishing, livestock farming and standard animal breeding as forms of animal abuse.
Drazan spent roughly eight minutes on homelessness alone, walking through state spending figures and connecting the issue to drug addiction, mental health and the dangers of fentanyl.
“Sometimes change comes slow, sometimes change comes fast,” Drazan told the crowd. “The beautiful thing about this election is that we have the opportunity for change to come fast, and for common sense to come down like a ton of bricks across our state. We need it so desperately and this is our opportunity to get it done.”
Following the Q-and-A, Drazan talked with Philomath News for a short interview. Asked what she hopes to get out of a stop in a small town that she wouldn’t in a bigger media market like Portland or Salem, Drazan pointed to her own roots.
“Oregon’s small towns are really incredibly critical to our lives here, and as much as I’m going to spend quite a bit of time in the metro area, I’ll never leave small towns behind,” she said. “I’m from a small town, I was born in Klamath Falls, was raised in Eagle Point, so small town Oregon is an Oregon I love, and so that’s important to me.”
Benton County — and Philomath in particular — has favored Democrats in recent elections. Asked about her pitch to local voters who may not have supported her before, Drazan framed the race as being less about party than performance.
“I believe that the leadership that we have right now in Oregon really isn’t working for much of anybody,” she said. “So for people that really think that our government can do a better job of staying focused on serving them better, providing a return on investment, I would love to serve them and improve the quality of life for them, regardless of party affiliation.”
Asked whether the concerns she hears in a place like Philomath differ from what she hears in bigger cities, Drazan said the broad strokes tend to hold statewide, even if the specifics vary.
“There’s probably some shifting in some of the details, but the big picture stuff across our entire state — affordability is absolutely crushing everybody, and everybody wants better for the people that are homeless, and they certainly want better for the communities that are impacted by homelessness,” she said. “So some of those issues are urban, some rural, they cross the entire state. Some communities are more hard hit by regulations, some communities are more hard hit by political agendas than others. And so I would say that’s where the distinctions probably are.”
Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 1982. Asked why she believes this could be the cycle that breaks that streak, Drazan turned the question back to Kotek’s record.
“More than anything else, I just personally don’t give up, and I certainly don’t give up on my state,” Drazan said. “The stakes are too high, the challenges are too significant. But Oregonians now have an opportunity to decide based on the facts whether or not Gov. Kotek is doing a good job for them.
“This isn’t a personality contest,” she added. “This is weighing on the scales — are they better off today than they were four years ago? She made an awful lot of promises in our last race. Has she delivered on any of them? I don’t believe that she has, but that will be the question in front of Oregonians.”
Mattioda, who led the Q-and-A, said afterward that he appreciated the candidate taking the time to visit a community the size of Philomath.
“I’m appreciative that someone running for governor takes the time to come and talk to folks in a small town,” Mattioda said. “She just cares. Are there enough people in town to sway the state election? No — but it’s not about the location … she cares.”
