PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — With less than a week before Election Day, a new poll from Nelson Research shows that the Oregon governor’s race may be a nail biter.
The Oregon-based public opinion research firm recently surveyed 577 likely voters. Results showed that Republican Christine Drazan received 43.5% of the vote, while Democrat Tina Kotek garnered 41.1% of votes. Unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson tallied 5.4% of the vote — 9.4% of voters were undecided.
Previous polls showed Johnson having more support, but KOIN 6 News’ Liz Burch spoke with Kevin Curry, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Linfield College, about the governor’s race, and he thinks that Johnson is taking votes from both sides, leading to the Kotek and Drazan staying neck-and-neck.
“So how does that shift change the support for Drazan or Kotek, we’re seeing it stay consistent, which suggests Betsy Johnson is taking support from both candidates,” said Curry. “A lot of people thought that might pull more from Kotek, but it appears it was pulling from both Drazan and Kotek.”
Nelson says that of the 42.6% of respondents who say they already voted, Drazan leads Kotek by less than one point (47.6% to 46.7%).
The poll also surveyed participants on the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries, or BOLI, race and Measure 114.
Christina Stephenson garnered 22.5% support in the BOLI race, followed by Cherri Helt with 16.1%. Meanwhile, 61.4% of voters were undecided.
For Measure 114, 49.4% of voters opposed the bill while 46.1% supported it — 4.5% of voters were undecided.
The survey was conducted Oct. 31 – Nov. 1. both online and with live calls. Nelson says the survey has a margin of error of 4.1%.