This story will be updated as events develop. KOIN 6 News and KOIN.com will not call a race for any candidate or issue until that race is called by the Associated Press.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Early results gave Ted Wheeler the lead in Portland’s mayoral race. In an 8:30 a.m. update on Wednesday morning, Multnomah County tallied the candidates at: 46.26% for Wheeler, 40.76% for Sarah Iannarone, and 12.98% write-in.
Iannarone’s Campaign Director Gregory McKelvey, in a statement, said, “This election is separated by 20,000 votes, with many ballots uncounted. Just as in the primary, we know that progressive voters and younger voters come in later than their older and more conservative peers. This election is not over.”
Shortly after 10 p.m. Iannarone released a statement saying, “We have decided to go to bed tonight, let the results continue to roll in, and make sure that every vote is counted in this election.”
During a late-night press conference, Wheeler said now was a time to come together to face the challenges ahead. He commended his challenger, Iannarone, and her supporters who “passionately put forward important ideas and worked to advance progressive values.”
“When all the votes are counted, we must all come together to overcome challenges facing both our city and our nation. In the coming days, we’re going to need to come together as never before to address short-term issues and the long-term changes.”
“I look forward to working with my colleagues in City Hall and all of the people in Portland as we approach these challenges and opportunities together.
Wheeler was leading in early returns late Tuesday but the contest with challenger Iannarone remained too close to call.
Watch Ted Wheeler’s full statements:
Background:
To say the 2020 Portland mayoral race has been surprising is an understatement worthy of, well, 2020.
Ted Wheeler came within an eyelash of winning the primary outright and securing a second term in May. But he didn’t, setting up a general election campaign against Sarah Iannarone.
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Shortly after the primary, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, setting in motion a social justice movement unlike any in the the United States since the 1960s. That movement brought more than 100 consecutive nights of protest to the streets of Portland, thrusting the city into the national spotlight in unflattering ways and drawing the attention of President Trump, federal agents and the entire Department of Justice.
Those protests and the ongoing pandemic — which forced everyone to do things differently — transformed the city in ways large and small.
Now the voters will choose who will lead the nation’s 25th largest city and its 650,000 residents.
“The race is really in flux,” said Jim Moore, a Pacific University political science professor. “The thing that will cause him to lose is responding to the protests in all their complexity. That’s why Portland’s election is important nationally, not just because of the protests but also because of the president. The president brings it up all the time.”
Wheeler narrowly missed winning a second term outright in May but the career Democrat’s approval ratings plummeted as protests dominated headlines into the fall. Business interests and moderates are angry that he’s let the protests go on so long, while passionate, far-left-leaning progressives are embracing the unrest as necessary for rooting out systemic racism.
Many of those voters are backing Iannarone, who has attended three dozen protests and touts campaign bumper stickers that read “Everyday Antifascist. Always.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report