Former House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat, has defeated two white-supremacist- and QANON-friendly opponents to keep the Oregon governor’s seat in Democratic hands.
Kotek has been Speaker since 2013, a tenure during which had to deal with the Republican challenger, the former House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, and her hijinks. Drazan was the leader of multiple walk-outs of Republican legislators, shutting down the House by denying a quorum, and who routinely forced delays of legislative business with tactics like forcing bills to be read out loud.
The race was complicated by former Democrat and former state senator Betsy Johnson, an NRA-endorsed crank whose campaign was financed in large part by fellow crank Phil Knight, founder of Nike. She brought her own funds to the game, too, as the “multimillionaire heiress of a timber fortune.”
Speaking of timber, both Drazan and Johnson are cozy with Timber Unity, a group with extensive and well-documented ties to white nationalist and other extremist groups like the Proud Boys, QAnon, and the Three Percenter movement.
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Holy crap, what an amazing night! Where do we even begin this week's episode of The Downballot? Well, we know exactly where: abortion. Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard recap Tuesday's extraordinary results, starting with a clear-eyed examination of the issue that animated Democrats as never before—and that pundits got so badly wrong. They also discuss candidate quality (still really important!), Democratic meddling in GOP primaries (good for democracy, actually), and "soft" Biden disapprovers (lots of them voted for Democrats).