2024 General Election Recommendations

Recommendations

If you just want recommendations, start here. If you want context, check the ‘Context’ section below.

U.S. President and Congressional Representatives

  • President — Kamala Harris*
  • Congressional District 1 — Suzanne Bonamici
  • Congressional District 5 — Janelle Bynum*
  • Congressional District 6 — Andrea Salinas

Oregon State Executives

  • Secretary of State — Tobias Read*
  • State Treasurer — Mary King
  • State Attorney General — Dan Rayfield

Oregon State Senators

  • State Senate District 18 — Wlnsvey E. Campos
  • State Senate District 22 — Lew Frederick
  • State Senate District 25 — Chris Gorsek

Oregon State Representatives

  • State Representative District 25 — Ben Bowman
  • State Representative District 26 — Courtney Neron
  • State Representative District 27 — Ken Helm
  • State Representative District 28 — Dacia Grayber
  • State Representative District 31 — Jordan Gutierrez
  • State Representative District 33 — Shannon Jones Isadore
  • State Representative District 34 — Lisa Reynolds
  • State Representative District 36 — Hai Pham
  • State Representative District 37 — Jules Walters
  • State Representative District 39 — April Dobson
  • State Representative District 40 — Annessa Hartman
  • State Representative District 41 — Mark F. Gamba
  • State Representative District 43 — Tawna Sanchez
  • State Representative District 46 — Willy Chotzen
  • State Representative District 48 — Hoa H. Nguyen
  • State Representative District 49 — Zach Hudson
  • State Representative District 50 — Ricki Ruiz
  • State Representative District 52 — Nick Walden Poublon

Oregon Circuit Court Judges

  • 4th District, Position 38 — Jennifer Myrick
  • 20th District, Position 6 — KC LeDell

County Commissioners

  • Clackamas County Commissioner Position 4 — Melissa Fireside
  • Multnomah County Commissioner District 1 — Meghan Moyer
  • Multnomah County Commissioner District 2 — Shannon Singleton

Portland City Councilors

Portland Mayor

  1. Liv Osthus
  2. Carmen Rubio
  3. Keith Wilson
  4. Josh Leake
  5. Mike O’Callaghan

Portland District 1

  1. Candace Avalos
  2. Steph Routh
  3. Timur Ender
  4. Jamie Dunphy
  5. David Linn
  6. Cayle Tern

Portland District 2

  1. Jennifer Park
  2. Nat West
  3. Sameer Kamal
  4. Michelle DePass
  5. Jonathan Tasini
  6. Chris Olson

Portland District 3

  1. Tiffany Koyama Lane
  2. Angelita Morillo
  3. Chris Flanary
  4. Ahlam Osman
  5. Brian Conley
  6. Steve Novick

Portland District 4

  1. Lisa Freeman
  2. Mitch Green
  3. Andra Vltavín
  4. Chris Henry
  5. Sarah Silkie
  6. Chad Lykins

Local Commissions

  • Urban Flood Safety and Water Quality District Position 3 —Kayla Drozd Calkins
  • Urban Flood Safety and Water Quality District Position 4 — Rick Sanders
  • East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, Director, AtLarge, Position 1 — Ramona Denies

Oregon State Ballot Measures

  • State Ballot Measure 115 — Yes
  • State Ballot Measure 116 — Yes
  • State Ballot Measure 117 — Yes
  • State Ballot Measure 118 — Yes
  • State Ballot Measure 119 — Yes
  • Clackamas County Ballot Measure 3-614 — Yes
  • Clackamas County Ballot Measure 3-621 — No
  • Portland Ballot Measure 26-249 — Yes
  • Portland Ballot Measure 26-250 — Yes
  • Portland Ballot Measure 26-251 — Yes
  • Portland Ballot Measure 26-252 — Yes
  • Portland Ballot Measure 26-253 — Yes
  • Clackamas Community College Ballot Measure 3-613 — Yes
  • Parkrose School District Ballot Measure 26-254 — Yes
  • Sauvie Island Fire District Ballot Measure 26-257 — Yes

* indicates a race I would recommend a different candidate for under ranked choice voting.

Voting resources

Context

I’ve been debating whether to share recommendations for this election. I’m doing so because a couple of people requested them, but you’ll notice that this isn’t the exhaustive guide I’ve created in years past. There’s a few reasons for that: The last year has been hard for me for a variety of reasons. I don’t have the energy to give more in-depth recommendations. I haven’t had the energy to do much work at all, which has reduced my ability to cover the costs associated with running this site (especially a media insurance policy, which is a must for publishing even well-cited material these days). This may be the last voters’ guide I publish, at least on this site.

There’s also not a lot of appealing options on the ballot. Yes, all of the options listed above come with caveats and nuance, but ultimately, most of the races come down to picking the option that will harm people the least. Even the ballot measures up for a vote this year feel unlikely to make much of a difference since we’ve seen this year how easy it is for the state government to undo voter mandates like drug decriminalization. There are indicators that voters feel the same, and that we may be looking at relatively low turn-out, just like we saw in May’s primary.

Portland’s city council races are the only races I’m actually interested in, and while I’m more excited about them, reading up on the huge number of candidates was tough, even for me. This sort of research is harder than it was two years ago, too: changes to social media platforms have destroyed a lot of tools I used to use to dig into candidates’ past updates, several Oregon-based publications have disappeared entirely, and hackers have targeted major online archives. I don’t think I’m the only one facing these issues. Several news websites covering Oregon politics haven’t been updated in at least a year.

So, it’s a weird time to be making resources for voters. And it’s a weird time to be a voter.

I made this list for the folks who asked for it. If you find it valuable, you’re welcome to share. If you don’t find it valuable, that’s also fine. I’m unlikely to respond comments, emails, etc. about it at this point. Either way, once you’ve finished voting, I encourage you to look at other actions you can take to hold elected officials accountable in the coming year.

Here’s how I decided on these recommendations:

  • I looked for candidates who show that they know the issues relevant to the position they’re running for, and what powers that position actually has. If someone’s running for a city council position on a platform that involves changes only possible at the federal level, I’m not going to recommend them.
  • I looked at what community-level work candidates have done in the past, especially outside of their jobs. The best political candidates are people who can create positive change even without getting elected.
  • For Portland races, I prioritized candidates who qualified for matching funds from the city’s Small Donor Elections program.
  • There are several issues that I consider especially important this year that I saw almost no candidates talking about, like this year’s record number of utility shutoffs for non-payment in Oregon, the lack of governmental emergency preparedness, and local governments’ efforts to avoid complying with public records laws. The handful of candidates who talked about those issues are all on the list above.
  • Any candidate who advocates for increasing police funding is at the bottom of my list. Even if we lived in a world where police were an effective solution to any of Portland’s problems, there are budget shortfalls for just about every government agency in the area aside from police and prisons. Unless police officers are out filling potholes on Portland’s streets, there’s no way to justify handing them an even bigger budget.
  • There were several candidates who I just couldn’t find information about. If a candidate can’t even be bothered to fill out a survey from one of the many sites I check, I’m not going to recommend them.

By Thursday Bram

Thursday Bram founded PDX.Vote after making numerous zines, newsletters, and other media about politics in Portland, Oregon. Thursday has also written for publications ranging from Autostraddle.com to Entrepreneur Magazine. You can find more of Thursday's work at ThursdayBram.com.