Democrat Tina Kotek’s bid for governor was endorsed Friday by a former opponent, ex-New York Times columnist Nick Kristof.

The Republican National Committee announced it was swinging behind GOP nominee – which will mean a fresh flow of national money to her campaign.

Betsy Johnson, who is running to the left of Drazan and the right of Kotek was endorsed by former Gov. Ted Kulongoski (a Democrat) and former Sen. Gordon Smith (a Republican).

Legislative line-ups

Kevin Mannix won hisGOP primary bid in House District 21, with 86% of the vote over Kyler McNaught. He’ll face Ramiro Navarro, Jr., winner of the Democratic primary.

House District 22: Tracy Cramer won the Republican primary with 68% of the vote and will face Democrat Anthony Medina.

House District 23: Kriss Wright was winning just under 55% of the vote over Elise Yarnell Hollamon in the Democratic primary. She’ll take on incumbent Republican Anna Scharf.

House District 25: Bob Niemeyer beat Gabriel Buehler 55% to 44% in the Republican primary. He’ll face Democrat Ben Bowman.

House District 26: Jason Fields won the Republican primary with 68% of the vote and will face Democratic incumbent Courtney Neron.

House District 27: (incumbent Ken Helm) won 61% of the vote over challenger Tammy Carpenter in the Democratic primary. He’ll face Republican Sandra Nelson.

House District 41: Mark Gamba, who dropped out of the 5th Congressional District Democratic primary and endorsed Jamie McLeod-Skinner, won the Democratic primary. He’ll face Bob Clark in the heavily Democratic district.

House District 45: Thuy Tran defeated Catherine Thomasson for the Democratic nomination. No Republican filed to run for the seat.

House District 53: Democrat Emerson Levy and Republican Michael Sipe won their uncontested primaries. Through Friday afternoon, Levy had 6,517 votes and Sipe had 5,410.

House District 54: Incumbent Democrat Jason Kropf received 7,350 votes in his uncontested primary bid for re-election. His November opponent Judy Trego had no opponent and received 3,495 votes.

House District 55: Republican E. Werner Reschke, who represented a nearby district under the previous districting, won an uncontested primary for the district which includes a southern swath of Deschutes County that includes Sunriver and La Pine, along with portions of Klamath County down to the California border. Democratic Brian LePore was the only Democratic candidate in a district with a large GOP voter registration edge.

House District 57: Incumbent Greg Smith of Heppner, the longest serving House member, won an uncontested Republican primary. No Democrat filed for the race.

House District 58: Incumbent Bobby Levy easily defeated Skye Farnham by 92% to 7% in the Republican primary. No Democrat ran in the district.

House District 59: House Minority Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson of Prinveville won an uncontested Republican primary. Breese-Iverson previously represented House District 55 – but did not move. Redistricting changed the district number, geographic size, and boundaries of the district that included her home. House District 59 had been the seat of Daniel Bonham of The Dallles, who saw much of his district carved away. To stay in the House, he would have had to run in a primary against Smith in House District 57. He opted to run for the Senate instead. Breese-Iverson will face Democrat Lawrence Jones, a retired state worker in Alaska who lives in Prineville and is a substitute teacher in schools in the region.

60th House District: Incumbent Mark Owens of Crane won the Republican primary in the largest House district in the state. No Democrat filed to run.

House District 60:

Senate:

Senate District 10: Incumbent Deb Patterson of Salem won an uncontested race in the Democratic primary. She’ll face Republican Raquel Moore-Green of Salem, a House member who is trying to jump to a Senate seat changed by redistricting.

Senate District 11: Eric Swenson of Woodburn was winning with 44% of the vote in a three-way Democratic primary. The Pacific University instructor would face Republican senator Kim Thatcher of Keizer, who won 92% of the vote in the Republican primary, was forced to run for a new seat after redistricting. Thatcher has been one of the most conservative members of the Senate, sometimes at odds with GOP caucus leadership. She was the GOP candidate for secretary of state in 2020, losing to Shemia Fagan, a Democratic senator.

Senate District 13: Aaron Woods of Wilsonville was winning one of the tighests primaries, with 54% of the Democratic votes against business owner Chelsea King of Wilsonville with 45%. Real estate businessman John Velez of Sherwood won an uncontested Republican primary

Senate District 16: In one of the most closely watched races this fall, registered nurse and union activist Melissa Busch of Warren won an uncontested Democratic primary for the seat previously held by Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, who resigned to launch an unaffiliated campaign for governor.

Rep. Suzanne Weber of Tillamook, won an uncontested Republican primary. She is also a former mayor of Tillamook. Along with the partisan difference, the candidates are from different ends of the district – Weber on the coast in Tillamook County, while Busch is inland in Columbia County.

Busch received 11,635 in the primary, while Weber won 10,528 votes.

The area has been a shifting political bellweather – a middle ground personified by Johnson, who received the Democratic, Republican and Independent parties endorsement in her last re-election campaign.

Tillamook and Columbia counties have gained national attention as among the approximately 3% of counties in the United States won by Democrat Barack Obama in his 2008 and 2012 runs for the White House, then flipping to back Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.