Breaking down Oregon’s close governor race between Kotek, Drazan

SALEM, Ore — With two key races still close in the general election, we’re breaking down how the gubernatorial race and measure 114 are weighing across the state.

Following the end of election day, the race between democratic candidate Tina Kotek, and republican candidate Christine Drazan was too close to call. On Wednesday, The Oregonian called the race in favor of Kotek due to the number of outstanding votes in Multnomah county – a heavily democratic area.

Though, neither candidate has yet to claim victory or conceded the race.

Drazan is surpassing Kotek in total counties including all of southern Oregon. As of Wednesday, Drazan has about 54% of the vote in Jackson county, compared to Kotek with 37%.

Despite the number of counties for Drazan, Kotek received plenty of votes from just a few counties because of the population size and are more democratic leaning. Kotek has more than 200,000 votes in Multnomah county alone.

The situation isn’t much different with measure 114 – the most controversial in the state that’s focused on gun laws. As of Wednesday, 50.9% are in favor versus 49.14% against it.

Majority of the counties voted against measure 114, compared to the less but more populatable counties that voted in favor. For Josephine county, out of the more than 30,000 total votes, 19,000 residents voted no.

About 53% of ballots are in. More notably, results are not finalized until 27 days after election day.

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Anthony Carter is a reporter for NBC5 News. He grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from Elizabethtown College in 2019. Anthony started his career as a print journalist, covering New York sports and the NBA Draft. He then started his own sports podcast and website covering the Arena Football League. Anthony moved to the Rogue Valley in 2019 as a news producer before joining the NBC5 News family. Anthony likes to workout at the gym, play basketball, and root for his Atlanta Hawks and New York Jets. Want to connect with Anthony? send him an email: [email protected]
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