Oregon Supreme Court denies Nicholas Kristof’s bid for governor

SALEM, Ore. (KGW) — Nick Kristof is not eligible to serve as Governor of Oregon and cannot appear on the ballot this year, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday morning, upholding a previous decision by Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan to reject Kristof’s candidacy on the grounds that he does not meet the state’s constitutional residency requirement.

Kristof is scheduled to speak about the court’s ruling at a 10 a.m. press conference in Portland. KGW will stream the press conference live in the player above, on the KGW News app and on KGW’s YouTube channel.

Kristof announced his candidacy in October, a couple weeks after ending his long career at The New York Times. But the campaign hit a speed bump in January when Fagan announced that her office had rejected Kristof’s formal declaration of candidacy.

Oregon law requires candidates for governor to have been a resident of the state for at least three years before the election and Fagan’s office concluded that although Kristof grew up in Oregon and owns property in Yamhill County, he was a New York resident until at least the end of 2020, citing the fact that he maintained a New York driver’s license and voter registration until late that year.

Kristof vowed at that time to appeal his case, and Fagan pledged to work to secure an expedited Supreme Court decision to resolve the issue ahead of the state’s March 17 deadline to begin printing ballots for the May primary.

Kristof’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to require Fagan to accept his candidate filing and add his name to the primary ballot, a request they denied on Thursday. Kristof’s petition reiterated his position that he never stopped being an Oregon resident while working in New York and that, for the purposes of ballot access, “resident” has never been defined by an Oregon court.