2020 Endorsements

Of the 23 candidates that earned LIUNA’s endorsement, 14 have won outright, 4 non-partisan races will move to head-to-head runoffs in November.

Following a very tight race for Secretary of State and initial election returns showing Senator Mark Hass up by a sizeable margin, Senator Shemia Fagan surged back as final ballots were counted to ultimately achieve a narrow victory by a little over 3,400 total votes. Voters who turned in their ballots in the final few days of the election broke more heavily for Fagan to help secure the nomination for the General election. LIUNA and many other union partners helped to strongly bolster this campaign by reaching out to numerous voters and encouraging their support for Fagan in the critical final weeks of the election. This robust grassroots get out the vote effort may well have been the difference in this campaign to elect a pro-worker champion by one of the closest margins for a statewide race in our Oregon’s history.

Firefighter and union member Dacia Grayber resoundingly won election to become the next State Representative to House District 35 in Tigard, succeeding retiring longtime Representative and union member Margaret Doherty. WLnsvey Campos finished strong to win a contested Primary and will now move to the General election to represent Beaverton/Aloha in House District 28. She would become the youngest woman ever to serve in our Legislature and the first Latina to represent the district. Former prosecutor and current PCC instructor Kate Lieber won her race decisively to advance to the November election in order to become State Senator for District 14 in the Beaverton area.

Nafisah Fai persisted through a challenging campaign to secure the most votes but fell short of the 50%+1 threshold to win outright in the race for Washington County Commissioner, District 1 and will now face a runoff in November. Lacey Beaty ran a hard fought campaign against an incumbent for Beaverton Mayor and will also take part in a head-to-head runoff in the General election.

See below for a full list of candidate races where LIUNA made Primary endorsements:

Statewide & Legislative Races  

• Shemia Fagan Secretary of State ✓

• Kate Lieber SD 14 ✓

• WLnsvey Campos HD 28 ✓

• Dacia Grayber HD 35 ✓

• Christina Stephenson HD 33 x

• Laurie Wimmer HD 36 x

• Rachel Prusak HD 35 ✓

• Rep. Paul Evans HD 20 ✓

• Rep. Greg Smith HD 57 ✓

• Rep. Chris Gorsek for SD 25 ✓

County & Local Government Races

*Note: Most all of these are non-partisan races that require a candidate to receive 50%+1 of total votes cast in order to win outright; Failure to do so triggers a head-to-head runoff between the top two vote-getters in the November General election.

• Multnomah County incumbent Commissioners Jessica Vega Pederson, Sharon Meieran and Lori Stegmann won their reelections to a second term.

• Portland City Commissioner, Pos. 2 Carmen Rubio ✓

• Clackamas County Chair Jim Bernard x

• Clackamas County Commissioner, Pos. 3 Martha Schrader – ✓

• Clackamas County Commissioner, Pos. 4 Ken Humberston –Runoff

• Washington County Commission, Dist. 1 Nafisa Fai – Runoff

• Lacey Beaty for Beaverton Mayor – Runoff

• Metro Councilor, Position 5 Mary Nolan – Runoff

• Springfield Mayor – Mike Eyster x

• Yamhill County Commission, Pos. 2 – Barbara Boyer x

• Deschutes County Commission, Pos. 2 – Phil Chang ✓

 Won the Democratic nomination with almost 85% of the vote and will face Republican nominee in November for the position.