Tina Kotek at University of Oregon’s Erb Memorial Union for a rally on Thursday, Oct., 27th, 2022. (Maddie Stellingwerf/Emerald)
During the 2022 midterm elections, individual political donors spent over $70 million in the Oregon gubernatorial race, which was held between democrat Tina Kotek, independent Betsy Johnson and republican Christine Drazan. This was a recorded 89% increase in spending than past gubernatorial races.
Considering Kotek’s dwindling approval ratings in Democratic strongholds, like Portland, and Drazan’s increased push for campaign fundraising — the 2026 general election is also set to be a high spending campaign.
Even within local elections in Eugene, candidates for nonpartisan elections saw an unprecedented increase in campaign donations. Nine candidates within the Lane County elections raised over $100,000: notably Jake Pelroy, a Lane County commissioner candidate, who raised $295,919. Protect Our County, the campaign against the Watersheds Bill of Rights, raised $435,350.
In 2024, the Oregon state legislature passed House Bill 4024, which limits campaign contributions from individuals to $3,300 and political action committees to $30,000. The initiative passed with broad bipartisan support and large amounts of community support. Although the bill is now set to be implemented in 2027, the Secretary of State’s office should work on taking initiatives to improve campaign finance laws and transparency in campaign spending sooner.
“I think that large private donations like that undermine the importance of the democratic process. It incentivizes politicians to focus on the wants and needs of the donors who are going to give them the most money rather than focusing on the needs of their actual constituents and everyday, middle and (working) class Americans and Oregonians,” Hailey Battrick said. She is a current University of Oregon student studying political science, and a regular voter in Oregon elections.
Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, single-handedly donated over $3.7 million to Johnson’s campaign and $1.5 million to Drazan’s campaign in 2022. Money has influenced major elections before, and it continues to dilute the average citizen’s voice within elections.
“It happens without voters even knowing about it, even though it’s technically public information. Voters don’t pay attention to campaign finances and they might not realize that their politicians are taking money from organizations that they might not necessarily support. I think that if you really want to have an ethical grassroots political campaign, then you should be able to get financial support from everyday middle class Americans because those are the people you’re meant to be representing, not the rich.” Battrick said.
The 2010 Supreme Court case “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission” ruled that political expenditures by unions, nonprofits and corporations are protected under the First Amendment and not subjected to government restrictions. Overwhelming majorities within the U.S. have consistently disapproved of “Citizens United,” with 22 states and hundred of cities supporting a constitutional amendment to reduce the influence money has on elections.
“I think that the worse we get in terms of large contributions from people with a lot of money, the closer we get to autocracy and being controlled by wealthy interests. If we can’t have some sort of control over how much money gets donated, then I think that we will quickly run into very big issues of interest being compromised,” Shaye Beardsley, a University of Oregon general social studies student, said.
Calls to enforce campaign spending laws continue to rise across the country, and considering the upcoming election, Oregon needs to make a significant effort to increase transparency laws and work on implementing parts of the bill sooner than the proposed deadline.
