Election recap: Hardesty holds onto over 40% of vote as progressives breath sigh of relief

Despite a tsunami of outside funding to candidates running to the right of Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, her popularity broke through and she took home 41% of the vote for her City Council seat.

That’s just one of the big headlines from last night’s primary election.

Many observers thought the combination of voter outrage at the state of Portland’s problems and an influx of money from a political action committee backing Hardesty’s opponent would do more damage to her chances. But Hardesty was all smiles at her election night gathering at Redwood Cafe on SE Stark and 79th where sources say the good vibes lasted well into the night.

With about 32% of ballots counted, Hardesty has 41% of the votes. She’ll be in a runoff with either Rene Gonzalez or Vadim Mozyrsky, who are currently separated by only 879 votes. Gonzalez is currently at 24.2% and is barely edging out Mozrysky at 23.4%. There will be many opinions as to which challenger has a better chance of overtaking Hardesty in November. Gonzalez has been much more direct in his campaign against Hardesty and many of his views on key issues like policing (he’s endorsed by the Portland Police Association) and housing are further to the right than Mozyrsky’s; but he’s not nearly as well-funded.

In the other contested Portland city council race, incumbent Dan Ryan did what most people expected him to do. He handily overcame challenger AJ McCreary by a split of 58% to 25% and avoided a runoff.

Here are a few more thoughts and results from other races we’ve been watching closely:

Tina Kotek has won the Democratic nod for Governor with 56% of the vote. She’ll likely face Republican Christine Drazan who’s received 23% of the vote so far. In Metro Council District 6 interim incumbent Duncan Hwang has nabbed 68% of the votes, more than double his challenger Terri Preeg Riggsby who managed 32%. Hwang will serve on what is arguably the most progressive Metro Council we’ve seen in decades. He’ll join Oregon Walks Executive Director Ashton Simpson (who ran uncontested) and incumbents Juan Carlos Gonzalez and Christine Lewis, who easily beat out challengers last night. Metro Council President Lynn Peterson will avoid a runoff with 58%. Her challenger Alisa Pyszka has 32%. The race for Multnomah County Commissioner will go to a runoff with current Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson earning 40% of the vote so far. She will likely face Sharon Meieran who currently has about 19%. Oregon’s new representative in the U.S. House District 4 will be (former The Street Trust board member) Val Hoyle who has 54% of the vote. Her closest rival, Doyle Canning, has just 15%. Progressive candidates also did well in Beaverton where Kevin Teater, a regular at bike advocacy rides, won his race for a seat on city council with 55% of the vote so far. “Beaverton’s Council is taking a huge progressive step forward. This is really exciting,” Teater shared on Twitter this morning. Michael Trimble, the Portland resident and daily bike rider who has no arms and who we profiled last year finished fifth (out of 15) in the governor’s Democratic primary race.

There’s a lot more analysis and results still to come in, so stay tuned! The next update in the counts is scheduled for 6:00 pm today.

What struck you about last night? Are you happy? Hopeful? Sad? Despondent? Meh?