SALEM — Debate season for the Oregon governor’s race will kick off Friday, July 29, with Democrat Tina Kotek, Republican Christine Drazan and unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson all scheduled to participate in the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association debate.

The debate will take place in Welches at 2 p.m. and be streamed live online by The Oregonian/OregonLive. It’s the start of what could be a busy calendar of debates for the three former state lawmakers running to be Oregon’s next governor.

So far, the only other debate that all three women have committed to participate in will be hosted by NBC affiliate KOBI in Medford, according to their campaigns. Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, and former Rep. Knute Buehler, a Republican, faced off in three debates in 2018.

Oregon voters are in for a highly unusual governor’s race this year between three viable candidates.

It is rare for third-party or unaffiliated candidates for governor to line up the big money and political professionals necessary to mount a serious campaign, but Johnson has done so. Johnson, who served as a Democratic state lawmaker from 2000 until 2021, left the Democratic party last year in order to run unaffiliated. She supports abortion rights and voted with Democrats on many issues, but also joined Republicans to oppose high-profile Democratic priorities including gun regulations and a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade plan.

To get on the November ballot, she must collect signatures from a number of voters equal to 1% of the votes in the last presidential election, which equals 23,743 valid voter signatures. She has raised $9.4 million and has $4.5 million on-hand, according to state campaign finance records.

Kotek, who won the Democratic primary in May, was elected to the state House in 2006 and served as House Speaker from 2013 until she stepped down from the Legislature in early 2022 to focus on running for governor. Under Kotek’s leadership, majority Democrats in the House passed a long list of progressive priorities including increasing Oregon’s minimum wage, providing paid sick leave and raising business taxes to increase funding for schools.

She has raised $3.3 million and has $454,000 on-hand, in part because she has yet to receive large donations from national groups such as the Democratic Governors Association. Separately, a political action committee attacking Johnson called Oregonians for Ethics has raised more than $200,000 including from the Democratic Governors Association, public employee unions and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

Drazan, who won the crowded Republican primary in May, was elected to the state House in 2018 and served as House Republican leader from 2019 until she stepped down in 2021 to run for governor. She led House Republicans in a 2020 walkout to protest Democrats’ greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill, which was up for a vote in the Senate, and united her caucus in 2021 to join Democrats in voting to expel fellow Republican Rep. Mike Nearman for his role letting violent demonstrators into the state Capitol in December 2020. She has raised $4.2 million and has $1.3 million on-hand.

With months to go until the general election, polls have shown the three women in a close race with the most recent publicly available poll, paid for by legislative Republicans, showing Drazan and Kotek in a statistical tie and Johnson within striking distance. With three serious candidates on the ballot, the winner will need only a plurality of votes to become governor.

The slate of debates could provide opportunities for the candidates to distinguish themselves on issues including abortion access, homelessness, gun violence and other crimes.

Along with the newspaper publishers and KOBI debates, two of the candidates — Johnson and Kotek — have already committed to participate in other various debates.

Johnson plans to participate in a debate hosted by KTVZ, the City Club of Central Oregon and Oregon State University Cascades at an unspecified date, according to Johnson’s campaign spokesperson Jennifer Sitton. She wants her opponents to commit to one televised debate or forum in Medford, Portland, Eugene, Bend, Pendleton and Coos Bay.

Kotek does not plan to participate in the Central Oregon debate but has said she will participate in the KGW/The Oregonian debate, which will take place in October, and the OPB and Our Children Oregon debate Oct. 22. Kotek also plans to participate in the City Club of Eugene and City Club of Salem gubernatorial forums, the dates of which are not yet known. She has called for Johnson and Drazan to join her for a forum that would focus specifically on gun safety but “neither Johnson or Drazan have responded,” Kotek’s spokesperson Katie Wertheimer said in an email.

Drazan “will be participating in more (debates), but we are still in the process of reviewing the nearly two dozen additional debates and forums that have been proposed,” campaign spokesperson John Burke said in a text message to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

LA GRANDE — The three leading candidates in the race to become Oregon’s next governor will appear live at a forum Friday, July 29, hosted by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association.

Republican nominee Christine Drazan, Democratic nominee Tina Kotek and unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson are all scheduled to debate starting at 2 p.m. in Welches.

The forum is moderated by Pamplin Media Group President Mark Garber. Questions will come from editors of newspapers across Oregon.

The debate will be livestreamed on The Observer’s website, beginning at 2 p.m. July 29.

— The Observer

The top candidates for governor continue to pile up stacks of cash in the race to the top of Oregon’s political pyramid. Page A8