Portland Women Won Up and Down the Ticket on Election Day

The glass ceiling may have won another round in the presidential race.

But Oregon voters showed they favored Portland women to the men running against them.

"Pantsuit Nation is alive and well in Multnomah County," says County Chair Deborah Kafoury. "I am thrilled that Multnomah County is going to have a five-women governing body and three women of color. I think that shows what kind of community we are and what kind of values we have."

At the state level, Kate Brown, the country's first openly LGBTQ women to be elected governor of any state, beat back Republican Bud Pierce. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum faced Republican challenger, Daniel Zene Crowe, and won. (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to the co-owner of WW's parent company.)

In a nonpartisan race, County Commissioner-elect Sharon Meieran handily beat Greg Zimmerman for the open seat vacated by Jules Bailey. (Though this isn't the first time the county board has been all women—it happened a decade ago as well.)

And City Commissioner-elect Chloe Eudaly pulled off the biggest upset of the evening, trouncing incumbent Steve Novick, becoming only the eighth women in city history elected to the office.

"Oregon did us proud," says Eudaly. "We just have to keep pushing as hard as we can so we can protect our most vulnerable people."

But there will be one fewer woman to hold state office after this election. Since January 2015, when Governor John Kitzhaber resigned and Kate Brown became governor, Jeanne Atkins has held the job. But Dennis Richardson, a Republican, won office yesterday by beating another man: Brad Avakian.

There was at least victory for women across the aisle as well: Republican state Rep. Julie Parrish beat a strong Democratic challenger in her Lake Oswego district.

Willamette Week