More Than a Week After Oregon Election, Gov. Kate Brown Tops 50 Percent

As late ballots from the Nov. 6 general election trickle in, incumbent Gov. Kate Brown's share of the vote has finally exceeded 50 percent.

At the end of the day on Nov. 14, eight days after the election, the Democratic governor's total had crept up to 50.08 percent, several points higher than her share of the vote on election night.

Eclipsing the 50 percent mark doesn't make a huge difference but it's relatively unusual in recent Oregon governor's elections.

Brown did it in 2016 against a little-known first time candidate, Dr. Bud Pierce. But that was an unusual election—it allowed the winner to serve out the remaining two years of former Gov. John Kitzhaber's term after Kithzhaber resigned in February 2015 amid an influence-peddling investigation.

Kitzhaber, the longest serving-governor in Oregon's history, won in 2014 (over former state Rep. Dennis Richardson (R-Central Point) and in 2010 (over former Portland Trail Blazer Chris Dudley) with less than 50 percent of the vote in both elections.

Before that, elections records show that former Gov. Ted Kulongoski won in 2006 (beating Portland lawyer Ron Saxton) with greater than 50 percent but in 2002 got less than 50 percent when he beat former state Sen. Kevin Mannix (R-Salem).

Bottom line: Oregon is a solidly blue state but governor's races are almost always closer than Democrats' voter registration might suggest.

Although Brown's margin of victory over her Republican challenger, state Rep. Knute Buehler (R-Bend) currently stands at 6.42 percentage points, that's significantly less than the 10 percentage point registration advantage Democrats currently hold over Republicans.