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Julia Brim-Edwards, a current Multnomah County commissioner and candidate for chair, has lost the endorsement of a prominent Oregon civil rights group, which says it learned she made anti-trans statements a year ago as a member of the Portland Public Schools Board.
A statement from the political arm of Basic Rights Oregon describes allegations that Brim-Edwards raised concerns during Portland School Board executive sessions that trans athletes might hurt scholarship opportunities for other kids. (Brim-Edwards previously served three terms on the School Board.) BRO’s executive director says three School Board members alleged that Brim-Edwards encouraged PPS to consider stricter guidelines for trans athletes to participate in sports.
“After reviewing the new information and reconsidering the endorsement,” reads BRO’s statement. “The PAC Board unanimously determined that Brim-Edwards does not embody the values Basic Rights Oregon PAC expects of candidates who carry its endorsement.”
Basic Rights Oregon is a long-standing advocacy group for LGBTQ+ people, active in marriage equality debates in Oregon as far back as the 1990s. It has endorsed Brim-Edwards in the past. In this case, Brim-Edwards filled out a candidate questionnaire and was notified in August she had the group’s endorsement, according to her campaign.
BRO executive director Kyndall Mason tells WW that School Board members approached members of BRO’s political action committee to share their concerns after BRO issued its endorsement.
“They all shared the same sentiments about the email and verbal exchanges they had with her,” Mason wrote.
BRO did not respond to WW’s question about which School Board members it spoke with.
Brim-Edwards called the rescinded endorsement an insult.
“It’s an outrageous smear, pure and simple,” she tells WW. “The idea that I’m anti-trans in any way is an out-and-out lie. And it’s telling that despite my reaching out to the executive director, since Oct. 6, she refuses to return my calls and the story keeps changing.”
Brim-Edwards, 65, is locked in a tight three-way contest for chair with fellow Commissioner Shannon Singleton and former Commissioner Sharon Meieran. They’re running to succeed incumbent Jessica Vega Pederson, who opted not to make a bid for the seat again in December.
Brim-Edwards is the establishment favorite, having been endorsed by all six Multnomah County mayors and several powerful unions. She also leads her opponents in fundraising. On Friday morning, the Brim-Edwards campaign sent a mass email touting her endorsement by leaders in the LGBTQ+ community.
“I am very proud of my strong, consistent, decadeslong support and advocacy for the LGBTQIA+ community,” she tells WW. “And as a school leader for making sure that our schools and playing fields are places where all students are included and welcome. My entire adult life has been about more kids being included in sport because I know how sport can transform lives, mine included.”
This is not the first time this election cycle that some of Brim-Edwards’ School Board colleagues have spoken out against her candidacy. In late July, seven current and former members of that body, who’d overlapped with Brim-Edwards, wrote an open letter to voters warning that she struggled to make difficult decisions on the board and had a hard time collaborating with them.
