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Eli Arnold, a Portland police officer who ran unsuccessfully for the Portland City Council in 2024, will try again next year to win a seat in the same district.
Arnold just narrowly lost his bid for one of the three seats available in District 4, which covers all of the westside and a sliver of Southeast, placing fourth after a nail-biting election that left him just shy of snatching the spot won by current City Councilor Eric Zimmerman.
The soft-spoken cop ran largely on a law-and-order platform, vowing to support the Police Bureau and take a harder stance on enforcing camping laws.
Arnold filed a notice of intent late last month to participate in the city’s Small Donor Elections program, often the first clerical step taken by candidates seeking to run.
He tells WW he’s running “to work to move past conflicts, focus on practical solutions, and deliver tangible results.”
“I’m running for City Council because it is deadlocked at a crucial moment. We need to unite behind Mayor Wilson’s effort to end unsheltered homelessness,” Arnold says. “We have to act with urgency to address a growing economic and budget crisis that threatens our future ability to deliver services. We have to spur housing production to provide residents with rent relief.”
The three current councilors representing District 4 include two centrists—Olivia Clark and Zimmerman—and one Democratic Socialist councilor, Mitch Green. With ranked-choice voting, it’s unlikely centrists could take all three seats. That means Arnold, if he runs, would likely pose a greater threat to Clark’s and Zimmerman’s reelection hopes than he would to Green’s or another leftist candidate’s.
Six of the 12 seats on council are up for grabs in the November 2026 election. That includes the three seats in District 4 and the three seats in District 3, which covers all of inner Southeast.
Neither Clark nor Zimmerman immediately responded to a request for comment. Both have filed to participate in the Small Donor Elections program in 2026.
