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Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards today declared her candidacy for county chair, taking on fellow Commissioner Shannon Singleton in a contest to succeed Jessica Vega Pederson, who decided late last year not to seek a second term.
A former Nike executive and longtime member of the Portland Public Schools Board, Brim-Edwards won a special election to represent Southeast Portland in May 2023 after Vega Pederson ascended to the chair’s position. She won a full term in District 3 a year later.
Brim-Edwards has been a frequent critic of Vega Pederson’s hegemonic control of the Board of Commissioners and the county’s effort, led by the chair, to keep users arrested with illegal drugs out of the criminal justice system. The county must require offenders to seek treatment, Brim-Edwards says, not other, less-impactful services that qualify them for so-called deflection.
“Multnomah County has big problems, both as a community and especially as a government,” Brim-Edwards said in her announcement. “As soon as I joined the commission, I disrupted the status quo, pushed for change and more accountability to drive improvements.”
Brim-Edwards, 64, vowed to take on the scourge that dogged Vega-Pederson and eroded her support among voters: homelessness. Despite spending millions raised in a new tri-county levy on higher-income residents, thousands of people remain unsheltered in Multnomah County.
“I am running to push ahead with greater urgency and action,” Brim-Edwards said. “We must achieve better and measurable results.”
Like county commissioner, the chair is a nonpartisan, four-year position.
Brim-Edwards released a long list of public officials supporting her, including Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, state Sen. Kate Lieber (D-Beaverton), state Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Southeast Portland) and Rep. Thủy Trần (D–Northeast Portland).
Brim-Edwards’ supporters on the Portland City Council are more centrist than those who have endorsed Singleton. Among those behind Brim-Edwards are Councilors Eric Zimmerman, Steve Novick and Olivia Clark. They often oppose positions taken by the “Peacock” caucus, a group of left-wing councilors, some of whom are Democratic Socialists.
Brim-Edwards grew up in Portland, attending Glencoe K-8 and Washington High School, and spending summers working in east county berry fields. Brim-Edwards was a six-sport high school student-athlete and was active in student government. She earned a bachelor’s degree in German from Oregon State University, according to her LinkedIn.
As a senior director at Nike, Brim-Edwards helped expand retail operations and manufacturing in Oregon and across the country, and was responsible for the decadelong Oregon expansion of Nike’s World Headquarters in Washington County.
Brim-Edwards founded the Nike School Innovation Fund, which provided more than $15 million to local schools in the Metro region. She also created and led the 10 Great Fields Project, which resulted in every PPS high school having a high-quality track and field.
