Former Trail Blazers Star Launches Bid for Oregon Governor

Chris Dudley, a Republican and former member of the Portland Trail Blazers, on Monday launched a campaign for Oregon governor, his second bid for the job after a tight loss in 2010.

“The empty promises, the name-calling, the finger-pointing and fearmongering that has solved nothing must stop,” Dudley said in his election announcement video. “There are real solutions, and I have a plan.”

Dudley, who retired after playing for 16 seasons in the NBA, came within two percentage points of defeating Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2010. A Republican has not held the governor’s seat in Oregon since Victor Atiyeh’s term ended in 1987.

“I think it’s imperative that we get somebody from outside of Salem who’s away from the partisan politics, away from the name-calling, the finger-pointing,” Dudley told The Oregonian. “Who has the expertise and background and the ability to bring people together to solve these issues.”

Dudley joins a packed primary race. He will face off against state Sen. Christine Drazan, who lost to current Gov. Tina Kotek by nearly four percentage points in 2022, second-term state Rep. Ed Diehl, Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell and conservative influencer David Medina, who was pardoned by the White House last year for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

The Oregon Capital Chronicle reported that campaign-finance records show Kotek’s campaign has around $1.8 million in cash on hand, followed by Drazan’s more than $850,000 and Bethell, who reported more than $63,000 in available funds.

Though Democrats are confident in their ability to hold on to the seat, Republicans have had success campaigning on Kotek’s low approval ratings. In December Kotek announced her reelection campaign, touting accomplishments in affordable housing and investments in early-childhood education, as well as her establishment of the state’s first shelter program.

Phil Knight, a co-founder of Nike who donated heavily to Dudley’s first campaign, also made his largest political donation to date last year, handing $3 million to an Oregon Republican PAC.