State Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, and Democratic incumbent Gov. Tina Kotek participated in a gubernatorial debate on Thursday, October 1, 2026. Some of their comments included misleading or false claims. Both leading candidates for Oregon governor attacked each other’s trustworthiness during the hour-long debate in Eugene. They discussed issues such as the National Guard and the Portland U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. At times, they mischaracterized each other’s positions and statements.
Kotek accused Drazan of misrepresenting Kotek’s work as a governor, hiding her voting record as a Republican legislator, and inaccurately describing protests outside the Portland U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility last year that led President Donald Trump to attempt to federalize the Oregon National Guard to what he called a “war zone.” Although there was some violence by protesters leading the Portland Police Bureau to declare a riot in June 2025, the site has seen thousands of largely peaceful crowds since, including children, people with disabilities, and seniors.
Drazan, who opened her debate speech with a warning that Kotek would try to mislead voters and made some false claims of her own about state legislation, issued a statement condemning “violent mobs and domestic terrorists” and said “we need order, we need to restore safety, and Oregon’s local leaders have failed to provide it” following Trump’s attempted deployment of the National Guard to Portland last September. Although some political observers interpreted the timing of her statement as tacit support for his actions, Drazan denied that. “Technically, I didn’t support his decision,” Drazan said. “Let me be clear, I don’t want National Guard troops in Oregon. Here’s what I did. I said Oregon should enforce our own laws.”
Kotek took credit for Oregon’s successful lawsuit keeping the administration from deploying troops to the state’s largest city. “I fought in the courts to make sure unlawful actions could not happen. 100 days later, the troops went home – not only Oregon troops, but California troops – and we averted a disaster,” Kotek said. “My opponent said nothing, and she’s recreating the facts.” “That. Is. False,” Drazan said in a three-word rebuttal to Kotek.
Here’s a look at some of the other misleading or false claims made by the candidates during last night’s debate:
1. Mail-in voting: Drazan faced a question for introducing a 2025 bill, House Bill 3872, that would have overturned the state’s vote-by-mail system in favor of in-person voting. She maintains that the bill would have preserved access to absentee ballots for Oregonians seeking that option. But the bill would have undone Oregon law requiring it to pay for ballot postage and instituted identification requirements similar to those backed by Republicans nationwide. Drazan said that her sponsorship came from concern that “Oregon is only one of eight states across the nation that doesn’t provide an alternative at all to absentee voting.” In fact, however, Oregon allows voters to mark their ballots in-person at their county clerk’s office, where they can access a privacy booth.
2. Data centers: Kotek repeated a talking point on Thursday that her opponent voted against the POWER Act, a 2025 state law that makes it easier for the state to raise costs on data centers that strain the state’s energy grids. Drazan voted for an earlier iteration of the law but voted against it during its final time on the House floor in 2025. The senator said Thursday that lawmakers passed t
