Confronted with a surge in crime and homelessness, Portland voters have chosen a onetime Republican to be their next district attorney, ousting incumbent Mike Schmidt and the progressive agenda he was elected to implement following the riots of 2020.
The contest between incumbent Multnomah County district attorney Schmidt and moderate opponent Nathan Vasquez, one of Schmidt’s former deputies, has drawn national attention as a bellwether for the fate of the progressive prosecutor movement that gained steam after the murder of George Floyd four years ago.
Local station KPTV called the race for Vasquez Tuesday evening, soon after primary results began pouring in. With ballots still being counted, Vasquez leads Schmidt 55.7 percent to 43.8 percent, a whopping 12-point advantage for the challenger. Schmidt’s overwhelming defeat is part of a broader backlash against progressives across Oregon, a deep-blue bastion for experimental left-wing policies.
In running against his former boss, Vasquez — a registered Republican until he dropped his affiliation due to “disgust” with Trump’s rise — has emphasized the decline in police staffing numbers and prosecutions during Schmidt’s tenure.
“Prior to him coming into office, we ranged somewhere between 12,000 to 20,000 cases a year,” Vasquez told Politico. “Under him, post-Covid, we were under 6,000.”
Portland shattered its homicide record in 2021 with 92 murders and again the next year with 101 killings, according to OregonLive data. Last year, violent crime decreased in Portland but remains significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.
In the year following Schmidt’s election, violent crime in Oregon surged nearly 17 percent and it remains above pre-pandemic levels, according to a report by a state government commission.
In 2022, violent crime in Oregon remained 16.6 percent higher than 2019 levels, Axios reported based on FBI data.
A 2022 survey found 60 percent of Portland residents had a negative impression of the city’s downtown, with homelessness being the top reason why residents avoided downtown. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) is pushing to ban homeless encampments on public property, a measure Schmidt told Axios he would consider on a case-by-case basis. Wheeler’s fiscal year 2024 budget allocated millions of additional funding on police spending to help the department hire dozens of new officers and improve criminal response times.
Vasquez is running against Schmidt’s support for ending cash bail and lower rate of prosecution for misdemeanor offenses. He is also campaigning against Schmidt’s previous support for Measure 110, Oregon’s drug decriminalization measure that was followed by a surge in overdose deaths.
Oregon eventually rolled back the measure in a bipartisan fashion earlier this year after public opinion turned against it. Schmidt endorsed a portion of the rollback while continuing to favor the decriminalization of hard drugs.
Schmidt was originally elected in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter riots following the murder of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters were particularly active in Portland throughout summer 2020, taking the streets for weeks at a time and frequently committing acts of violence.
Schmidt’s office declined to prosecute many of the protesters under a policy of “preemptive decline” for lower level offenses.
“His first act was to 100 percent destroy the relationship with Portland police,” Vasquez said in a March debate hosted by the Portland Metro Chamber. “He told them loud and clear he didn’t value them with his protest policy. He told them loud and clear they were second-class. And they left in droves, sadly.”
Law enforcement unions and local activist group People for Portland are supporting Vasquez, a veteran prosecutor with two decades of experience. An OregonLive poll taken last month showed Vasquez leading 50 percent to 31 percent, with 19 percent undecided. Among voters who believe crime is the most important problem 70 percent chose Vasquez and 4 percent selected Schmidt.
Progressive prosecutors in blue cities across the nation have faced significant voter backlash over increased levels of violent crime. San Francisco recalled district attorney Chesa Boudin (D) in 2022 and Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price (D) faces a recall this November. In 2021, deep-blue Seattle elected a Republican city attorney over a police abolitionist because of public safety issues.