Christian Smith
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Centrist district attorney candidate Nathan Vasquez unseated the progressive incumbent prosecutor in Oregon’s Multnomah County, where Portland is located, after running a campaign in which he promised to be tough on crime.
One of District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s deputies, Vasquez has been endorsed by several law enforcement groups. He won Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary election after results showed he received more than 50% of the vote. Although there was an opt-in option, Vasquez and Schmidt were the only two candidates in the race.
Vasquez said Schmidt conceded the election when they spoke Wednesday afternoon. In a post on his campaign’s Facebook page, he thanked Schmidt for his service and said he was grateful for the support he received from voters.
Vasquez’s victory comes as progressive prosecutors and candidates in liberal strongholds ranging from the San Francisco Bay Area to Seattle have faced setbacks as frustrations over public safety and homelessness grow.
“Voters have made it clear they are ready to take our county in a new, safer direction,” Vasquez said in his post Wednesday.
“I am committed to ending open-air drug trafficking and use, while helping to connect individuals to treatment, rebuild broken relationships between the DA’s office and the community, and ensure that victims are the my office’s number one priority,” he added. .
Schmidt was elected in 2020 as social justice protests took hold in Portland and the country. He campaigned for reform of the criminal justice system and, while in office, launched initiatives to review unfair convictions and prison sentences and focus prosecutions on violent crimes rather than low-level crimes.
During the campaign, Vasquez denounced some of Schmidt’s policies, such as his decision not to prosecute protesters arrested during the 2020 demonstrations for low-level, non-violent crimes, and his previous support for Measure 110, a voter-approved ballot measure in 2020. which decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs.
Amid one of the nation’s biggest spikes in overdose deaths, state lawmakers this year ended up reversing the nation’s first law and restoring criminal penalties for so-called “personal use” possession. Schmidt supported reinstating the penalties.
Vasquez has been a prosecutor at the Public Ministry for more than 20 years.
Before taking office, Schmidt led the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a state agency charged with improving the legitimacy and effectiveness of the criminal justice system. Prior to that, he served as Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney.
