UPDATE: Ted Wheeler elected to second term as Portland mayor
Incumbent Ted Wheeler appears to be winning the Portland mayor’s race against challenger Sarah Iannarone.
With partial votes tallied, Wheeler has a slight edge over Iannarone with 47% to 41% as of 8:30 p.m Tuesday. Write-in candidates, which include community activist Teressa Raiford, have pulled in 12% thus far.
The initial results show Iannarone has largely erased the 25-percentage-point gap that separated her from Wheeler in the spring primary when the incumbent barely missed out winning a second term outright. Since then, Wheeler has faced criticism from all sides from constituents to the president over his leadership of the city amid nightly protests over policing and racial justice reforms.
Wheeler, 58, is seeking to become the first person since Vera Katz to serve more than one term. Katz served three consecutive terms as mayor from the early 1990s to mid-2000s. With a win, Iannarone, 47, would become the fourth woman to serve as Portland’s mayor and the first person since Bud Clark in 1984 to be elected without previously holding a government job or elected office.
Wheeler is a Portland-born timber family heir with degrees from Stanford, Columbia and Harvard universities who previously served as state treasurer and Multnomah County chair. Saying his opponent is too inexperienced to lead Portland, he vows a second term will allow him to provide the city needed stability and continued progress in the housing crisis, coronavirus recovery and other challenges.
Iannarone, an urban policy consultant and former restaurant co-owner, has called Portland home for two decades. She holds a degree from Portland State University and is pursuing a PhD in urban studies and planning. Iannarone says her opponent is too ineffective to continue leading Portland. She has promised new plans to move the city forward on public safety, sustainability and other issues.
This is Iannarone’s second attempt to become Portland’s mayor. She finished third in the May 2016 primary that Wheeler won outright.
In this year’s May primary, Wheeler just missed the 50%-plus-one threshold needed to win outright, garnering 49%. Iannarone finished second with 24% of the vote.
Wheeler was out-fundraised by Iannarone, leading him to loan his campaign $150,000. As of Tuesday, Wheeler has raised around $521,000 this year compared to more than $777,000 by Iannarone, who qualified for public matching funds.
-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | @EvertonBailey
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