Tina KotekTina Kotek

As Speaker of the Oregon House in 2019, she was responsible for HB 2001, a first-in-the-nation bill that received significant bipartisan support. As Governor, Kotek has continued to focus on housing, passing more legislation, including HB 2138 in 2025, which YIMBYs went to Salem to advocate for.

As her state’s chief executive, Governor Kotek has continued to take on the gun lobby at every turn and strengthen Oregon’s gun safety framework in order to save lives across her state.

Tina was one of the first out lesbian governors of any state!

“Governor Kotek stood with us when we fought for reasonable raises and safer workplaces. She is a proven leader on investing in Oregon’s workforce and shares our goal of making the State a first-class employer.” Charlie Peirson Oregon AFSCME, Second Vice President and PAC Chair Here are just a few more reasons why we endorse Gov. Kotek: - Governor Kotek supported the largest raises for State workers in forty years. In 2023 Gov. Kotek supported the largest wage increases of 13% for state workers, and a $1,500 COLA bonus. She held steadfast in 2025 for another wage increase, even in the face of federal budget cuts. - Governor Kotek has a commitment for worker safety. In 2024 after an AFSCME member was murdered on the job, Gov. Kotek answered our call for significant improvements to safety. She also joined the efforts to improve behavioral health jobs by boosting pay, offering support benefits like housing and child care, and working to reduce staffing shortages through retention incentives recruitment. She is a champion of safe staffing for health care workers and of workers injured on the job after we lost a road crew member in Benton County. - Governor Kotek has supported unions and organizing new workers: Throughout her legislative career and time as Governor, Gov. Kotek has supported legislation to empower unions and working people. In 2025, against deep opposition from employers, she signed the bill to let striking workers collect unemployment insurance.

Tina Kotek has stood with ONA repeatedly as governor. She has aided the cause of ONA members on strike, cautioned health systems when they’ve looked to contract key services to for-profit companies, and has signed into law ONA priorities like safe staffing, unemployment insurance for striking workers, and limiting law enforcement in our hospitals in the context of immigration crackdown. Governor Kotek’s work reflects a needed counterweight to federal overreach and a pursuit of the broadest healthcare coverage possible for our Oregon population, at a time when the healthcare funding system is under attack. Learn more at www.tinafororegon.com.

Classified as supporting a data center pause. Four Oregon Democratic legislators are separately pushing a three-year pause for the 2027 session. Limited on AI safety and regulation, strong on data center opposition, moderate public voice on AI.

Honestly, I’d consider leaving this section blank. Nobody is happy with Kotex, and this is a way to signal that.