PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland city commissioner Dan Ryan has announced that he will be run for City Council this year. As a longtime resident of North Portland, Ryan said he will be aiming for one of the three seats that will represent District 2 on the expanded 12-person council that will take over city governance at the start of 2025.
"I am ready to put my hat in the ring to be of service to the city of Portland as a representative on the new city council," Ryan said during taping for an episode of KGW's Straight Talk that airs Friday night.
Ryan is the first of the city's current five council members to make a bid for a position on the new council. Fellow commissioners Mingus Mapps, Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio have all announced plans to run for mayor. Current mayor Ted Wheeler has ruled out running for a third term, but has not announced any further plans.
Ryan was rumored to be considering a mayoral run last fall, but said he wanted to wait a few more months to make a decision. He ultimately declared in December that he wouldn't seek the mayor's office, but he didn't rule out the possibility of a council run, declaring only that he didn't want to mount a citywide campaign in 2024.
He declined to endorse Mapps, Gonzalez or Rubio, at least for the moment; when asked on Straight Talk which of his three fellow commissioners most closely aligns with his vision for the direction of Portland, Ryan said his values are "shared with all three of them in different ways."
"I think what's more important for me is to continue to work with them well, because we have a lot of work to do right at this time," he said.
Along with several other current council members, Ryan has previously expressed some skepticism about Portland's government transition plan. He told KGW in 2022 the proposed overhaul would mean "going from the most antiquated form of government to kind of an experiment," and that he didn't plan to vote for it when it appeared on the ballot later that year.
But Portland voters felt differently, approving the charter reform plan by a large margin, and the city council has spent the past year working to make the transition a reality.
Now, Ryan says that he wants to help usher in the new form of government and bring some continuity during the transition.
A Thursday afternoon news release from Ryan's campaign highlights a lengthy list of priorities for his campaign, starting with homelessness, housing and public safety while also including permitting reform, downtown revitalization, education, neighborhood, parks, arts and entertainment.
The news release also touts his work on the current council such as the creation of Portland's Safe Rest Villages and leading a successful campaign to persuade voters to renew the Portland Children's Levy.