PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon Governor Kate Brown sailed through the primary election with 84 percent of the vote, to win the Democratic nomination in the May 15 primaries.
Brown will face moderate Republican Rep. Knute Buehler in the November general election, after his win Tuesday night.
Buehler garnered 50 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, according to early results. Sam Carpenter came in second with 28 percent of the vote, and 17 percent of Republican voters cast their ballots for Greg Wooldridge.
Kate Brown was appointed governor in 2015 following then-Governor John Kitzhaber’s resignation. Brown won a 2016 special election to finish Kitzhaber’s term. If she wins in 2018, she will serve four more years as governor of Oregon.
Gov. Brown on Tuesday afternoon called on her Republican challenger to join her in at least three debates, including one that will air on KGW.
“Voters deserve to hear directly from us where we stand on the issues,” Brown said.
Knute Buehler currently represents Bend in the Oregon House of Representatives, and works as an orthopedic surgeon in Bend.
“The change we all need has started with victory tonight,” Buehler said.
Buehler was considered the front-runner in the GOP race and spent much of the primary campaign focusing on the November race against Brown. But early straw polls showed more conservative candidates Carpenter and Wooldridge gaining support among the state’s Republican base, and Buehler turned his attention to the primary election in the last few weeks of the race.
