PORTLAND, Ore. — After more election results posted late Wednesday afternoon, Mike Schmidt conceded the race for Multnomah County district attorney to challenger Nathan Vasquez.
“It is looking as if I will not be serving another four years as Multnomah County District Attorney," Schmidt said in a statement issued at 4 p.m. "I have called Nathan Vasquez to congratulate him on his victory.
"While we do not always see eye to eye, I am committed to a smooth transition. Thank you to this amazing community for the support they have shown for this campaign. And thank you for the opportunity to serve these past four years. It is an honor I will cherish for a lifetime.”
He intends to serve the rest of his term through December 31, his campaign manager told KGW.
Schmidt is the incumbent district attorney for Multnomah County. First elected in 2020, Schmidt's reelection bid drew a challenge from Vasquez, a senior deputy district attorney in Schmidt's office. The race has been bitterly fought, particularly for a position that rarely draws such political attention.
With roughly 145,000 votes counted as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Vasquez had received 54% of the vote to Schmidt's 45%. While Vasquez's lead narrowed from his more significant advantage in early returns, Schmidt was not expected to make up the difference with the votes remaining to be counted. The Oregonian called the race for Vasquez shortly after those latest results.
Results below are not final; ballots will continue to be counted, and the story will be updated as additional vote totals come in.
In a speech delivered Tuesday night to his supporters, Schmidt stopped short of conceding but acknowledged that the vote thus far was not going his way.
"This has been a hard-fought campaign, and while it is still too early to definitively call this race, right now we are down," he wrote in a statement issued after the first round of results. "I look forward to seeing more results come in. Regardless of the outcome, I want to thank this community for the incredible support they have shown this campaign."
Schmidt later told KGW that he'd spoken to many voters in the run-up to the election who expressed frustration about long 911 wait times, police officers not showing up to calls and cases dismissed due to a lack of public defenders. He also acknowledged that the rollout of Measure 110 had resulted in poor outcomes, because treatment wasn't sufficiently available when it was needed most.
"And I think if you're a community member, you just see things not working," Schmidt said. "So I think that's probably what we've seen so far in the early results, and we'll still see more to come out ... but what we've seen so far is probably a manifestation of that frustration."
Speaking to his own supporters, Vasquez started the night on a positive note, talking about belief in the community.
"This is a time where I think a lot of people in our community are looking for that belief, that hope, and I think tonight is going to be a change in that direction," Vasquez later told KGW. "And I really want to deliver that to our community in a way that feels positive and hopeful, so that everyone in this community feels included, everyone feels like they can have a safe community where they can go to parks, they can go down the street and can really enjoy this wonderful, amazing city and county that we live in, and I'm just so hopeful for tonight."
Vasquez acknowledged feeling tired and worn out by the hard-fought campaign of the last year, but said he felt energized by the outcome Tuesday night.
In a later address to thank his supporters, Vasquez said that he was "on the precipice" of winning the election, and expressed confidence that he would be the next district attorney.
Despite being the incumbent, polling done ahead of the primary showed Schmidt falling behind Vasquez.
Vasquez has been able to capitalize on Multnomah County's particularly dramatic surge in certain types of crime coming out of the pandemic. Property crime, shootings and homicides spiked during Schmidt's tenure, with homicides peaking in 2022. Despite recent declines in gun violence, homicides, retail theft and car theft, public opinion has yet to rebound.
Schmidt has also been the target of negative political advertising since well before Vasquez declared his candidacy, appearing as a favorite subject for billboards and commercials bankrolled by the group People for Portland.
Above all, Vasquez has claimed that he could repair relationships between the DA's office and police, which were strained early on during Schmidt's tenure when the DA decided not to prosecute hundreds of protesters arrested on non-violent offenses.
Schmidt was elected in a landslide in May 2020, not long after the first lockdowns for COVID-19. Although he was not set to take office until January 2021, the abrupt resignation of then-District Attorney Rod Underhill brought Schmidt into the role at the beginning of August.
Having run on a platform of criminal justice reform, Schmidt's election came just before video documenting George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked a nationwide wave of protests over racial justice and police brutality. At the time he took office, there were already hundreds of protest-related arrests awaiting prosecution.