Keith Wilson, businessman and political outsider, elected mayor of Portland

Portland voters have elected Keith Wilson, a trucking company CEO and political outsider, to become the city’s 54th mayor.

Partial returns as of 5 p.m. Wednesday showed Wilson leading Portland Commissioner Carmen Rubio 62% to 38% — a margin of more than 42,000 votes — after 19 preliminary rounds of vote counting and candidate elimination under the city’s first election using ranked-choice voting.

Given the newsroom’s rough estimate that 100,000 ballots cast by city of Portland voters remain to be tallied, there is no plausible path for Rubio to overcome the dominating lead that Wilson built, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive found.

With more than 180,000 votes for mayor tallied, Wilson was the first choice of 35% of voters, compared to 21% who ranked Rubio first, and he was heavily preferred over Rubio as a next choice by voters who favored Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, the third place finisher.

Gonzalez trailed behind the pair, capturing a high of 25% in early vote-counting rounds before failing to advance. Portland Commissioner Mingus Mapps captured a high of 15% before being eliminated.

Wilson’s pitch to tackle homelessness, crime and livability — top concerns with Portland voters — came with a full-throated insistence they can be remedied with care and compassion. He made the audacious pledge to largely end unsheltered homelessness within a year the crux of his campaign.

He will succeed outgoing Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversaw the city during a tumultuous eight years, in January.

“Voters in every corner of our city have made their voices heard: They want change and for local leadership to work together to solve the issues our community faces,” Wilson said in a statement Wednesday. “There will be challenges ahead, but I can promise you this: I’ll approach this job with humility and lead on our shared values.”

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Portland’s move to ranked-choice voting was one of several significant government and election reforms voters approved two years ago amid deepening dissatisfaction with how Oregon’s most populous city runs and those elected to lead it.

The dramatic City Hall makeover means that the next mayor won’t set policy or have veto power. Instead, an expanded 12-member City Council and its selected president will set legislative direction for the city. The mayor will choose and oversee a professional city administrator, subject to council approval.

Under the city’s new voting system, voters were allowed to rank up to six candidates for mayor in order of preference from a field of 19 contenders. Wilson ultimately emerged as the winner as candidates with the fewest number of highly ranking votes were eliminated and voters who cast ballots for those candidates had their votes transferred to their next viable choice.

For much of this year, Portland’s mayoral race was largely seen as a two-person contest between Gonzalez and Rubio, both of whom held early fundraising leads and racked up key endorsements from politically powerful constituencies.

Backed by public safety unions and a clutch of downtown developers and property owners, Gonzalez cast himself as an unabashed law-and-order candidate who helped push Portland to the political middle and was best positioned to restore the city’s livability.

Rubio, who won the support of public sector unions, Democratic lawmakers and influential liberal organizations, touted her record of big policy wins at City Hall as well as her earned reputation as a coalition and consensus builder. Despite being the most progressive member of Portland’s current City Council, she became a consistent champion of business community priorities.

Rubio and her backers argued that her low-key, collaborative leadership style were needed to dial down the divisiveness that’s permeated Portland politics and deliver results. They also said it would help establish the right tone and culture as City Hall begins to operate under historic changes to its form of government.

Rubio called Wilson to concede Wednesday night and to wish him luck. She said in a statement that serving as a city commissioner had been a privilege of her lifetime and noted that she was glad that voters had elected someone who “clearly believes in Portland.”

“My hope for him is that he enters City Hall with a desire to listen and learn from those who have been working hard to get Portland back on its feet,” Rubio said in a statement. “We have made progress over the last few years, and we need to keep moving forward. We don’t have another minute or dollar to waste when it comes to ending homelessness, creating a safe and inclusive city, supporting our small businesses, or addressing the other major challenges we face.”

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Carmen Rubio mayoral election party at The Sports Bra 2024Mark Graves

By contrast, Wilson built a steady base of support without a roster of influential players in his corner, with a dogged focus on a strategy to fix Portland’s most intractable problem and a hyper-energized effort to connect with voters.

The owner of TITAN Freight Systems, an eco-friendly trucking company, Wilson often touted his private sector experience while also highlighting his fossil-fuel-free fleet.

And while Wilson’s proposal to end unsheltered homelessness by rapidly standing up emergency nighttime-only shelters faced skepticism in the final weeks of the race, his candidacy surged as his rivals’ personal and political baggage became more publicly pronounced.

Gonzalez’s strident positions on crime and homelessness and rhetorical bomb-throwing made him a polarizing public figure and sparked a well-funded push to convince voters to leave him off their rankings for mayor entirely.

In addition to his strong pro-policing stance being a mismatch for some Portland voters, Gonzalez also suffered setbacks by spending $6,400 in taxpayer money to clean up his Wikipedia page and accusing a woman who jostled his arm on a MAX ride of assaulting him.

The city auditor’s office ruled last month that Gonzalez violated campaign finance laws in the Wikipedia matter and fined him $2,400.

Revelations of Rubio’s cavalier driving history — which includes 150 parking and traffic citations and six driver’s license suspensions — dented her standing with voters. She also struggled throughout her campaign to articulate a clear vision for most of the issues that are top of mind for voters, including public safety, homelessness and livability.

Both carried the added burden of holding elected office at a time when most Portland residents deeply disapprove of City Hall leadership.

Meanwhile, Mapps, who pinned his mayoral hopes on the idea that voters want a moderate who would cut through red tape and ensure Portland provides basic essential services, faltered early his campaign and never fully recovered.

— Shane Dixon Kavanaugh covers Portland city government and politics, with a focus on accountability and watchdog reporting.

Reach him at 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on X @shanedkavanaugh

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