A lot can change in a campaign cycle.
For example, in November, Chris Dudley didn’t want to talk about his phone call with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek.
“I don’t think that’s right when you have a private conversation [to] talk about that publicly,” he told an OPB reporter in the fall when asked whether Kotek called him and tried to persuade him not to enter the race.
But with one week before the primary, the former Portland Trail Blazer and GOP gubernatorial candidate, who is trailing in the polls, has pivoted.
In social media videos, Dudley is telling voters, “There is a reason why Tina Kotek called me to try and convince me not to run for governor because she knows I’m the only one who can beat her in November.”
Oregon Republican Gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley gets his microphone fixed onto his shirt before the 2026 Oregon Republican Gubernatorial Debate at NW Events in Hillsboro, Ore., on April 16, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Marissa Sandgren, a spokeswoman for Kotek’s re-election campaign, disputed the nature of the call.
“After the governor heard Chris Dudley was thinking about returning to Oregon politics, they had a cordial conversation, but at no time did she ask him not to run for office,” Sandgren said.
Dudley’s campaign asserts the timing makes sense.
“In the closing days of the campaign — it’s important for voters to know the current governor is only threatened by one of the candidates — Chris Dudley,” Brittany Yanick, a spokesperson for Dudley’s campaign, wrote in an email. “Kotek knows she can beat any of the others — and has beaten Drazan — and knows she would lose to Dudley. Republicans need to rally behind Chris in order to win in November.”
Republican strategist Rebecca Tweed, who is not working on the current gubernatorial race but helped Knute Buehler’s campaign in 2018 when he was running against then-Gov. Kate Brown said there could be an endgame strategy to sharing the news now.
“You don’t often get calls from candidates unless they see you as a threat,” she said. “Maybe they have polling showing that [the message] could move the needle.”
Tweed said Dudley appears to have more moderate stances than his Republican rivals in the primary.
“He has a lot of views that would give Democrats permission to vote for him,” she said.
Oregon Republican Gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley responds to a question during the 2026 Oregon Republican Gubernatorial Debate at NW Events in Hillsboro, Ore., on April 16, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
As the party’s 2010 nominee for governor, Dudley came closer than any Republican in decades to retaking the governor’s mansion. This year, he’s raised more than $2 million, including $1 million from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, to reintroduce himself to Republican voters.
There has been very little public polling done in the GOP primary this cycle, and what has been released shows state Sen. Christine Drazan holding a commanding lead. On the Democratic side, a recent poll commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive showed the bulk of Democratic voters in Portland are dissatisfied with Kotek’s performance in office.
Tweed said with turnout being projected to be on the low side for the May 19th primary and with a lot of Republican voters still undecided, she isn’t surprised Dudley is willing to talk about his conversation with Kotek now.
“As far as any of us know, it’s a message no other Republican candidate can share during the final stretch of the election: that Democrats viewed him as the Republican they least wanted to face in November,” she said.
The other two candidates in the race are state Rep. Ed Diehl, of Scio, and Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell.
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