The Democratic Speaker of Oregon’s state House of Representatives, Tina Kotek, helped raise the minimum wage and pass statewide rent control. She’s slated to become one of the country’s first two openly lesbian governors.
Kotek takes office in 2023, and she said her top priority is to tackle homelessness. Multnomah County, which includes Portland, reported more than 5,000 people in its homeless population this year.
“I will declare a homelessness state of emergency and work with urgency to help Oregonians to move off the street,” Kotek said.
Her plan involves an executive order that will set up a 10-year plan for building enough affordable housing to meet the need.
With education, Kotek wants to expand access to pre-kindergarten, set a standard for all students to be able to read by third grade and reduce time spent on standardized testing.
Kotek supports further gun control measures, such as raising the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 and banning people with hate crime convictions from owning guns.
During her hard-fought, three-way election campaign, Kotek defended measure 110, which decriminalized small amounts of hard drugs statewide. People found in possession of the drugs can pay a fine or undergo addiction screening. Her competitors said the measure failed and made the addiction crisis worse. Kotek said the state needs to provide more treatment programs for this to be effective in addressing addiction.
