Jessica Gomez enters the race for Oregon Governor

She is reasonable, moderate, and has a great biography.

Jessica Gomez would be electable—except for the elephant in the room.

There is a lot to like for Oregonians who in past elections had voted for governors whose overall policy and presentation was unifying. Lots of Republicans liked Democrat John Kitzhaber, and voted for him. Lots of Democrats liked Republican Tom McCall and Vic Atiyeh and voted for them. There is talk in Oregon about “The Oregon Way,” which is a political style of bipartisan respect. You don’t treat the other party as if they are villains. You appoint some of them to boards. It isn’t “smash-mouth” in its language.

Jessica Gomez is in "The Oregon Way” mold.

She describes herself as a “reboot” from the present. Her campaign website describes her past struggle as a homeless teen, her work to build a successful tech business, and her recognition that “safety net” programs have an important purpose. On her website and in a conversation with me she returned repeatedly to the theme of individual uplift. People want jobs, they want a career with a future, with raises. She presents as a can-do, jobs-oriented Republican moderate. Here’s her website link and campaign photo: www.jessicagomezforgovernor.com

Her campaign language is unifying in part because of what she does not do. She says parents and students need more choices and she supports charter schools—but she doesn’t say that Oregon teachers and the Oregon Education Association are the great Democratic enemy. There is appetite in the Republican party for bashing the OEA, but she doesn’t feed it.

She says there have been inefficiencies in state government, that “there’s a lot of work to be done,” and that we need new “strong leadership” that “really understands how to run those state agencies to deliver the value.” She cites Oregon’s long, controversial delay in getting out unemployment checks—but doesn’t name names and attack Kate Brown. Again, there is appetite in the Republican party for finding a villain, and given the frustration with COVID restrictions, Brown is a handy target. That isn’t Gomez’s approach.

Oregon has been roiled by the disturbances in Portland regarding Black Lives Matter, protests hijacked by anarchist violence, and controversies over police conduct. Gomez’s website quotes a police trainer: “Jessica understands the frustration on both sides, but rhetoric must give way to positive solutions.” Gomez wants common ground, not a fight.

Gomez’s understanding of the problem of “the benefit cliff issue” gives a bit of insight into her practical empathy. Much of the discourse over safety net benefits has been about accusations and blame. The “red meat” way to frame the problem is to cite Democrats as socialists attempting to buy votes, and lazy people paid not to work. (Democrat would describe Republicans as heartless, forcing people to work while possibly infected with COVID, spreading disease and prolonging the epidemic.) Gomez recognizes there is a practical problem. A person whose low income qualifies them and their family for a public benefit, the Oregon Health Plan, for example, loses the benefit if they take a better-paying job. It costs them money. And without backup health insurance, their family is at risk. She said,

I think what we really need to focus on is so work is always a net positive. . ..Who gets that? The people who have to manage their income. They get it. Once you get on one of those programs, they’re wonderful, they are meant to support families and give you that extra helping hand so you can continue building your career. . .. We have got to create a smooth ramp—allow people to stay on but they would basically be paying into that benefit, so it’s a gradual ramp.

Gomez didn’t describe a villain. She described a problem and a solution. Gomez sounds like an “Oregon Way” candidate.

That might be a problem within her own party. The 2020 GOP primary for Congress in the Republican 2nd Congressional District reveals where the GOP electorate is. All four major candidates threw themselves into smash-mouth politics in opposition to culture war symbols: Socialism! AOC! Portland libs! Defund police! Gun rights! Abortion! A unifier candidate may be out of touch and a dreaded RINO, a Republican in Name Only.

She has a second problem: Democrats, if she gets the GOP nomination. I pressed her repeatedly to disagree with Trump’s assertion that he won big in the 2020 election and that America experienced massive voter fraud. I reminded her that Oregon has universal vote by mail and that Trump said vote by mail was per se corrupt and utterly unreliable. Gomez agreed that she knew of no problem in our own county’s vote by mail. But asked if she agreed that electoral votes in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Nevada should have been counted, she said,

I don’t take a public position on that. I think that maintaining integrity in our elections is very important. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on that particular issue.

Asked whether she agreed with Trump’s assertion that Trump was the rightful winner and that Joe Biden got the benefit of massive voter fraud, she said,

I don’t want really—I don’t want to spend a lot of time, I don’t—I agree that we should have elections secure, make sure ballots are counted accurately. What other states do and how they manage their elections—I don’t have, I haven’t done an interrogation on how every state does their election.

I said that Oregon’s highest Republican elected official, U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz voted not to allow electoral votes in Pennsylvania to be counted, and then doubled down in subsequent weeks and said he stood by that vote. I reminded her that Oregon’s Republican Secretary of State candidate, Kim Thatcher, signed her agreement with the Texas lawsuit that would have thrown out votes for multiple states and given the election to Trump. If you were governor you would have an opportunity to correct the record and provide leadership. The silence of current Republican leaders gives credence to people justifying overturning the election, and they are the ones doing the talking. Will you provide that leadership? She had no comment.

This is the elephant in the room for Jessica Gomez. 

Someone will win the GOP nomination for governor, possibly her. Her policies, language, and tone appear to be bipartisan and reasonable. But what she cannot say aloud without getting into trouble in a GOP primary, is that neither Trump’s own Justice Department, Trump’s own Election Integrity division in the Department of Homeland Security, nor election officials in the several states, nor state and federal judges, found evidence of “widespread fraud” or an election stolen from Trump. Therefore efforts by Republicans to overturn the election by having legislatures reverse the vote, or by having election officials “find votes,” or by having Congress not accept votes, by having a mob threaten the Vice President to discard electoral votes cast for Biden all constitute serious crimes against our self-government. Silence gives consent to people who continue to advocate voiding an election to maintain power. Democratic voters will be reluctant to put into the governor’s office a person who does not have a public opinion on overthrowing the government.

I suspect Jessica Gomez is correct in saying that Oregon voters are ready for a reboot. She could be elected. I know a lot of Oregon voters are fed up with Portland Democrats; I hear it from Democrats, too. But come election day, 2022, when the election rhetoric becomes increasingly partisan, Gomez will be stuck with having stood with her team saying she didn’t really have enough information to know whether she was OK with overthrowing an election if the voters supported a Democrat.

There is a message a lot of people will find dispositive: a Republican, however soft spoken and pleasant and otherwise electable, cannot be trusted with the power to certify an election.