Eye on Northwest Politics 2024 year-end review

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- 2024 was a pivotal year in politics.

The nation reelected Donald Trump as president. Oregon and Southwest Washington also played a role in the battle for control of Congress. Additionally, the Oregon legislature reversed the failed experiment to decriminalize street drugs.

Eye on Northwest Politics was here for all of it. Including when Portland elected a new mayor and a new expanded City Council under an entirely new system of government.

The first two months of 2024 saw the Oregon Supreme Court deliberating the fate of 10 Republican senators who walked out of the legislature in May 2023 over Democrat-sponsored bills they objected to. The six-week walkout, led by Senate Republican leader Tim Knopp of Bend, was the longest in Oregon history, halting all business in the legislature for 43 days.

The state's fentanyl crisis also took center stage in 2024. In January, Governor Kotek joined leaders in Portland and Multnomah County to declare a fentanyl emergency. Then in March, the Oregon legislature reversed voter-approved Measure 110, which decriminalized street drugs.
KOIN 6 News spoke with the governor about the fentanyl emergency in February.

This election year, Oregon and Southwest Washington had the eyes of the nation on them, with two hotly contested races that could have tipped the balance of power in Congress -- Oregon Congressional District 5 between incumbent Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer and former State Representative Janelle Bynum. There was also an unexpected twist that allowed both candidates to essentially end up winning.

Meanwhile in Washington, the race for Congressional District 3 was a rematch pitting incumbent Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez against Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Joe Kent. In the end, Gluesenkamp Perez scored another narrow victory in a district that overall went for Trump.

When Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced that he wasn't going to run again in 2024, it set off a scramble for the Nov. 5 election. Three current Portland city commissioners were among the 18 candidates to potentially fill the spot. But none of them won, as businessman and political outsider Keith Wilson became the city's mayor-elect. This came as Portlanders used ranked-choice voting for the first time to choose an entirely new system of government.

The November election yielded a few surprises, the Portland mayor's race included. But other results were more predictable, as Democrats occupy all of the executive positions in the state and Oregon's congressional delegation remains decidedly blue.

2024 also saw the deaths of two of the most powerful men in the history of Oregon politics.
Former Oregon Governor and former Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt died June 12 of heart failure at the age of 83. About a month later on July 16, long-time Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney died from complications related to cancer at age 81.

But while Courtney was honored and revered, Goldschmidt's legacy is forever tainted.

Check out our full year-end review of these events in the videos above.