Map shows where DA candidates Schmidt and Vasquez did best in Multnomah County

Voters in inner Northeast and Southeast Portland neighborhoods went for incumbent Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, while his challenger Nathan Vasquez dominated in precincts in western and eastern areas of the county.

Preliminary precinct-level voting patterns from Tuesday’s results show deep support for Vasquez, a 47-year-old prosecutor on track to unseat his boss, in Gresham and communities to the east, as well as across the Willamette River in areas including Bridlemile and the Southwest Hills. Roughly 35% of ballots cast countywide have yet to be tallied.

Partial returns show Vasquez leading 56% to 44%. The Oregonian has not yet called the race because the county has tallied results from 127,000 ballots with 70,000 still to count.

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Vasquez said he has not declared victory “out of respect for the elected DA, out of respect for the position and out of respect for the community.” He said he has not heard from Schmidt.

“I am very optimistic and very hopeful that I am going to be elected,” he said.

Schmidt, first elected in 2020 as a criminal justice progressive, did not respond to a request for comment.

At his campaign event Tuesday night, Schmidt thanked his backers “for the incredible support they have shown this campaign.”

John Horvick, senior vice president of DHM Research, a polling firm, said he’s confident Vasquez will win based on the partial returns.

He called the breakdown among voters countywide a “classic Portland/ Multnomah County story where the inner east side is the most liberal, progressive place and then there’s this coalition of the east and the west” parts of the county, which is less so.

To overcome Vasquez’s strong support in those areas, Schmidt needed to capture 60% to 65% percent of the vote in inner east side precincts — but he failed to deliver consistently strong results across the precincts he ended up carrying.

“There’s this this dynamic that’s playing out in Portland where I think probably the most vocal, most politically active, where a lot of opinion leaders live isn’t reflective of where the overall sort of voters in the community are in terms of public safety and crime, drug use, homelessness,” Horvick said.

Polling done by Horvick’s firm on behalf of The Oregonian/OregonLive showed Vasquez held a significant advantage because the sizable share of voters who say crime and drug use are the most pressing issues facing the Portland area overwhelmingly favored him.

The race pitted Schmidt, who championed a change-oriented agenda including what programs addressing racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system, against Vasquez, an office insider who spent his entire career as a Multnomah County prosecutor.

The campaigns became bitter — and expensive, with each candidate raising more than $1 million.

— Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on the justice system. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian.

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