Multnomah County prosecutor Nathan Vasquez leads incumbent Mike Schmidt in DA race

Multnomah County voters are on track to fire one-term incumbent District Attorney Mike Schmidt, replacing him with Nathan Vasquez, a longtime prosecutor who ran a fierce and expensive challenge to unseat his boss.

Partial returns as of 8:02 p.m.Tuesday show Vasquez leading 58% to 42%.

After the first results came in, Schmidt issued a statement calling the race “hard fought” and saying it’s too early to call the winner. “Regardless of the outcome, I want to thank this community for the incredible support they have shown this campaign,” Schmidt said as he gathered with supporters at the Jupiter Hotel on East Burnside.

Vasquez watched the results come in with his supporters at the Hoxton Hotel on Northwest Fourth Avenue. He has not released a statement yet.

His campaign leaned heavily on his experience as a prosecutor and advocate for crime victims.

He started in the office straight out of law school about 24 years ago and stayed, rising through the ranks to become a supervisor and handling some of the most serious cases on the office’s caseload, including homicides and violent political extremism.

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Vasquez, 47, zeroed in on what he characterized as Schmidt’s failure to lead, whether it was on crime, the state of downtown Portland or within the office. He accused Schmidt of sitting on the sidelines as the public use of fentanyl proliferated and called attention to Schmidt’s shifting views of Measure 110, Oregon’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law.

Schmidt, meanwhile, encountered a dramatically altered political landscape than when he ran in 2020, as his message failed to resonate with voters who four years ago enthusiastically swept him into office after a campaign that highlighted racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system.

Nationally, Schmidt is the latest progressive DA to face defeat. Two years ago, San Francisco voters recalled reformer Chesa Boudin and the top prosecutor in Chicago, Kim Foxx, who also championed changes to the justice system, faced intense backlash and announced earlier this year she would not seek reelection.

Schmidt, 43, campaigned on what he described as his accomplishments: a reduction in car and catalytic converter thefts and the start of a specialty court focused on rehabilitation over incarceration for some violent offenders. He also touted his efforts to advocate for big-picture policies like making minor drug possession a crime again.

Schmidt had previously worked for about six years as a Multnomah County prosecutor and eventually went on to lead the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a state agency charged with crunching criminal justice data for policymakers.

From the start, Schmidt faced intense criticism from within his own ranks. The union that represents prosecutors endorsed Vasquez.

Last year, the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries found substantial evidence in favor of former prosecutor Amber Kinney, who alleged when she quit in 2022 that Schmidt had set back women’s advancement in the office by “decades.”

More recently, a senior prosecutor in the office accused Schmidt of bypassing policies in reviewing clemency petitions and making a promotion decision based on political loyalties.

The bruising race made history, raking in record amounts of cash. Downtown business interests backed Vasquez and reform-minded donors, including a group with ties to Democratic megadonor George Soros, infused Schmidt’s coffers with last-minute donations.

Though Schmidt trailed in fundraising for much of the race, he caught up to Vasquez in the closing weeks, campaign finance filings show. They each raised about $1.1 million, unheard of in the race for Multnomah County DA.

In nonpartisan primaries like this one, if a candidate earns more than 50% of vote, they win the office outright, giving them more than seven months to prepare to take office in January.

The salary for the four-year position increases to $272,725 in July.

— 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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