Portland incumbents win reelection in Districts 3 and 4, preserving council balance

As of midnight on Election Night, all six incumbent Portland city councilors on the ballot appeared poised to keep their seats, a sweep that OPB reported leaves the city’s 12-member council politically unchanged and hands every sitting councilor in Districts 3 and 4 a fresh four-year term. For Portland voters deciding whether to reward continuity or demand change, the answer came quickly: continuity won.

It is the second election under the ranked-choice voting system Portland voters approved in 2024, and early returns suggest the new rules have made it even harder for an incumbent to lose. Under the old system, candidates needed more than 50% of votes citywide to win — a threshold that already favored familiar names. Under ranked-choice voting, a candidate needs only 25% of their district’s vote plus one. For incumbents with name recognition and a committed base, that math is nearly unbeatable.

A ‘Superincumbency’ Built Into the Ballot

Laurie Wimmer, executive secretary and treasurer of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, put a name to the phenomenon: “Our new system has created something of a superincumbency,” she said. “Hypothetically, someone could be loathed by 75% of their constituents and still win.”

Portland City Council election: All 6 incumbents appear poised to keep their seats

In the final month before the election, an independent expenditure campaign called Unity PAC spent nearly $400,000 supporting District 3 candidate Kellie Torres — the most outside money spent on any council race this cycle. Torres, backed by Portland’s moderate business groups and public safety labor unions, was still trailing the District 3 incumbents in fourth place as of Wednesday morning. Another committee funded by the chamber of commerce, dubbed “Ditch Mitch,” poured roughly $140,000 into billboards, yard signs and buttons opposing District 4 Councilor Mitch Green. Green won anyway.

“This was a repudiation of the old style of Portland campaigning, where you get a couple of rich guys in a trenchcoat and throw money at ads,” Green told OPB. “You have to run campaigns, you have to knock doors.”

District 3 Councilor Steve Novick reached the same conclusion from his own race: the outcome proves “money is overrated” in council contests. The election was widely seen as a chance to break the council’s tidy 6-6 split between progressives and moderates — a divide that has repeatedly left the 12-person body at loggerheads. That shake-up did not happen.

Why This Election Felt Different

When Portland voters approved the government overhaul in 2024, District 3 and 4 councilors entered the newly expanded council with just two-year terms, while District 1 and 2 councilors received four-year terms — a staggered schedule meant to put some districts on the ballot every two years. The tradeoff left District 3 and 4 members with barely a year to govern before campaigning again.

“I do think tensions are amped up when you have a two-year term,” said District 3 Councilor Angelita Morillo. “You basically have one year to prove yourself.”

Now those same councilors — including Morillo, Novick, Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Eric Zimmerman — have four years ahead of them. Clark, the District 4 councilor, said she was “pleased with how things went” and hoped the security of a full term “may be a greater willingness for councilors to work together.” Novick echoed the sentiment, asking aloud how much of the council’s public friction was “just election year posturing,” and suggesting that knowing “we’re stuck with each other now” might make cooperation easier. Morillo, who has frequently clashed with Novick, agreed: “With the election behind us, it’s time to take a moment to pause, sit down, have coffee, get some therapy, figure out what it takes to work together.”

What the Progressive Wing Takes From the Results

Three of the victorious incumbents belong to the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which first ran council candidates in 2024 and has grown quickly since. Chapter spokesperson Nick Caleb called the results a mandate for the group. “We learned a lot as a chapter about organizing inside the building since then,” he said. “And we feel confident we can move the council to the left. We’re going to shake off our hangovers, roll up sleeves and get back to work.”

More ballot results were scheduled to drop at 6 p.m. Wednesday, but the early picture was clear: the current political balance in council chambers holds. The other six council seats and the mayor’s office are not up again until 2028 — meaning Portland’s next real opportunity to reshape City Hall is still two years away.

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