UPDATED: Wednesday, Nov. 6, 5:58 a.m. ... Democrat Dan Rayfield has claimed victory in the race to be 翱谤别驳辞苍鈥檚 next attorney general, winning 53.2 percent of the vote, as of Wednesday morning. Republican Will Lathrop, who received 46.6 percent of the vote, has conceded.
Rayfield, a personal injury lawyer who spent nearly a decade in the Oregon Legislature and rose to speaker of the House, ran a campaign focused on his political experience and promising to defend the state鈥檚 abortion laws and the environment.
By contrast, Lathrop ran a campaign focused on improving public safety and stressed that he was not a politician. Lathrop, who appears to trail Rayfield in early ballot returns, is a former prosecutor turned international human rights worker.
翱谤别驳辞苍鈥檚 , which is responsible for defending state agencies and laws in court. The attorney general also sues companies and the federal government when they harm residents. The agency has some 1,500 employees and a nearly $900 million biennial budget.
This election marks a significant change in the office. Since 2012, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, has won the statewide race three times. She opted to not seek reelection this year.
Lathrop grew up on a cattle ranch in Wallowa County and, like Rayfield, attended Willamette University School of Law in Salem. He spent time as a prosecutor in Yamhill and Marion counties where he focused on prosecuting sex crimes before joining International Justice Mission, a Christian-backed human rights group, focused on human trafficking. A 2023 BBC documentary reported the nonprofit engaged in kidnapping children while Lathrop was country director in Ghana.
In an interview with OPB, Lathrop dismissed the BBC鈥檚 findings. He said IJC worked behind the scenes and it was Ghanaian social workers and police who took children to court where judges made determinations about removing them from their homes.
鈥淭hey accused IJM of kidnapping,鈥� Lathrop told OPB in September. 鈥淚JM doesn鈥檛 have the power and never has taken a kid and never has removed a child from home. It鈥檚 always the police or social workers, and it鈥檚 all documented.鈥�
During the campaign, Lathrop declined to say whether he supports former President Trump鈥檚 bid for reelection. By contrast, Rayfield said he 鈥渆nthusiastically supports Kamala Harris for president.鈥�
When Rayfield first ran for the Legislature in 2014, he he had while as a young adult, including a DUII he got when he was 18 years old that was later dismissed.
In a campaign ad for attorney general, Rayfield acknowledged he 鈥渆ven ended up on the wrong side of the law a few times.鈥� He also said he had a challenging childhood and 鈥渟aw up close how physical abuse and addiction impact families.鈥�
While a member of the Oregon Democratic Party establishment, during the campaign Rayfield pointed to bipartisan policy victories he helped craft, such as the legislation that rolled back 翱谤别驳辞苍鈥檚 drug decriminalization law and made possession a crime once more
This story comes from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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