The Governor's Debate 4/17/2026
- Apr 17
- 4 min read
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
The Governor’s Debate went way better than I expected as an observer in the room. What I was expecting was the usual two minute elevator speeches over and over with no real substance but what they did was had a real passion for their campaigns and refreshing to see. The most unexpected, although not surprised was how passionate they all were on the forests and especially Ed and Chris.
This is a very good group of speakers who were able to really speak from the heart. They are all mostly outsiders although Dudley is the most outsider and kept reminding people of that. After the debate the Oregonian interviewed me since I had a media credential, and he wanted a Republican review of the debate.
He asked if Chris being an outsider hurt him by not being up to speed on all the issues. I told him the Republican Party tends to like outsiders and we have an outsider who is doing amazing things in our Party and some think it is a good thing. I told him how surprised I was about their passion and especially on the forests and educated him on the dying forests.
Great answers all night long although it seemed like Christine Drazen is overcoached and running the same campaign again. It was like she was running the prevent defense saying how much she did in the House and Senate but not sure how many want to hear that as much as they would like to hear what she would do different to win? She did fine but played her cards a little too close to the vest.
The two biggest surprises were Dudley and Ed, for an engineer he was very passionate and you could tell he had a servant’s heart, which is why he is running. His answers were not exactly clean but it was what made him charming and the same could be said with Dudley. Chris is traveling the state and really getting a good feel for the rural suffering going on in this state. You could feel his heart breaking for people in Coos Bay and Eastern Oregon as well as his home in Sisters of how they are ignored and spit on by the Salem/Portland crowd.
Danielle had some good moments and is definitely a fighter although she tended to get a bit in the weeds on some of her subjects. She has a good knowledge although a number of the questions are unsolvable such as homelessness and unaffordability which they knocked out of the park. They were willing to attach drug addiction and mental disease to homelessness, which the Communist Party would never admit to which for Chris was another passion issue walking down the street meeting a kid who overdosed a week later.
The real surprise was the big issue they had the most passion for was the forests. Whether it was their travels or knowledge although Forests4Oregon would like to think it is our educating people on this subject their passion went through the roof on the mismanagement of these magnificent treasures. Ed even took it one step further and brought up the giant lithium find on the border and how Nevada created 900 jobs while Oregon turns its nose up at it. As an engineer who understands batteries he was completely frustrated by that mismanagement.
Dudley was all over the forests talking about the forests that need to be managed properly to be healthy and spoke directly about the forest fires. He related how last summer one of the fires came within a mile of his house so he has been directly affected and obviously realizes the importance of that resource.
Overall, I would say Ed won the debate and not from what he said but his forestry explanation of explaining how Oregon should be the wealthiest state in the union if it would manage and harvest its vast resources properly including the rangeland. Dudley was next for basically the same reason of being able to show passion for why he wants to turn Oregon around. I would have to say Christine did fine but was lacking in the passion of why she is running other than payback for Kotax and her answers sounds too much like the last one.
Either way, whoever comes out of the primary will be a very strong candidate who will win the election in Nov. This was an excellent debate with four very talented candidates.
They gave me a Media credential, so I was able to go into the press room after the debate and listen to the questions. They were all gotcha questions and trying to get them to trash Trump. Those were some of the dumbest questions I ever heard so I kept interrupting their little attack party and let Danielle and Chris answer a couple of real questions. You can tell they are going to attach Trump to the hip of whoever wins which may backfire bigtime.
Pray for Oregon
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