Incumbent City Commissioner Dan Ryan Holds Solid Lead in Primary Race for City Council

Early results show Ryan leading with 58% of the vote.

Dan Ryan. (Motoya Nakamura)

Incumbent Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan took an early and substantial lead in the primary election over his most notable challenger, nonprofit executive director AJ McCreary.

The first election results, which rolled in right at 8 pm, show Ryan with 58% and McCreary with 23% of the early vote count. That’s a nearly insurmountable lead for Ryan.

This year, voters could mail their ballots as late as 7 pm on election day—meaning there’s a delay in counting a chunk of votes that could alter tonight’s results.

Nonetheless, Ryan is poised to win his seat outright in the primary. If a candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the primary, they win automatically. If no one receives over 50%, the race goes to a runoff in November.

While polls earlier this year showed few voters were happy with Ryan’s performance in office since he took the vacant seat of late commissioner Nick Fish, his sole notable challenger, McCreary, is running on a platform of further cutting Portland Police Bureau units and stopping all houseless camp sweeps—two positions that many Portlanders have soured on over the past two years.

Ryan comes from a nonprofit leadership background; he also served on the Portland Public Schools board for a time. His highest-profile project yet has been the creation of six tiny-pod villages for homeless Portlanders. Earlier this week, the first residents moved into a a pod village along Southwest Naito Parkway. Those same villagers were displaced earlier this year from a Central Eastside village due to development.

None of the other villages have yet begun operations.



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