Portland District Attorney Mike Schmidt lost his bid on Tuesday for reelection to prosecutor Nathan Vasquez after only serving one term.
Schmidt, the Soros-linked incumbent, won in 2020 in a landslide in which he received over 75% of the vote in heavily-Democratic Portland. Election results show Vasquez winning over Schmidt with 54% of the vote in the nonpartisan primary. (RELATED: Another Deep Blue City Could Send Its Soros-Backed DA Packing After Crime Surge)
As of April 2024, Multnomah County is nearly 50% blue, with 282,152 of 568,681 voters registered Democrat according to the Oregon Secretary of State. Only 56,653, roughly 10% were registered Republicans.
The incumbent received a generous cash influx of $213,000 from Soros- linked donors in April 2024. Despite this, Schmidt and many other progressive and Soros- backed DAs are on a losing streak.
How unpopular was Mike Schmidt?
Portland just voted for a long-time Republican (now registered Independent), gun-owner to represent them as District Attorney.
Wild times in PDX. https://t.co/cptlbZTu1E
— Michael Pruser (@MichaelPruser) May 22, 2024
Portland faced increasing insecurity and surges of violent crime in recent years, prompting many to flee the county. Portland homicide rates peaked in 2021 with 92 murders and again the following year with a record of 101 murders, according to OregonLiveData. Violent crime rose 17% in Portland following Schmidt’s election, according to a report from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission.
A protester attempts to stomp out a small fire during a protest at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on July 21, 2020, in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
In 2020, Oregon decriminalized hard drugs via referendum Measure 110, but was promptly re-criminalized by Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek after Oregon declared a state of emergency citing a dramatic increase in overdose cases. Vasquez plans to prioritize enforcement of drug trafficking and open air drug use, according to his campaign website.
Portland @DAMikeSchmidt is asking voters to reelect him on May 21. Soros is pouring big bucks into the campaign to gaslight voters about the record killings, riots & drug ODs under Schmidt’s leadership. Read my piece about the man who destroyed Portland: https://t.co/usCZJXfNXx pic.twitter.com/bTsz0YLFY1
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) May 17, 2024
“Tough on crime candidate for DA (former Republican Nathan Vasquez) in Multnomah County, Oregon, (PORTLAND) trouncing the radical incumbent by 16 points tonight! Big win for law & order, Heritage Foundation research fellow Joel Griffith posted on X.
“Another Soros-backed DA, Mike Schmidt, was defeated at the polls yesterday by a tough-on-crime challenger, for Multnomah County, Oregon (Portland) district attorney. Voters send a clear message: Radical “Progressive” DAs must stop dismantling criminal justice,” political commentator Richie Greenberg said on X.
Following Schmidt’s 2020 election, Portland became a hotspot for riots following the police killing of George Floyd. Schmidt later announced that they would not be prosecuting low- level riot related crimes. BLM rioters and violent Antifa protestors led destructive demonstrations for over 120 days, billing the Portland Police Department over $12 million by the end of the year.
Schmidt also accepted a $30,000 campaign donation in February from the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supported hard drug decriminalization through referendum Measure 110.
“Experience matters,” Vasquez said on his campaign website. “Until you’ve held the hand of a child who is about to face her abuser, or a mother who must listen to the details of her son’s murder, or helped someone access rehab for the first time, only then can you know what it takes to rebuild our public safety system.”
Both Vasquez and Schmidt’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Editor’s Note: This piece has been updated to reflect the final election results
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