Multnomah County Commissioner Shannon Singleton held a double-digit lead over fellow Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards in preliminary results for county chair after the county's first ranked-choice vote.
Singleton had 56.2% of the vote after midnight on Nov. 4, compared with 43.8% for Brim-Edwards, OPB reported. The results came after a second round of ranked-choice tallying in which former Commissioner Sharon Meieran, the third candidate, was eliminated and her supporters' ballots were redistributed.
The results remain preliminary. The Multnomah County Elections Division will continue releasing batches of results, and the ranked-choice count will be rerun as additional ballots are counted, according to The Oregonian.
The winner will replace Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, who is not seeking a second term. The chair serves as the county's chief executive, overseeing a $4 billion budget, roughly 6,000 employees and key services including corrections and public health, according to The Oregonian. The chair also sets the agenda for the five-member Board of County Commissioners.
In the first round of voting, Singleton had 54.9% with 97,165 votes. Brim-Edwards trailed with 79,809 votes, or 45.1%, according to Willamette Week. Meieran was eliminated in that initial count.
Singleton built the lead despite a significant fundraising gap. She had raised just over $55,000 by Election Day, while Brim-Edwards brought in more than $250,000, Willamette Week reported.
At Amalfi's Italian Restaurant on Northeast Fremont Street on election night, supporters surrounded Singleton shortly after 8 p.m. as she reviewed results. About an hour later, she spoke near the restaurant's fire pit.
"We're not quite ready to call the race and every vote deserves to be counted," Singleton said, according to Willamette Week. "Here's what we do know. We're ahead."
Singleton's campaign centered on investing in programs that move unhoused people into permanent housing, reducing the county's reliance on contract work and establishing a more transparent budgeting process, according to OPB. Before joining the county board in 2024, she led the homeless services nonprofit Join, advised former Gov. Kate Brown on housing policy and briefly oversaw the county's homeless services department. She represents District 2, which covers most of North and Northeast Portland.
Brim-Edwards, a former Nike public affairs leader and longtime Portland School Board member, had endorsements from all six mayors in the county. But her campaign faced late turbulence. In October, the county's largest public employee union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 88, switched its endorsement from Brim-Edwards to Singleton, according to the Portland Mercury. The civil rights group Basic Rights Oregon also pulled its support. Both moves followed allegations from former school board colleagues about statements Brim-Edwards made regarding transgender athletes during board executive sessions. Brim-Edwards denied the claims, calling them a political attack, the Mercury reported.
Meieran, an emergency physician who previously spent eight years on the county board, had raised just shy of $195,000 and chose not to seek organizational endorsements, Willamette Week reported.
Multnomah County voters approved ranked-choice voting in 2022, eliminating primary elections. Under the system, a candidate must receive over 50% to win. The Nov. 3 election was the first to use it.
