Oregon election officials rule former New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is ineligible to run for governor
Oregon's election officials said Thursday that Nicolas Kristof, a former columnist at the New York Times who launched a bid for the Democratic nomination in Oregon's governor's race, hasn't lived in the state long enough to be eligible to run for governor.
The Oregon Elections Division notified Kristof's campaign Thursday morning they rejected his candidate filing, after finding he failed to fulfill the state's constitutional requirement to be a "resident within this state" for at least three years before the election.
"The rules are the rules and they apply equally to all candidates for office in Oregon. I stand by the determination of the experts in the Oregon Elections Division," said Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, a Democrat. She added the state's election officials found "it wasn't a close call."
"The rules are the rules for everybody," she said. She said they have rejected six other candidacy filings for Oregon governor in 2022, though not all were due to the residency requirement.
Kristof, an Oregon native, was at the New York Times from 1984 to October 2021, when he left to consider a run for Oregon governor. He's raised more than $2.5 million in the past two months as he looks to succeed term-limited Democratic Governor Kate Brown.
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek and state treasurer Tobias Read are running in the Democratic primary.
Kristof tweeted that the "failing political establishment in Oregon has chosen to protect itself, rather than give voters a choice," and that he'll challenge the decision in court.
In a press conference Thursday, Kristof highlighted his roots to the state and was confident the decision will be overturned.
"My willingness to challenge the status quo is the reason state officials are trying to toss me from the ballot," he said. "If this decision were based on the law, and not on politics and not on protecting a narrow political class, then I'd be on that ballot."
He added that he is willing to make his Oregon tax returns available, which were a point of contention in the election officials' decisions.
"She did not ask for them– I'm puzzled by the assertion that the secretary of state asked for that material, when in fact we have letters that show we were not asked for that," Kristof said.
Fagan said in a press conference Thursday that the elections division found multiple records of Kristof's tax payments, residency and voting records in New York from the past 20 years. She added the state's vote by mail laws makes it "extraordinarily easy" for out-of-state voters to receive their ballot, so Kristof could have voted as an Oregonian resident.
"The strong evidence, taken together, shows until late 2020 or late 2021, Mr. Kristof considered himself a resident of New York," she said. "While I have no doubt that Mr. Kristof's sentiments and feelings towards Oregon are genuine and sincere, they are simply dwarfed by the mountains of objective evidence."
In their response to Oregon election officials asking for more documents, Kristof's attorneys wrote Monday that he resides at his family's farm in Yamhill County in north Oregon, and that he has been there "with more continuity" since 2018. They add that he has purchased three nearby properties of land in the state and has paid property taxes on them.
Oregon's Elections Division Director Deborah Scroggin said they're prepared for an eventual appeal from Kristof, and that they're "committed to doing everything possible" to get this to the Oregon Supreme Court "to decide promptly."
State law says the secretary of state has to provide a list of qualified candidates to the counties by March 17 in order to give them enough time to design, print and mail ballots before the May 17 primary. The candidate filing deadline is March 8.