Christine Drazan falls short in her bid to turn liberal Oregon blue for the first time in 40 years

Christine Drazan failed in her effort to become the first Republican elected governor in Oregon for 40 years on Thursday evening, when the tight race was called for opponent Tina Kotek.

Millions of dollars in backing from Nike founder Phil Knight and the impact of a former Democrat running as an independent had given Drazan a fighting chance of victory.

But with 86 percent of the vote counted, the Associated Press declared Kotek the winner, making her the second openly gay woman elected governor in the midterms.

It gave Kotek a lead of about 3.6 percentage points, suggesting wavering voters had turned back from the Republican candidate at the last moment. 

The last time a Republican was elected governor was in 1982, and Kotek was always favored to succeed Democratic governor Kate Brown, who could not run again due to term limits. 

Republican Christine Drazan opened a narrow poll lead in the final weeks of campaigning but ultimately could not beat Tina Kotek, the Democratic candidate, for Oregon governor

Spiraling problems with drugs and homelessness in Oregon’s biggest city of Portland triggered cries for a change from decades of Democratic leadership in the state

Business owners say open drug taking around the city center are driving customers and tourists away. They are demanding that more be done to clean up downtown 

Kotek is the second openly lesbian candidate to become governor following Democrat Maura Healey’s victory in Massachusetts.

Drazan campaigned on a law and order ticket, focusing on problems in the state’s biggest city where homelessness and drug addiction have become an open sore after the state decriminalised the use of hard drugs.

She was boosted by the campaign of Betsy Johnson, who had been a Democrat before deciding to run as an independent.

Some recent polls put her support as high as 20 percent, eating into Kotek’s numbers and helping push Drazan into a narrow poll lead at times.

Earlier on Thursday she showed no signs of conceding.

‘I am so grateful to the many thousands of Oregonians who made their voices heard in this historic election,’ she said in a Twitter message.

‘With several hundred thousand ballots yet to be counted, we continue to exercise patience as we await additional clarity regarding the final outcome of this race. 

‘Oregonians should have confidence that their votes will be counted as our county clerks continue their diligent work.’

Some late polls gave Drazan a narrow lead. This telephone poll of 842 voters in October gave Dravan a five-point lead over her rival, with a margin of error of 3.38 points

Maura Healey, 51, became the first openly lesbian governor elected in the US Tuesday night

Drazan was careful not to align herself with Donald Trump and his claims of election fraud.

Instead she welcomed Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin in the final stages of the campaign. His unlikely victory in a blue state last year has become a model for a certain type of Republican trying to flip Democratic-leaning areas.

He said a victory would be a shot heard all around the world. 

It would have meant Oregon electing its first Republican governor since 1982, the year Diet Coke was launched and when Men at Work were at number one. 

But Democrats also brought out their big guns for the final weeks of the campaign, with President Joe Biden making campaign and official stops in Portland. 

He said Kotek had the ‘heart of a lion’ as he emphasized the importance of the election. 

‘As long as Trump controls the Republican Party, he’s going to have incredible impact on state legislative bodies,’ he told a crowd at the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute, urging them to reject the GOP.