Why AP called the Oregon governor race for Tina Kotek

By MIKE CATALINI and MEG KINNARD
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — There were no signs that Republican Christina Drazan was improving on vote totals that would have enabled her to overtake Democrat Tina Kotek in the Oregon governor’s race. That’s what led the AP to call the race Thursday night for Kotek over Drazan and unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson. Kotek joins Gov.-elect Maura Healey of Massachusetts as the nation’s first openly lesbian elected governors. Oregon hasn’t had a Republican governor since the 1980s and is typically reliably Democratic in statewide contests. But this year’s race had Republicans hopeful and Democrats worried enough that President Joe Biden campaigned for Kotek in the closing weeks.