Mike Schmidt is a trusted leader and should be re-elected as District Attorney (DA) in Multnomah County.

He has been endorsed by several leading organizations, including the Portland Mercury, APANO Action Fund, Basic Rights PAC, Bernie PDX, Justice Advocates, Latino Network Action Fund, Moms Demand Action, NAYA Action Fund, Operating Engineers Local 701, Oregon Working Families Party, Portland Association of Teachers, Portland for All, Portland Gray Panthers, Safety & Justice Oregon, Unite Oregon Action and Willamette Women Democrats.

Schmidt is the only Democrat in this race and the only candidate who is taking gun violence seriously by challenging the NRA and the industry. His opponent voted against Oregon Measure 114, which would have required background checks to purchase guns and banned the sale and transfer of high-capacity magazines that are often used in mass shootings.

We endorse Schmidt because we recognize the DA's central role within our criminal justice system. Simply put, DAs decide who gets prosecuted in a county and play a key part in ensuring justice is administered fairly. Oregon has some of the highest racial disparities in the nation when it comes to incarceration rates, and Oregon DAs have been major contributors to these inequities. 

During his time in office, Schmidt has taken several concrete steps to reduce racial disparities in the County’s justice system and make our County safer and stronger for the long term. Schmidt has:

Formed a Justice Integrity Unit: He has been working to correct past injustices by the County DA’s Office by creating a unit to review old cases.

Protected Immigrant Communities: Under Schmidt’s leadership, the DA’s Office has adopted immigration-neutral policies, recognizing the disproportionate impact misdemeanor offenses can have on undocumented Oregonians.

Created a Measure 11 Step Court and Treatment Courts: These programs help to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated because of Oregon’s heinous “three strikes” laws.

Expanded Bias Crimes Funding: He expanded funding to take on bias crimes, which have skyrocketed with the rise of white nationalism.

Crime rates have also dropped during Schmidt’s tenure. In 2023, the county's crime rates steeply declined after the nation saw a spike in crime during the pandemic. Schmidt has collaborated with local law enforcement, led an Auto Theft Task Force, and worked tirelessly to tackle retail crime. He’s worked to reduce gun violence by focusing on getting guns off our streets. He’s secured funding for research on guns in partnership with OHSU–going against a long-held effort by the NRA to stop any research on gun violence.

Schmidt has done quite a bit to make progress in his first term. A fuller list of accomplishments can be found here.

Drug recriminalization: We disagree with Schmidt’s support of HB 4002, which recriminalized possession of drugs for personal use, because history tells us this policy will worsen racial disparities and do little to reduce addiction in our state. We will be expecting Schmidt to ensure that racial disparities in prosecution rates do not worsen, and to be a champion for investments in treatment and recovery.   

Schmidt’s conservative opponent, Nathan Vasquez, will worsen racial disparities and make all of us less safe.

Prosecutor Nathan Vasquez is running against Schmidt. His campaign has extensive funding from some of the most conservative people and organizations in Oregon, including the Portland Police Association and former state senator and NRA champion Betsy Johnson. Vasquez is a former Republican who changed his party registration to independent – he’s running like a hard-core conservative.

His platform is to return to the highly discredited “broken windows” policing strategy. This approach has a long, racist history of targeting Black and brown men for minor infractions. It was championed by Rudy Giuliani in New York City and it has led to tragedies. In 2014, New York City police officers killed Eric Garner using an illegal chokehold for selling loose cigarettes on a street corner.

This kind of over-criminalization tends to fall on Black and brown people, does not increase safety, and is a key driver of intergenerational poverty. This report by Ella Baker Center and Forward Together illustrates how the families of people with convictions–particularly women of color–are burdened with fees, fines, and debt at the same time that their economic opportunities are diminished, resulting in a lack of economic stability and mobility. Vasquez’s approach will break up families, create instability, and exacerbate intergenerational poverty. 

As the largest county in the state, we are deeply concerned that electing Vasquez as Multnomah County DA will harm our region in the long term. We also don’t trust that he will defend Oregonians if Donald Trump is elected President.

Strong NO on Nathan Vasquez

Paid for by: Portland for All PAC - #23674. Thank you to our top donors: Portland for All (supported by Northwest Health Foundation, SEIU and Kate Brown Committee); Progressive Voice for Oregon PAC - #23659 (supported by Color PAC, Citizen Action for Political Education, SEIU Local 49 COPE Fund).