Republican candidate Chris Dudley has emerged as the frontrunner in a recent hypothetical general-election poll against incumbent Democratic Governor Tina Kotek in Oregon. Dudley, a former professional athlete and private-sector executive, has never held elected office. He played 16 seasons in the NBA, including six with the Portland Trailblazers, before retiring in 2003.
Following his basketball career, Dudley co-founded Filigree Wealth Advisors, a wealth management firm, and later served as board chairman and CEO of Diabetomics, a medical diagnostics company. He also established the Chris Dudley Foundation, a nonprofit supporting children with diabetes, and served as treasurer for the NBA Players Association.
The poll, commissioned by Dudley’s campaign and conducted by the Portland-based Hoffman Research Group, surveyed 603 likely general-election voters from May 11-12 with a margin of error of ±4 percentage points. In a head-to-head matchup,
Dudley received 48 percent support compared with 44 percent for Kotek. A separate hypothetical pairing showed Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan tied with Kotek at 45 percent each. The survey did not test a matchup with Republican state Rep. Ed Diehl.
The poll also found that 53 percent of respondents viewed Kotek unfavorably, while 33 percent held a favorable opinion. Additionally, 58 percent of respondents said Oregon is headed in the wrong direction. Both Dudley and Drazan were described as competitive with the incumbent, though Dudley was the only candidate tested who showed a lead.
The survey comes ahead of the May 19 Republican primary, which will narrow the field for the general election under Oregon’s vote-by-mail system. Any Republican nominee will likely face a challenging general election, as Oregon has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 1994, and the last Republican governor to win office was Victor Atiyeh in 1982.