Tina Kotek and Christine Drazan met in Bend on Oct. 13 for their third and final debate in the 2026 governor’s race. The candidates used the night to press their closing case to voters in Oregon, especially in Central Oregon and Eastern Oregon.
Kotek said, "My opponent and I don’t agree on some very key issues, and I think her record doesn’t back up what she says she will do." She also said, "And for those really consequential, consequential things where we disagree, I think at the end of the day that she will choose to side with President Donald Trump and not with Oregon."
Lee Anderson in Bend
The debate was hosted by KTVZ and moderated by station anchor Lee Anderson. KTVZ politics reporter Spencer Sacks and Aaron Switzer, publisher of weekly newspaper The Source, asked questions that touched on housing, schools, healthcare, the economy and data centers. Those topics put affordability, public services and growth pressure at the center of the final face-off.
Kotek said she visited each of Oregon's 36 counties in her first year in office. She said she was fighting for rural Oregonians every day by trying to preserve the state's Medicaid system from cuts under Trump. That argument aimed directly at voters outside the state's largest population centers, where access to care and state services can shape how campaign promises land.
Christine Drazan on Oregon
Drazan answered with her own attack on Kotek's record. She said, "Four years ago, Tina Kotek told Oregonians that she would solve all the problems facing Oregon" and, "She’s failed, and now we’re in the heat of an election, and she’s going to ask Oregonians to ignore the last four years and her record of failure."
She also said Kotek recently attempted to pass a gas tax increase to fund road maintenance and said a 2020 climate change bill was blocked by Republicans walking away from the Capitol while Kotek was House speaker. Drazan pledged to slash building regulations and overhaul Oregon's strict land use laws, which were crafted 50 years ago to keep farmland and wild areas from being lost to sprawl.
Eastern Oregon and Central Oregon
When asked how she would give voice to deep-red Eastern Oregon, Kotek said, "No matter where you live in the state, I’m a governor for you" and, "I will fight for you." Drazan responded, "I won’t need to wait until I am elected to see what Oregon’s really about. I’ve lived it" and, "I love this place, and I also recognize that for the people that are thinking Idaho is looking pretty good right now, it’s because Idaho actually provides opportunity."
The debate closed the candidates' live back-and-forth before voters decide whether Kotek keeps the office or Drazan replaces her. The arguments they made in Bend leave rural and eastern voters with a narrower choice on taxes, land use and state services, and the race now turns on which version of Oregon they trust more.
