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Oregon Elections Chief Wants Earlier Presidential Primary

Oregon's secretary of state wants to move the state's next presidential primary to an earlier date.
Kevin Mooney
/
Northwest News Network
Oregon's secretary of state wants to move the state's next presidential primary to an earlier date.

Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson wants to move the state’s next presidential primary to an earlier date. Oregon currently holds its presidential primary in mid-May.

That places it fairly late in the primary election cycle. By the time Oregon voters selected Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump in 2016, most Americans had already had a crack at filling out their primary ballot.

In a letter to Oregon Governor Kate Brown and legislative leaders, Richardson proposed to move the state’s primary earlier in the year. He said the change would elevate Oregon’s priorities in the national discussion. 


The change would require legislative approval. Richardson said under his proposal, candidates for non-presidential offices would still be nominated in May.

Copyright 2017 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.