Trump, Vance Missing From Oregon’s Online Candidate List
In Oregon, the state’s Democratic Secretary of State, LaVonne Griffin-Valade, has omitted former President Donald Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, from official listings on both the state government website and county voter pamphlets for the upcoming presidential election. Instead, the website lists candidates such as Kamala Harris, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Jill Stein. While Trump and Vance do appear in small print on page 26 of the voter pamphlets, it notes that they chose not to submit a statement for inclusion alongside other candidates, a decision confirmed by the Oregon Republican Party.
Officials indicated that the absence of Trump and Vance’s biographies was not an oversight but rather a consequence of their campaign’s choice not to participate, including not paying a required fee of $3,500 to be featured prominently in voter materials. Some Republican officials, including State Sen. Dennis Linthicum, have expressed concerns that this situation may be politically motivated. Despite this, state officials assured that Trump and Vance will still be on the ballot for the election.
Oregon’s Democrat secretary of state does not list former President Donald Trump or his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, as candidates on the office’s website, and county voter pamphlets exclude them from the biographies of presidential candidates.
Oregon voter pamphlets do not include Donald Trump. He also is not listed on the Oregon State Government website under presidential candidates.
What’s going on?
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 10, 2024
Under candidates for president, Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade’s website lists candidates Kamala Harris, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Jill Stein, but Trump is nowhere to be found. Under candidates for vice president, the website simply lists Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
County voter pamphlets, issued by Griffin-Valade’s office, also omit Trump and Vance from the presidential candidates’ biographies. Pamphlets note that each biography was “furnished” by the candidate’s campaign, and that “candidates are not required to file voters’ pamphlet statements.”
The pamphlets also include a section for political party statements, in which they list the Democrat Party first and the Republican Party fifth.
The pamphlets do list Trump and Vance as candidates one time — in small print on page 26. The Republicans have stars by their name, indicating the “candidate chose not to submit a voters’ pamphlet statement.”
The secretary’s office posted on X that the absent biographies were not a mistake, and that Trump and Vance will still appear on ballots. “The Trump campaign chose not to participate. It was not an omission by officials,” the office posted Thursday evening.
The Oregon Republican Party said in an April press release that “the decision not to submit a statement for the voter’s pamphlet was made by the Trump campaign earlier this year.” Laura Kerns, the secretary’s communications director, told KOIN the Trump campaign did not submit a statement or pay the necessary $3,500 to appear in the voter pamphlet.
Republican state Sen. Dennis Linthicum also told The Federalist the Trump campaign chose not to pay the fee. Linthicum is Oregon’s Republican nominee for secretary of state in November.
“The Trump campaign did not spend the money to file,” Linthicum said. “Why they got left off of the information center from the secretary of state, no doubt, is political maneuvering.”
Linthicum said he was unsure why Trump and Vance are absent from the secretary’s webpage, but subjective rule making with flexible language sometimes allows things like this to happen.
Clackamas County Commissioner Ben West, a Republican from Oregon’s third-largest county, near Portland, told The Federalist that county voter pamphlets in the state are the “most important mailer a candidate could ever have.”
“Everyone reviews that around the kitchen table,” West said. “Everyone marks it up and makes their notes and dog-ears the pages.”
West said he had not heard the secretary left Trump and Vance off the online candidate list, but called it “highly irregular” and “bizarre.”
The Federalist has requested comment from Griffin-Valade and the Trump campaign. This is a developing story, and The Federalist will add more information as sources respond.
Griffin-Valade oversees Oregon’s “motor voter” system, which she recently defended after stumbling across loopholes that registered more than 1,500 potential noncitizens to vote, as The Federalist previously reported. Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek has suspended the system during an external review, but state Republicans have called for a more comprehensive investigation.
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
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