Christine Drazan
American politician (born 1972)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christine Renee Drazan (née Deboy, born 1972)[2] is an American politician who serves in the Oregon State Senate from the 26th district as a member of the Republican Party. Prior to her tenure in the state senate she was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from the 39th and 51st districts. She was minority leader in the state house from 2019 to 2021, and in 2025.
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Christine Drazan | |
|---|---|
Drazan in 2022 | |
| Member of the Oregon Senate from the 26th district | |
| Assumed office October 23, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Daniel Bonham |
| Minority Leader of the Oregon House of Representatives | |
| In office January 13, 2025 – October 1, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Jeff Helfrich |
| Succeeded by | Lucetta Elmer |
| In office September 16, 2019 – November 30, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Carl Wilson |
| Succeeded by | Vikki Breese-Iverson |
| Member of the Oregon House of Representatives | |
| In office January 13, 2025 – October 23, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | James Hieb |
| Succeeded by | Matt Bunch |
| Constituency | 51st district |
| In office January 14, 2019 – January 31, 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Bill Kennemer |
| Succeeded by | James Hieb |
| Constituency | 39th district |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Christine Renee Deboy May 28, 1972[1] Klamath Falls, Oregon, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | Daniel Drazan |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | George Fox University (BA) |
| Signature |  |
Drazan was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and educated at Eagle Point High School and George Fox University. During the 1990s she worked for Speaker Mark Simmons. She was elected to the state house in 2018 and selected to serve as minority leader. During her tenure as minority leader, she engaged in various parliamentary tactics to thwart legislation supported by the Democratic majority.
Drazan was the Republican nominee in the 2022 Oregon gubernatorial election, but lost to Democratic nominee Tina Kotek. She is the Republican nominee in the 2026 gubernatorial election.
Early life and education
Christine Renee Deboy was born to Perrliee and Dale E. Deboy in Klamath Falls, Oregon. She graduated from Eagle Point High School and George Fox University. She worked as the director of communications for Mark Simmons, the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, in the 1990s. She married Daniel Joseph Drazan on May 17, 1997, with whom she has three children.[3][4][5]
Drazan is Christian.[6]
Career
Oregon Legislative Assembly
Elections
Bill Kennemer, a Republican member of the state house from the 39th district, retired during the 2018 election cycle. Drazan defeated John Lee, Seth Rydmark, and Ken Kraft for the Republican nomination and defeated Democratic nominee Elizabeth Graser-Lindsey in the general election.[7][8][9] She defeated Democratic nominee Tessah Danel and Libertarian nominee Kenny Sernach in the 2020 election.[10][11]
On March 5, 2024, Drazan announced that she would seek the Republican nomination in the 51st district, which became her home district after the 2020 redistricting cycle.[12] Drazan defeated incumbent James Hieb, who replaced her when she resigned from the house in 2020, after raising $169,000 compared to Hieb's $19,000.[13] She ran unopposed in the general election.[14]
Daniel Bonham, the Minority Leader in the Oregon State Senate and member from the 26th district, resigned in 2025 to take a position within President Donald Trump's administration. Bonham endorsed Drazan to be selected as his replacement. 18 commissioners from Clackamas, Multnomah, Wasco, and Hood River assembled to select a replacement on October 23. Drazan, state representative Jeff Helfrich, and chair of the Wasco County Republican Party John Grant competed for the nomination. The commissioners voted 11 to 7 in favor of Jeff Helfrich against Drazan, but Drazan won as all of the commissioners from Clackamas, whose votes were weighted more heavily due to population distribution, supported her.[15]
Tenure
During Drazan's tenure in the state house she served on the Healthcare committee.[16] Drazan was selected to replace Carl Wilson as the Minority Leader on September 16, 2019, and served until she was replaced by Vikki Breese-Iverson on November 30, 2021.[17][18][19] In 2024, she was selected to succeed Jeff Helfrich as Minority Leader.[20]
During Drazan's time as Minority Leader, the Republicans refused to attend legislative meetings in order to deny a quorum so that legislation could not be passed.[21][22] Drazan participated in these quorum denials and even left the state to further them in the 2020 legislative session.[23] She also forced the verbatim readings of the entirety of legislation on the floor of the House as a delay tactic.[24]
Drazan was appointed to the six-member committee to redraw the districts following the 2020 United States census with equal representation from the Democratic and Republican parties as a compromise created to have the Republicans stop using delaying tactics against legislation.[25][26] Speaker Tina Kotek later reversed her decision and restored the Democratic majority on the committee redrawing the congressional districts.[27][28] She made a motion for Kotek to be censured due to this, but it failed with thirty-three representatives voting against and fourteen voting in favor.[29]
Gubernatorial campaigns
One of Drazan's aides stated on November 23, 2021 that she was going to run for the Republican nomination in the 2022 gubernatorial election.[30] She announced her campaign on January 4, 2022 and resigned from the state house on January 31, where her seat was filled by appointment by Hieb.[31][32][33] Trey Rosser was her campaign manager.[34] She won in the Republican primary against eighteen other candidates with 23% of the vote.[35] During 2022 her campaign raised $2,101,788.27 and spent $2,542,604.18.[36] She narrowly lost the election to former Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Tina Kotek.
A Republican fundraising platform in August 2025 listed Drazan as a candidate for governor despite her not making an announcement. One week after being appointed to the state Senate, Drazan announced on October 27, 2025 that she would run for governor in the 2026 election.[37]
Political positions
Drazan opposed emissions trading legislation in 2020, and demanded a referendum on the legislation.[38][39] She supports the usage of an independent redistricting commission for redrawing districts.[40] She opposed a COVID-19 vaccination mandate.[41] Drazan opposes allowing transgender athletes to participate in gender-specific sporting events.[42] Drazan does not support Donald Trump's claims of having won the 2020 presidential election and stated that "Donald Trump did not win. Joe Biden did. He is our president".[43]
Drazan received a lifetime score of 20% from the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.[44] She was endorsed by Oregon Right to Life during the 2022 election.[45] She opposed Measure 114 and received an "A" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.[46][47]
Electoral history
| Primary election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Republican | Christine Drazan | 2,640 | 39.46% | |
| Republican | John Lee | 1,901 | 28.42% | |
| Republican | Seth Rydmark | 1,072 | 16.02% | |
| Republican | Ken Kraft | 1,053 | 15.74% | |
| Write-in | 24 | 0.36% | ||
| Total votes | 6,690 | 100.00% | ||
| General election | ||||
| Republican | Christine Drazan | 19,732 | 59.07% | |
| Democratic | Elizabeth Graser-Lindsey | 13,611 | 40.74% | |
| Write-in | 63 | 0.19% | ||
| Total votes | 33,406 | 100.00% | ||
| Primary election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Republican | Christine Drazan (incumbent) | 7,560 | 99.28% | |
| Write-in | 55 | 0.72% | ||
| Total votes | 7,615 | 100.00% | ||
| General election | ||||
| Republican | Christine Drazan (incumbent) | 26,202 | 62.22% | |
| Democratic | Tessah Danel | 14,985 | 35.58% | |
| Libertarian | Kenny Sernach | 868 | 2.06% | |
| Write-in | 57 | 0.14% | ||
| Total votes | 42,112 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Christine Drazan | 85,255 | 22.5% | |
| Republican | Bob Tiernan | 66,089 | 17.5% | |
| Republican | Stan Pulliam | 41,123 | 10.9% | |
| Republican | Bridget Barton | 40,886 | 10.8% | |
| Republican | Bud Pierce | 32,965 | 8.7% | |
| Republican | Marc Thielman | 30,076 | 8.0% | |
| Republican | Kerry McQuisten | 28,727 | 7.6% | |
| Republican | Bill Sizemore | 13,261 | 3.5% | |
| Republican | Jessica Gomez | 9,970 | 2.6% | |
| Republican | Tim McCloud | 4,400 | 1.2% | |
| Republican | Nick Hess | 4,287 | 1.1% | |
| Republican | Court Boice | 4,040 | 1.1% | |
| Republican | Brandon Merritt | 3,615 | 1.0% | |
| Republican | Reed Christensen | 3,042 | 0.8% | |
| Republican | Amber Richardson | 1,924 | 0.5% | |
| Republican | Raymond Baldwin | 459 | 0.1% | |
| Republican | David Burch | 406 | 0.1% | |
| Republican | John Presco | 174 | 0.0% | |
| Republican | Stefan Strek | 171 | 0.0% | |
| Write-in | 7,407 | 2.0% | ||
| Total votes | 378,277 | 100.0% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Tina Kotek | 916,635 | 46.9% | −3.09% | |
| Republican | Christine Drazan | 849,853 | 43.5% | −0.11% | |
| Independent | Betsy Johnson | 168,363 | 8.6% | N/A | |
| Constitution | Donice Noelle Smith | 8,047 | 0.4% | −0.72% | |
| Libertarian | R. Leon Noble | 6,862 | 0.3% | −1.20% | |
| Write-in | 2,113 | 0.1% | -0.05 | ||
| Total votes | 1,951,873 | 100.0% | |||
| Primary election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Republican | Christine Drazan | 6,142 | 68.4 | |
| Republican | James Hieb (incumbent) | 2,824 | 31.4 | |
| Write-in | 7 | 0.1 | ||
| Total votes | 8,973 | 100.0 | ||
| General election | ||||
| Republican | Christine Drazan | 27,872 | 94.1 | |
| Write-in | 1,737 | 5.9 | ||
| Total votes | 29,609 | 100.0 | ||