Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times columnist Nick Kristof has been blocked from the ballot for Oregon governor in 2022.
Oregon election officials, who sent a letter to his campaign Thursday saying that he has not met the state’s three-year residency requirements, were backed by Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan.
“The rules are the rules and they apply equally to all candidates for office in Oregon. I stand by the determination of the experts in the Oregon Elections Division that Mr. Kristof does not currently meet the Constitutional requirements to run or serve as Oregon Governor,” Fagan said in a statement. “As Oregon’s chief elections official, it is my responsibility to make sure all candidates on the statewide ballot are qualified to serve if elected.”
Kristof, who entered the race in the Democratic primary, said he will challenge the decision in court.
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“A failing political establishment in Oregon has chosen to protect itself, rather than give voters a choice,” Kristof said in a tweet. “We will challenge this decision in court, and we are confident we will prevail because the law is on our side.”
The letter, signed by compliance specialist Lydia Plukchi and elections director Deborah Scroggin, said Kristof was registered to vote in New York in 2020. The letter said he registered to vote in Oregon on Dec. 28, 2020, and noted that the period of required residency began in November 2019.
The letter also highlighted how Kristof had a New York driver’s license from 2000 to 2020. From 2019 to 2020, he worked as a journalist in New York and received money in Oregon from managing his farm property. Scroggin and Plukchi said he paid income taxes in both states but did not disclose whether he filed his “Oregon income tax returns as a nonresident, a part-year resident, or a full-year resident.”
“You suggest that we should apply a different standard, but we decline to change the way we evaluate residency,” the letter said. “Even if we adopted New York’s residency standards, we do not believe that they would lead us to determine that you are an Oregon resident.”
Kristof quit his job as a columnist at the New York Times last year to run for governor. He wrote for the paper for over 20 years, and his columns focused on global affairs, human rights, and women’s rights.
He won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and another one in 2006 for his coverage of the Darfur genocide.
The state is currently being led by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who cannot run for reelection due to term limits. The speaker of the House in Oregon, Tina Kotek, announced Thursday that she is stepping down and will run for governor as a Democrat. The previous six Oregon governors were Democrats.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to the Kristof campaign for further comment.
Scroggin and Plukchi noted that the Oregon courts have not interpreted the constitutional residential requirement for gubernatorial candidates. They argued the Office of the Oregon Secretary of State was trying to apply the rules consistently to all statewide offices.
