Oregon Governor 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them
Tina Kotek (Democrat), Christine Drazan (Republican) and Brett Smith (Green) are the candidates for governor of Oregon in the November 3, 2026 general election. Tina Kotek is the incumbent. Semblen has analyzed 52 ads in this race; 29 used at least one manipulation technique, most often loaded language and appeal to prejudice.
Tina Kotek (DEM, incumbent), Christine Drazan (REP), Brett Smith (GRE).
On the ballot as listed by Ballotpedia. 52 ads analyzed, 29 with at least one technique in the copy.
Newest first. The paid-for-by line is the advertiser's own filing. Updated 2026-10-08. 1 ad from other advertisers shown separately below.
29 of 51 (57%) flagged · Loaded Language (18), Appeal to Prejudice (16), Glittering Generalities (12)
YouTube
0 of 1 flagged
Reported Meta spend
$421,600–529,396 on all ads, $238,400–295,049 on flagged ads · Meta reports ranges; these are the sums of their ends
Example
“mobilized troops against our community” — Loaded Language, paid for by FRIENDS OF TINA KOTEK, PAC ID 4792
· the flagged ad with the highest reported spend that shows the most common technique
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Leaving out the softer ones (loaded language, glittering generalities, slogans, exaggeration, repetition): 50% of ads.
The words doing the work
The words that show up most in phrases our model flagged as loaded language or name calling in this race's ads, by number of ads.
abortionin 3 ads· e.g. “celebrate abortion by establishing Abortion Providers Appreciation Day”, “celebrate abortion”
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Money in this race
Candidates for governor report their fundraising to Oregon's state campaign-finance office, not the FEC. This page doesn't cover those reports yet, so it shows no money figures.
The ads
52 ads, newest first. Video transcripts are shown as the model read them, without caption cues like [music].
Showing the 1 ad paid for by Tina for Oregon. Show all 52 ads
Rely
Paid for by Tina for Oregonvideo · 0:30from 2026-10-05
I work in a bakery. I'm on my feet all day. I love it, but not having health care from my job can be hard.
Luckily, I am on OHP, the Oregon Health Plan, and because of that I'm able to get the care that I need. When President Trump cuts Medicaid, that's my coverage. Christine Drazan will always side with Trump.
Drazan will not stand up for Oregon, and she's made that very clear. Drazan voted against capping drug costs. Medication is going to be that much less accessible.
That puts a lot of people at risk. Paid for by Friends of Tina Kotek.
no techniques found
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
Watch on YouTube ↗Transcript above is auto-generated; the analysis is of the spoken words.
Follow the Oregon Governor race
An email when new ads come in from either side or the outside groups: the techniques, the words doing the work, and who paid. And each debate's analysis the morning after. One-click unsubscribe.
Paid posts that ran in OR and name a candidate, from advertisers that aren't part of this race: news-style pages, campaigns for other offices, and others. They're shown here for completeness and not counted with the ads above. We show the same technique analysis; their claims are not checked.
Yunker For State Rep: campaign for another office
Paid for by Yunker For State Repfrom 2026-09-23 to 2026-09-25spend $0–991,000–1,999 impressions
Who is Susan Fischer-Maki?
Susan Fischer-Maki has spent decades advancing progressive causes in Oregon politics.
She has aligned herself with groups that have a seat at the table with Governor Tina Kotek.
She supports the state’s decision to allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports.
See below where she stands on other progressive issues affecting Oregonians, along with Democrats’ record on so many issues that are holding Oregon back.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that most of her life hasn’t been political.
Josephine County voters deserve to know the truth about where she stands on the issues.
An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it ran mostly in OR and names a nominee for governor — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office (a U.S. Senate or House campaign included), or it also names OR's Senate nominees, in which case it is on the Senate race's page. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
The candidates are the ones certified for the November ballot, from the source linked at the top. Governors are state offices, so there are no FEC filings behind this page: no money figures, and outside groups are placed on a side only when they are a campaign or a party committee.
Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
A technique is a specific manipulative move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. The check runs once and its result is shown to everyone afterwards. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.
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