Politics
Crisis in the Northwest: Drugs leave rural areas to rot in the shadows, ‘like playing Whac-A-Mole’
This story is part of a series examining the drug and homeless crises plaguing Oregon. Read part one and part two.
McMinnville, Ore. — Ramshackle RVs, nondescript sedans, shopping carts, bicycles, tents and tarps line a street on the edge of the city, bordered by an open field and, beyond that, the Yamhill River. A lonely dumpster, lid thrown open, sits amid piles of trash.
Deputies recently responded to three overdoses at the camp in one day. Another overdose call sent them racing to a logging road in the Coast Range, a 35-minute drive from the sheriff’s office. Much too long for them to reach the person in time.
“There’s nothing out there,” Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott said. “They weren’t camping. They weren’t living up there. They just were up there specifically to smoke pills.”
Many Yamhill county encampments cluster near McMinnville. At about 35,000 residents, it’s one of the few cities in the area with services for homeless people or drug users seeking addiction treatment. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
CRISIS IN THE NORTHWEST: ARE VOTERS ‘BEYOND A TURNING POINT’ AFTER DECADES OF PROGRESSIVE POLITICS?
Homelessness and the fentanyl crisis have impacted every corner of Oregon, but many people living outside the Portland metropolitan area feel neglected by state policymakers.
“It’s like playing Whac-A-Mole … with the number of challenges that counties are facing,” Association of Oregon Counties President Danielle Bethell said. From homelessness and addiction to affordability and a struggling workforce, she said rural communities have been “left out” of the conversation.
Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat who took office in January 2023, has made revitalizing downtown Portland one of her top priorities. Her task force recently released 10 recommendations for cleaning up and restoring economic vitality to the city. They included declaring a fentanyl emergency, bolstering police, expanding homeless shelter capacity, clearing trash and graffiti and putting a three-year pause on new taxes in Portland, which Kotek said was the second-highest taxed city in the country, behind only New York City.
The success of Portland is good for the entire economy of the state.
Rose City leaders welcome the governor’s ideas.
“Gov. Kotek knows what every governor has known before her — Portland is the economic center of our state,” Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan said. “How Portland goes, goes the rest of the state.”
And things have not been going well in either Portland or the state as a whole.
“We have a crisis on our hands, and that’s easy to see,” Republican Rep. Lucetta Elmer said, whether you’re driving past the graffiti and tents in Portland and on I-5 or the zombie RVs in Yamhill County.
Most counties vote conservatively, but are consistently outnumbered by urban liberals. Voters in 30 of the state’s 36 counties opposed an ultimately successful gun control measure deemed America’s “most extreme” by the NRA — and currently held up by constitutional challenges. A slimmer majority of counties opposed Measure 110 in 2020, the state’s landmark drug decriminalization law now on the verge of being undone.
Only 29% of Oregonians polled by DHM Research last year said the state is headed in the right direction, a figure that dropped to 9% among Republicans.
PORTLAND LEADERS FRUSTRATED, SAY CITY ALLOWED TO SET HARSHER RULES FOR CIGARETTES THAN FENTANYL: ‘IT’S INSANE’
“We have drugs that are just rampant, and we’re seeing public drug use daily,” Elmer said. “Extreme homelessness and garbage everywhere. It’s unsafe and it’s unsightly, but it’s also heartbreaking because literally, our fellow citizens are dying.”
Kotek vowed to soften the urban rural divide in her inaugural address. In September, she signed a bill dedicating more than $26 million to expand shelter capacity in 26 rural counties. She also visited every Oregon county during her first year in office and said in an August press conference that “everyone cares about what’s happening in Portland.”
“They know that the success of Portland is good for the entire economy of the state. It is our entry point for tourists,” she said. “So we believe that this focus allows us to make progress, and it’s going to benefit the entire metro area, the entire city, as well as the entire state.”
Kotek’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
President Biden introduces then-gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek during an event at SEIU Local 49 in Portland, Oregon, Oct. 14, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Her critics have not been swayed.
Elmer hosted a roundtable in December to hear from leaders in her district, which includes most of Yamhill County. Overwhelmingly, she said they told her they wanted to see Kotek’s 10-point plan go beyond Portland.
“They want to see it get to all of Oregon,” she said. “They’re crying for that. We need to see that things are going to change.”
And what works in Portland might not work in counties where cows outnumber people.
“Commissioners are frustrated,” Bethell said. “We’re eagerly awaiting our turn to be at the table.”
RURAL OREGON STRUGGLES TO CONTAIN FENTANYL CRISIS:
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Sheriff Elliott grew up in Yamhill County and has worked in law enforcement there for more than two decades. Though hardly the most rural area in the state — some counties have less than one resident per square mile — it’s the kind of place where the nearest deputy could be one minute or one hour away from an emergency. A place with sprawling vineyards and vegetable fields, where the acronym BLM usually refers to land owned by the federal government and not a social justice movement.
Dormant winter farmland flashed by as Elliott drove along Highway 18, broken up by the occasional lumber mill with logs stacked high and finished boards strapped to flatbeds.
Yamhill County is home to densely forested hills and sprawling vineyards. Its two biggest cities, McMinnville and Newberg, are at the epicenter of Oregon’s wine production. (George Rose/Getty Images)
Drugs, mostly methamphetamine, have always been a problem, he said. Then deputies started to find people cutting up fentanyl pain patches and chewing them. Elliott recalled arresting a man who had a fentanyl pain patch stuck to his chest for driving under the influence.
But that was nothing compared to what happened once the “blues” — counterfeit pills — showed up. The number of fentanyl pills seized by Oregon and Idaho police soared from about 100,000 in 2019, to more than 3.6 million last year, according to preliminary data from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). Police who participate in the HIDTA reported finding more than 180 kg (nearly 400 lbs) of fentanyl powder in 2023.
“Fentanyl has a nexus to a lot of what we do day in and day out,” Elliott said. “Whether it’s responding to burglaries and thefts, finding that it’s people supporting habits, or people that are suffering overdoses.”
All deputies carry overdose-reversing naloxone and use it regularly, like on a man who was smoking off a piece of foil while driving and crashed. He took off running after a deputy revived him, was ultimately caught, but then started overdosing again in the back of the police car. Jail staff gave three doses of Narcan to a man who started overdosing just after being booked.
Someone burned suspected fentanyl in a bathroom at Willamina High School last year. At least one student, as well as the deputy who went to investigate the smell, felt sick and went to the hospital. Elmer said the incident “sent alarm bells ringing” in the small, tight-knit community.
The drugs don’t distinguish between a user in downtown Portland and a user up in the rural part of the county.
Support for drug decriminalization has crumbled. While 58% of voters approved Measure 110 in 2020, polls show up to 74% of respondents now favor recriminalizing possession of fentanyl, heroin and meth and making treatment required, not voluntary, as an alternative to jail.
While it’s difficult to determine how much Measure 110 contributed to the state’s addiction crisis, Elliott said decriminalization has taken away one of law enforcement’s best tools to coerce people into treatment: drug courts.
Numerous surveys show Oregonians support re-criminalizing hard drugs and making treatment mandatory, not voluntary, in order to avoid jail time. (Ramiro Vargas/Fox News Digital)
VOTERS’ REMORSE: BLUE STATE SURVEY SHOWS MAJORITY WANT TO RE-CRIMINALIZE DRUGS: ‘WE MADE AN ENORMOUS MISTAKE’
“Even when simple possession of methamphetamine was a felony, those people did not wind up with felony convictions,” he said, “because they went through drug court, because they followed through with the stipulations of their supervision.”
Measure 110 also diverted hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue to pay for addiction services. But decriminalization took effect in February 2021, before any of those dollars could be put to use. Three years later, even urban hubs like Portland still lack adequate detox and treatment facilities. Resources are spread thinner yet in rural communities.
“One of the biggest frustrations that I hear … is that there’s nothing out here for individuals that are drug affected,” Elliott said. “It’s just too great of a distance for people in the rural parts of the county most of the time to be able to access those services … when it’s raining and it’s cold outside and they don’t have reliable transportation.”
Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott serves a rural area in Oregon where fentanyl has taken hold. He says it serves as a “nexus” for many of the crimes and emergency calls his deputies respond to. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are attempting to re-criminalize drug possession, though they disagree on how severely they’re willing to punish drug users who refuse treatment. Many local leaders hope they’ll also pass legislation allowing cities to ban public drug use, much in the same way they treat alcohol and marijuana.
Elliott hopes those policies will be “good for the entire state, not just for the Portland metropolitan area.”
“The drugs don’t distinguish between a user in downtown Portland and a user up in the rural part of the county,” Elliott said. “We deal with the same problems that they do … it just looks a little bit different when you’re spread out over a large area.”
Politics
DOJ expands indictment against SPLC, alleging $4M secretly funneled to KKK and extremist groups
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The Department of Justice last month announced an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), alleging that the civil rights nonprofit defrauded donors by secretly paying informants associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan.
A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment in April charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, according to the Justice Department.
The superseding indictment retains those charges while expanding on the alleged misconduct.
According to the DOJ, the SPLC “secretly funneled” more than $3 million in donor funds between 2014 and 2023 to numerous individuals associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Movement, participants in the Unite the Right rally and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club.
NEO-NAZIS, ‘SADISTIC’ BIKERS AND CHARLOTTESVILLE ORGANIZER: 5 OF THE MOST SHOCKING SPLC INFORMANTS
The Southern Poverty Law Center has widespread influence in education. FILE: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, left, and SPLC interim President and CEO Bryan Fair are shown in a split image as the Justice Department pursues charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images; USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images)
The original indictment alleged approximately $3 million in payments between 2014 and 2023.
“The SPLC’s paid informants (‘field sources’) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website,” the indictment states.
Prosecutors further allege the SPLC opened bank accounts tied to fictitious entities in order to conceal donor funds that were allegedly routed to confidential sources.
MIKE DAVIS: SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: A TALE OF A RACISM SCAM
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) building seen in March 2020 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Barry Lewis/InPictures via Getty Images)
According to the indictment, the SPLC began operating a covert informant network in the 1980s, and between 2014 and 2023 allegedly paid those sources in a clandestine manner.
The DOJ alleges an SPLC employee instead encouraged the pair to remain involved and offered them a monthly salary of $1,200.
The two subsequently agreed to remain in the organization, according to the indictment.
DR. BEN CARSON: I KNOW HOW BAD THE SPLC WAS, IT CAME AFTER ME AND PUT ME AT RISK
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke during a press conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel at the Department of Justice on April 21, 2026, in Washington, D.C., following the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Prosecutors allege an SPLC employee instructed the individuals to claim they worked for a company called Rare Books and helped college students with research and writing assignments if anyone questioned the source of their income.
The indictment alleges donor funds were used to pay both individuals through SPLC accounts.
According to prosecutors, the pair were also reimbursed for expenses related to Ku Klux Klan activities, including cross-burning events and associated costs such as wood and fuel.
One of the individuals is also accused of recruiting new members using donor-funded payments. The indictment further alleges the SPLC knew donor funds were used to purchase materials for Ku Klux Klan garments.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, attorney Abbe Lowell, who represents the SPLC, denied the allegations.
A composite image shows Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche overlaid on photographs of the Department of Justice and FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This apparent superseding indictment attempts to shore up the flaws in the initial charges, but it changes nothing,” Lowell said.
“The SPLC did not lie to its donors, it did not mislead banks it did business with, and its informant program prevented violence and saved lives,” he continued.
“It appears the Justice Department shared the indictment with media before it was unsealed by the court – another example of the government’s troubling handling of this case.”
“We will be addressing these irregularities with the court and look forward to presenting the truth at trial,” he added.
NONPROFIT REVENUE TOTALS SURGE AMID GROWING SCRUTINY AFTER MAJOR FRAUD CASES
SPLC interim President and CEO Bryan Fair speaks during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Southern Poverty Law Center Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala., on March 5, 2026. (Jake Crandall/Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
The superseding indictment also notes that the SPLC’s reported revenue increased from roughly $38.7 million in 2010 to more than $129 million in 2023, an increase of approximately 233%.
According to the filing, the organization’s net assets grew from approximately $238 million to nearly $787 million during the same period.
The SPLC is a longtime nonprofit organization that says it combats white supremacy and extremism through research, reporting and monitoring efforts intended to assist law enforcement and the public.
During a news conference announcing the original indictment, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche alleged the SPLC paid members of extremist groups so it could generate “work product” documenting their activities.
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“To that end, [SPLC] was doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing – not dismantling extremism but funding it,” Blanche said.
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch, David Spunt, Jake Gibson and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
Buoyed by a new Congressional map favoring their party, California Democrats were eyeing Tuesday’s primary elections as a critical first step toward flipping a handful of House seats and taking back power in Washington.
Results from California’s massive and slow-moving election process were not immediately clear late Tuesday, as polls closed and mail ballots continued to be processed and counted. Still, Democrats were bullish about their chances of advancing candidates to November’s general election in all five districts that were redrawn in their favor as a result of last year’s Proposition 50 ballot measure.
“The path to winning back the House starts with voting in the June 2nd primary,” the California Democratic Party posted online Monday.
Meanwhile, California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin urged Republican voters to make their own voices heard too.
“Like President Trump said, we need to make it too big to rig,” Rankin said on “The Benny Show.” “We need to swamp the vote.”
One of the most closely watched races was in the redrawn 22nd Congressional District in the Central Valley, where incumbent Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) is facing challenges from moderate Assemblymember Jasmeet Kaur Bains (D-Delano) and progressive college professor Randy Villegas.
Another closely watched race was in the redrawn 48th Congressional District in San Diego and Riverside counties, where Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) decided to retire rather than run for reelection, and where Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond — who is endorsed by Trump — is running against a pack of Democrats.
Prop. 50 — which Californians passed with nearly 65% of the vote a year ago — was California Democrats’ response to Texas Republicans redrawing their state’s Congressional maps in the GOP’s favor, at President Trump’s behest. It was also the only major Democratic counterpunch in the wider mid-decade redistricting brawl that has spread across the country in the last year.
Experts expect the redistricting battle to deliver a net gain of a handful or more House seats to Republicans. But Democrats could gain even more ground given Trump’s lousy approval ratings and the long history of midterm election losses for the president’s party.
Combined, those factors make the battle for control of the House incredibly close, which in turn makes the five seats up for grabs in California pivotal — and potentially decisive.
Tuesday’s primaries won’t determine if any of those five seats will indeed flip parties in November. However, the primaries will define those head-to-head races to come and better inform the odds of Democrats toppling Republican incumbents, experts said.
In addition to flipping the seats currently held by Valadao and Issa, Democrats are hoping to pick up three additional seats.
In the 1st Congressional District — which after Prop. 50 lost rural reaches of northeast California and picked up liberal North Bay communities — various candidates were vying for the seat long held by the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), who died in January. They include Democratic state Sen. Mike McGuire and Republican Assemblymember James Gallagher, who is endorsed by Trump.
Voters from the existing district are also voting in a special election Tuesday to fill the remainder of LaMalfa’s term.
In the 3rd Congressional District, which lost an eastern rural stretch along Nevada and now holds more tightly to the Sacramento suburbs, Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove) — who currently represents a different district — is running to remain in Congress in a new seat.
Meanwhile, the 3rd Congressional District’s incumbent, Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Rocklin), is seeking to do the opposite. He quit the Republican Party, became an independent and is now running for Bera’s current seat in Congressional District 6, which includes the city of Sacramento and Placer County suburbs.
In the 41st Congressional District, which became more liberal after Prop. 50 by losing voters in Riverside County and gaining them in Los Angeles County, a slate of candidates — including Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Whittier), who currently represents a different district — are running to replace Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona). Calvert, a 17-term incumbent, decided to run in the neighboring 40th Congressional District instead.
In the 40th Congressional District, which covers a swath of inland Orange County and portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, incumbent Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills) is now going head-to-head with Calvert, while also facing several Democratic challengers.
Other districts that were not part of the Prop. 50 shuffle are also attracting attention.
In the 11th Congressional District in San Francisco, several Democratic candidates are vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the retiring former House Speaker, including state Sen. Scott Wiener; tech millionaire and Democratic political operative Saikat Chakrabarti; and Connie Chan, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors who Pelosi endorsed.
Democrats are also closely watching several races where younger Democrats and progressives are challenging older incumbent Democrats, and where newer Democratic incumbents are seeking to hold onto their seats in relatively competitive districts.
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LOS ANGELES — Outside a Bristol Farms market in LA’s Westchester neighborhood, residents who spoke to Fox News Digital all agreed that homelessness is a top problem facing the city, but disagreed on which mayoral candidate is the right choice to clean it up.
“Love him,” Shelley Zuckerman said about reality television star and independent candidate Spencer Pratt, adding that homelessness is a main motivator of her support for the reality TV star’s mayoral run.
“The fact that he’s not a politician, so he may or may not be a liar, we don’t know that yet, and I know that he wants to do something for LA that the politicians have been saying they’re going to do and then don’t,” Zuckerman added. “And I know politics works, that once you get in there you can’t always do what you want to do, but at least he’s got the passion.”
SPENCER PRATT SAYS HIS POLICY WILL FORCE HOMELESS OUT OF LA AND INTO CITIES LIKE SEATTLE
Los Angeles residents say homelessness is the top problem facing the city as they head to the polls for the mayoral primary. (Fox News Digital)
When asked if crime was a motivating factor to vote for Pratt, Zuckerman’s husband Saul responded, “Of course.”
The couple says they are supporting Republican Steve Hilton for governor.
Patrick Reynolds, who lives in the neighborhood, said he is “not happy with any of the candidates” and called Pratt a “clown” before saying he voted for incumbent Mayor Karen Bass “a little reluctantly.”
Homelessness has been a top-of-mind concern for voters in Los Angeles, and despite Bass being mayor for the last four years, Reynolds said he believes she’s the best choice on that front.
Reynolds, who said he is supporting billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer for governor, spoke at length about the problems with homelessness, including a local park he said has become “too dangerous” to visit in recent years.
KAREN BASS GRILLED OVER BROKEN HOMELESSNESS PROMISE, BLAMES BUREAUCRACY FOR SLOWED PROGRESS
Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt hosts a campaign block party on 10th Avenue in Los Angeles on May 20, 2026. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“Homelessness for sure,” a woman named Diane, who said she voted for Bass, told Fox News Digital, “That’s number one on my list, and I think she’s tried very hard to fix that problem. It’s a big problem, I know. And I just think she is down to earth. She’s not some rich billionaire, which I appreciate.”
Diane said she is supporting former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who served in the Biden administration, for governor because he is a “good guy.”
“I like that he is an immigrant and that he has worked his way up in this world,” Diane said. “I think he has a good sensibility. I like also that he isn’t a billionaire. I can relate to him.”
Dan Madden, a resident of nearby Manhattan Beach, told Fox News Digital that if he could vote in LA proper, he’d go with Pratt.
WHO IS TOM STEYER? ANTI-ICE BILLIONAIRE IN CA GOVERNOR’S RACE FACES SCRUTINY OVER DETENTION INVESTMENTS
A Los Angeles city councilwoman and progressive candidate for mayor Nithya Raman, left, pictured alongside incumbent mayor Karen Bass, right. (Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“That’d be my man,” said Madden, who added that he is voting for Hilton for governor. “The last 20 years in Los Angeles has been screwed.”
“It’s getting worse,” Madden said about the homeless situation in the Los Angeles area. “They cleaned up here and there. Spots, especially along the beach, coastline, you see it cleaned up. Two months later, everybody’s back.”
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Pratt, a registered Republican running as an independent, faces off in a nonpartisan mayoral primary against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a socialist.
Tuesday’s election will determine which two candidates advance to the November general election. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, they will automatically be named the next mayor.
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