A recent $3 million donation to back GOP candidates is the largest single contribution by an individual in state history.
Phil Knight, billionaire co-founder of Nike, sits at an event at the Nike campus in Beaverton in 2023. Knight is a prolific donor to Republican candidates in Oregon.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
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Oregon’s richest man is once again setting political giving records with his checkbook.
Nike co-founder Phil Knight last month sent $3 million to a political committee focused on electing more Republicans to the state Legislature. That committee, Bring Balance to Salem, has been increasingly important to the GOP’s aim of winning back influence in the state over the last two election cycles.
The check marks the largest single donation ever by an individual political donor in Oregon. And it brings Knight’s total giving to Bring Balance to Salem up to $9 million over the last three years.
With the donation, first reported by the Oregon Journalism Project, Knight is signaling once again that he is fed up with Democratic dominance in Oregon. While the billionaire used to donate to members of both parties — including sending $250,000 to Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber’s 2014 reelection bid — his largesse has been squarely focused on the GOP in recent years.
In 2022, Knight spent more than $5 million supporting the two chief candidates running against Democrat Tina Kotek in the governor’s race. In a rare interview that year, Knight told the New York Times he is “an anti-Tina person,” and spoke of being opposed to drug decriminalization and other policies Oregon had enacted.
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Knight’s money didn’t dictate the outcome of the election. Kotek defeated both Republican Christine Drazan and nonaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson that year. Drazan is once again seeking the state’s highest elected office.
Four years before, in 2018, $2.5 million that Knight spent supporting GOP gubernatorial candidate Knute Buehler wasn’t enough to lift him over Democrat Kate Brown either.
Knight has had slightly more success with Bring Balance to Salem, the PAC dedicated to increasing GOP influence in the statehouse. The committee was spearheaded in 2021 by Greg Walden, a former Republican congressman from Hood River who helped run GOP races nationally while in office.
Aided by $2 million from Knight during the 2022 election, Republicans clawed back some seats in the state House and Senate, eliminating Democratic supermajorities. While progress, the result was not as robust as Republican strategists had believed was possible.
The 2024 election was worse for the party. Despite a war chest for Walden’s PAC that included $4 million from Knight, the GOP lost one seat in both the House and Senate, once again falling to superminority status in both chambers.
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Mid-term elections are often unkind to the party that holds power in Washington, D.C., and many prognosticators believe Republicans will face headwinds next year. Knight’s latest check signals he is ready to spend big to counteract that difficulty locally.
History suggests Knight will also intervene in next year’s governor’s race, in which Kotek is widely expected to seek reelection. Despite criticisms on both sides of the aisle, most political observers expect her to prevail.
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The Second Round of the women’s 2026 NCAA Tournament continues Sunday with a slate featuring No. 1 Texas vs. No. 8 Oregon on the eight-game schedule.
Here is the latest on Sunday’s March Madness matchup, including expert picks from reporters across the USA TODAY Sports Network.
USA TODAY Sports has a team of journalists covering the women’s NCAA Tournament to keep you up to date with every point scored, rebound grabbed and game won in the 68-team tournament.
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USA TODAY Studio IX : Check out our women’s sports hub for in-depth analysis, commentary and more
Join the USA TODAY $1 million Bracket Challenge
No. 1 Texas vs No. 8 Oregon prediction
Heather Burns: Texas
Mitchell Northam: Texas
Nancy Armour: Texas
Cydney Henderson: Texas
Meghan Hall: Texas
No. 1 Texas vs No. 8 Oregon odds
Opening Moneyline: Texas (-100000)
Opening Spread: Texas (-26.5)
Opening Total: 136.5
How to Watch Texas vs Oregon on Sunday
No. 1 Texas takes on No. 8 Oregon at Moody Center in Austin on March 22 at 6:00 p.m. (ET). The game is airing on ESPN.
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state.
Oregon’s flu season is closing in on its brutal end, which left many family members dodging each other at holiday gatherings to stay safe.
Nationally, less of the population is getting flu vaccinations, and Oregon followed that trend. This season, only 30.7% of Oregonians got the flu vaccine, 10,000 fewer than last year—a rate about one-third lower than the national average.
The low rate is unsurprising. Oregon has one of the lowest rates for childhood vaccinations in the nation, for example, with nearly 1 in 10 kindergarten students opted out by their parents, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
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An OJP analysis shows Multnomah and Washington counties had the highest flu vaccination rates in the state, each around 35%. Counties in Southeast Oregon—Grant and Malheur—had the lowest, at 16% and 17.4%, respectively. So far this season, all of Oregon’s 36 counties but Deschutes and Umatilla showed a drop in vaccination rates compared with last year’s complete flu season. Tillamook had the largest decrease: 4 percentage points, down to 24%.
Tillamook public health officials are concerned, but not surprised that the county mirrors the national drop in flu vaccination rates, says Camille Sorensen, the county’s public health communications manager. The county tried to protect more residents this season, she says, by hosting several low-barrier vaccination events.
Sorensen pointed to two reasons for the drop in her county, ones that likely played a role across the state:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement action around the state may have scared off some groups of people from attending vaccination events or clinics.
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Second, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under the leadership of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has promulgated inaccurate and inconsistent information about the safety of vaccines.
“There’s a lot of confusion…regarding vaccination efficacy or other concerns about potential side effects,” Sorensen says.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the vaccine rate for this season was 22% to 34% effective in preventing doctor’s visits for adults and 30% effective in preventing hospitalizations. While the vaccine wasn’t as effective as in previous years, it remains the best way to avoid getting severely sick or hospitalized, according to OHA.
This season, the flu caused the deaths of about 10,000 people nationwide, mostly elderly, but also more than 44 children, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The association said it was the worst outbreak in nearly two decades.
In Oregon’s TriMet region (Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties), there have been 934 hospitalizations for the flu so far this year. Last year at this time, there were 1,634, or 75% more, likely because last year’s bug was more severe.
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Flu shots are easier to access than many other vaccines. Most people with health insurance can walk into any drug store and get immunized. Oregonians without insurance can get a flu shot at community clinics or through their public health department.
>>> To learn more about finding a vaccine clinic near you, visit the Oregon Health Authority’s “Getting Vaccines in Oregon” webpage,
Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office.
OREGON, Wis. (WMTV) – Police in Oregon arrested a 57-year-old man Friday after investigators said he communicated online with someone he believed was a 13-year-old child.
The Oregon Police Department said the investigation began March 12 after officers received a report about a concerning video posted online.
Detectives later identified a Village of Oregon resident who had been communicating with an individual he believed to be a 13-year-old. Police did not release the suspect’s name.
Detectives took the suspect into custody Friday and booked him into the Dane County Jail on one count of use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, police said.
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