Third-party candidate Ashton Simpson is trying to snatch victory in a Democratic stronghold

By Dirk VanderHart (OPB)
Oct. 15, 2020 12:31 a.m.

The Working Families Party candidate entered the race after harassment allegations emerged against Democratic Rep. Diego Hernandez.

In the semi-annual battle over Republican or Democratic dominance in the Legislature, House District 47 rarely bears mention. After all, the East Portland district routinely churns out some of the Legislature’s most liberal members, including now-U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and progressive radio host Jefferson Smith.

But this year’s race is different.

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In a rare gambit, a community worker and transportation wonk named Ashton Simpson launched a last-minute bid in mid-August to secure a spot on the ballot. Running under the banner of the Working Families Party, Simpson, 35, is hoping he can use a shoestring budget to elevate his candidacy among a couple of relative no-shows to the race: incumbent Democratic Rep. Diego Hernandez, and Republican Ryan Gardner.

Ashton Simpson is mounting a third-party challenge in a heavily Democratic House district in East Portland.

Ashton Simpson is mounting a third-party challenge in a heavily Democratic House district in East Portland.

M.Martinez / courtesy Ashton Simpson

In the last eight weeks, Simpson has begun to build a coalition around a progressive agenda that fits with his district. His platform of empowering and uplifting communities of color, protecting renters, battling climate change at any cost, and curbing police abuses has gained him support from at least two sitting House Democrats, along with Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson, who formally represented HD 47.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an insurgency,” Simpson said Wednesday. “I like the term ‘grassroots.’”

But Simpson is frank that his candidacy has been a scramble, and that he’s had to learn a lot of political realities very quickly.

“This is a process that I planned on jumping into two years from now,” he said. But, he added, “it came to light that our current leadership would be less effective in the Legislature next term.”

Simpson is alluding to a dynamic that has been a matter of continual speculation in the Democratic ranks since earlier this year. Hernandez, a two-term representative, faces an internal legislative investigation into allegations that he harassed numerous women, including at least one former romantic partner.

Details of most of the allegations have been kept under wraps. If they are deemed true by his fellow representatives, Hernandez could face discipline including being ejected from the Legislature. The House’s most powerful Democrat, Speaker Tina Kotek, was among lawmakers who reported accusations that she’d learned of against Hernandez, a mandatory report that helped lead to an investigation. She has urged him to resign.

But to the consternation of some in his party, Hernandez is staying put — and doesn’t need to expend much effort to do so. He faced no challengers for the Democratic nomination in the May primary, and the political leanings of his district suggest he could cruise to victory by virtue of his party affiliation.

State Rep. Diego Hernandez is pictured on the House floor at the Capitol in Salem, Ore., Tuesday, April 2, 2019.

State Rep. Diego Hernandez, D-Portland, is seeking re-election this year, but has not actively campaigned much since harassment allegations surfaced against him in May.

Bradley W. Parks / OPB

Hernandez has not responded to repeated requests to discuss his candidacy in recent weeks, but did recently participate in an endorsement interview with Willamette Week, where he touted his success passing laws that protected immigrant communities and improved education. As he had previously, Hernandez also said the harassment allegations are part of a campaign by Kotek and others to bring him to ruin.

“I know for a fact that I’m being Karen’ed by Speaker Kotek and Sen. [Sara] Gelser,” Hernandez told the newspaper, using a slang term that’s come to refer to white women discriminating against people of color. “That’s why I’m still here… If I was guilty I would have quit.”

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Under legislative rules, the investigation into Hernandez’s behavior will be subject to a public hearing. It’s not clear when that will be held.

Hernandez’s campaign has appeared largely fallow since harassment allegations emerged, though he has recently reported cash contributions from fellow Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Andrea Salinas, Rep. Janelle Bynum, Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon and Rep. Mark Meek, who serve with Hernandez on the Legislature’s People of Color Caucus.

Even so, Hernandez has reported raising about $14,793 since January 2019, less than the $19,429 Simpson has reported since late August. Gardner, the Republican candidate, has reported raising less than $800 in a district where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly three to one.

Simpson grew up in Houston, and moved to Portland to attend Portland State University following more than eight years in the Air Force. He worked as a project engineer at a construction company for a time before accepting a job with the nonprofit Rosewood Initiative, where he helps community members align their vision for the Rosewood neighborhood in East Portland. An infrastructure wonk, Simpson also helps steer funds from a gas tax Portland passed in 2016, and has helped set the direction for a $7 billion bond for transportation projects that Metro is floating in the November election.

Simpson acknowledged Wednesday that his politics aren’t too far off from those of Hernandez, who is one of the more liberal lawmakers in the House.

“Honestly I don’t have an issue with the work that he has put forward,” Simpson said. “It’s actually his outside life, his personal life, that’s interfering with his way of governing.”

Simpson noted that Kotek removed Hernandez from all his legislative committees earlier this year. That decision was made, however, after he took a leave of absence from the Legislature in the wake of a now-dismissed restraining order by a former romantic partner. It’s not clear that Hernandez would be permanently sidelined if he does return to the House.

In a move that risks rankling their colleagues, two sitting Democratic state representatives, Rob Nosse of Portland and Carla Piluso of Gresham have thrown their support behind Simpson.

“Rep. Hernandez and I were friends,” said Nosse, who represents a district in inner southeast Portland and who has donated $500 to Simpson’s campaign. “I thought that he was a talented legislator, but I just think at the end of the day there’s too much swirling around him.”

Simpson said he’s gotten no indication whether other legislative Democrats are embracing his run against one of their own. But it’s not unheard of for third-party candidates to emerge as a viable alternative.

In 2018, Democrats withdrew support for their candidate in a Bend House district, after he was marred by allegations of groping a woman. The Working Families Party wound up tapping its own candidate, Amanda LaBell, but the effort crumbled when her record came into question. Republican Rep. Cheri Helt currently holds the seat, and is seeking re-election in what is becoming one of the more acrimonious and hard-fought races this year.

Simpson has seen support for his candidacy steadily grow. That includes endorsements from a number of labor unions, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, and a group calling itself “Women for Simpson” that includes nearly 50 people, some with deep political connections.

Those entities could be helpful in ensuring Simpson gets his message out, but according to Jim Moore, director of political outreach at Pacific University’s Tom McCall Center for Civic Engagement, it will take more to elevate him in HD 47. Simpson also needs someone willing to highlight Hernandez’s precarious position for voters who might otherwise automatically vote for the Democrat.

“It’s up to the people that endorse him to run an independent campaign,” Moore said. “The people who say ‘We don’t want Hernandez.’”

With ballots on their way to voters, it’s not clear such a campaign is coming. Simpson — who did not expect to be running this race, let alone to be the only truly active candidate — said he’ll hone his message and keep pushing. If he’s successful, he’d be the first third-party candidate to win a seat in the Legislature in at least half a century, according to a release from the Working Families Party.

“We’re phone banking, we’re text banking,” he said. “I’m hoping after this week we get some momentum.”

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