This summer, the Republican-backed “Big Beautiful Bill” slashed funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and is expected to dramatically reduce who is eligible for the benefits.
Fast forward to today and the ongoing political shutdown has thrust those who rely on food stamps back into the political crosshairs. And in the latest battle, some argue an unlikely ally has emerged: Oregon conservatives.
Well-known talk show host Lars Larson, who describes himself as “Ultra MAGA” on the social media platform X, sent out a message recently calling on Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek to tap the state’s emergency board to fund SNAP for a few weeks.
Likely 2026 Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, also criticized Kotek last month for not acting quicker to provide food assistance to struggling families during the shutdown.
Rep. Christine Drazan greets supporters at the Gunderson Marine & Iron manufacturing facility in Portland, Ore. on Monday, Oct. 27. The Republican representative announced her candidacy for Oregon governor at the warehouse Monday.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
The statements come as the dizzying back-and-forth over SNAP benefits continues, with the Trump administration calling on states this weekend to rescind full payments to SNAP recipients.
Drazan said it’s possible to square both supporting reductions to the nutrition program — which the July tax package will do, by an estimated $187 billion nationwide — while still pushing for current benefits to be restored.
“The social safety net that includes food benefits is an important part of a modern society where we don’t see kids living in dumps and scrounging for food,” Drazan said.
As a kid, Drazan herself relied on her family’s food benefits. Her father worked in lumber mills and it was a difficult era to stay employed in that line of work, she said. For most of her childhood, food stamps were “a lifeline” for her family.
But, Drazan said, that doesn’t mean a government program shouldn’t be re-evaluated over time.
“We should never have a set it and forget it mindset towards the services we’re providing,” Drazan said.
Although the Republican Party has been known in more modern times as the party that prefers small government and self-sufficiency, the largest expansion of the SNAP program was under Republican President Richard Nixon.
“More recently from the 1980s and accelerating into the 90s, there has been more resistance by Republicans for some of these kinds of social spending programs,” said Chris Shortell, a political scientist with Portland State University. “The argument being they are forming a form of dependency.”
Oregon Republicans may depart from the federal administration’s push to restrict benefits because one in six Oregonians relies on SNAP to some degree.
“A lot of their constituents are going to be negatively impacted by the loss of SNAP benefits,” Shortell said.
The legal and political back-and-forth swirling around the debate over SNAP has been head-spinning. At the federal level, several Democrats have blasted the Trump administration for allowing people to starve, while Republicans have countered that Democrats are to blame for dragging out the government shutdown long enough to affect SNAP.
Oregonians who rely on SNAP had their food benefits loaded into their accounts on Friday after a federal judge mandated it be done. But late on Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay to block the release of food benefits. The Trump administration then sent a memo to states telling them not to distribute the money.
Oregon is one of the states that already provided full SNAP benefits and Kotek said those benefits won’t be rescinded. The state has joined others in filing a restraining order to prevent the Trump administration from penalizing them for distributing SNAP funds in the short window when they were legally available.
Even when the federal government reopens, the debate over SNAP benefits will continue. Oregon will likely need to determine whether it will try to backfill some of the loss of federal benefits in the coming budget years.
And some of that debate will feel familiar.
Senate Republican Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, said he would prefer the conversation be centered on how to grow the economy rather than how to ensure people can continue their nutrition assistance benefits.
“I would love it if we had an economy that was growing and jobs that were plentiful and huge options for private-sector growth and wage-growth,” Starr said.
Conrad Wilson contributed to this report.
