Data centers, ICE and the DSA: Election tensions rise in Washington County

A group of political candidates, volunteers and elected officials crowded into the Hillsboro headquarters of the Democratic Party on a cloudy Saturday this month with a shared vision: shake up local Democratic politics.

They planned to knock on doors for city council candidates. Campaign fliers stacked on the tables described them as “seeds of change.” One of them, Diana Jackson, a single mom who works for a public defense law firm, spoke to the room.

“We have a lot of electeds who are there to champion the corporations and the wealthy people who aren’t paying their fair share,” said Jackson. She said a data center is being built near her children’s school, one of many facilities with generous tax breaks that have become a defining issue in the upcoming election.

“We need people who are here to represent the people who live here.”

Candidates like Jackson are vying for a slew of positions in this year’s election that could reshape Washington County’s political leadership. Whoever wins will help govern Oregon’s second most populated county, and some of the state’s largest cities within it. The region powers the state’s economy, with large employers like Nike, Intel and other tech companies that make up the “Silicon Forest.”

The region has been led for years by either Republicans or business-friendly moderate Democrats. But now the local Democratic Party is backing a slate of progressive candidates, including many who align themselves with the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA. Many are banding together — through campaign fliers, social media posts, public events and more — in an effort to usher in a new vision for the party.

The election mirrors a theme playing out nationwide, as progressive candidates increasingly challenge establishment Democrats. The results could foreshadow the broader direction of the party, serving as a test for how the progressive message is resonating with voters.

Data centers, immigration enforcement dominate election

Those tensions are especially potent in Washington County for a number of reasons. The county is home to dozens of data centers, an industry that has recently faced intense pushback from critics concerned over deals brokered by local leaders that date back decades.

In addition, the county — Oregon’s most diverse — has been the epicenter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state. Hillsboro and Washington County declared states of emergency last December in response to the raids, but some progressive candidates say leaders aren’t doing enough to protect community members from deportation. They’ve called for eviction moratoriums and to have local law enforcement keep tabs on federal authorities.

“The level of civic engagement and the level of frustration has increased to a point where we require a different caliber of office holder,” said Karim Delgado, one of three “seeds of change” candidates running for Hillsboro City Council.

Much of the DSA movement shares views that may have once seemed radical: free universal healthcare, childcare and public tuition; steep taxes on corporations and the wealthy; and abolishing the federal immigration enforcement agency.

Frustrated with the Democratic Party’s beleaguered response to the Trump administration, this younger working class crop of candidates believes its message will find an ear with voters disenchanted with the establishment.

“Democrats have had trifecta control of this state,” said state Rep. Farrah Chaichi, a democratic socialist from Aloha. “Why aren’t we doing more, or bigger, or better?”

Still, others are skeptical that pushing out experienced political leaders will be conducive to good policymaking. Former state Sen. Mark Hass, a moderate Democrat from Beaverton who spent two decades in the Legislature, questioned the progressive candidates’ chances in Washington County, where, like Oregon overall, the largest share of voters are not affiliated with either major political party.

“I think it’s easy to say you’re against data centers, and you’re against immigration abuse. But what I never hear from these very same people is, ‘Alright, here’s how we should do this,’” Hass said.

Nationally, Republicans have seized on the DSA’s emergence in an effort to win middle-of-the-road voters and fend off a blue wave in the midterms. Hass said he’s concerned that the influx of such candidates may prompt moderate Democrats to side with Republicans in the future.

“That’s my fear,” Hass said. “I can see that happening. I really can.”

Republicans once dominated elected leadership in Washington County, but now Democrats represent all but two legislative districts. Fewer than one in five of its registered voters are Republicans.

And some seats could see a major shift to the left. Democratic socialists are running for two legislative seats that were long held by moderate Democrats. Progressives are also eyeing seats on the nonpartisan Washington County commission, including the chair’s seat, and the Beaverton, Tigard and Hillsboro city councils.

With about a month before the election, a schism is forming between two camps, according to the political endorsements and campaign cash backing candidates.

On one side, business leaders and establishment politicians are backing candidates that lean moderate. Those include the Washington County Chamber of Commerce and unions representing firefighters, police and home builders.

On the other, powerful labor groups, data center opponents and democratic socialist politicians are supporting the progressive lineup. Among them are unions representing public employees, teachers and other groups that are seeking to push back against data centers.

But Beaverton City Council candidate Evelyn Kocher, a democratic socialist who would be the first openly trans person to hold local office in Beaverton, said she and her moderate opponent actually have more in common than not.

“I think our values are more similar than they are different,” Kocher said. “I think the main difference between us is who our supporters are and where our funding is coming from.”

Kocher’s campaign is backed by other Washington County progressives, while her opponent, Rachel Philip, is backed by a majority of the current city council, the Beaverton Chamber of Commerce, and several moderate Democratic lawmakers.

ICE crackdown rocks Washington County

Few parts of Oregon have evolved quite like Washington County. Once heavily dominated by agriculture, the county’s population surged as companies like Intel and Nike helped it grow into a bustling Portland suburb. More than 600,000 people live in Washington County, according to the latest U.S. Census data, and it’s now considered Oregon’s economic engine.

“A lot of that money that’s made in Washington County is showered throughout the rest of the state,” Hass said. “And that affects everything from highways to schools.”

The county’s growth over time has been accompanied by a broader push to the political left. Among the more progressive candidates elected recently are Juan Carlos Gonzalez, who was elected to Metro Council in 2018, and subsequently to chair the regional board; Wlnsvey Campos, another Democrat, who was elected to the Legislature in 2020; and Chaichi, who was elected in 2022.

The region’s elected leadership has slowly begun to reflect its population. That diversity appears to have made it a target in the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan.

Agents swept through Oregon last fall as part of an immigration crackdown dubbed “Operation Black Rose.” In Washington County, many immigrants went into hiding. Immigration enforcement officers arrested people outside grocery stores, strip malls and schools. They broke out car windows and sent detainees to the hospital.

The county had the largest share of immigration arrests in Oregon, according to a Portland Immigrants Rights Coalition analysis of arrest data from July 2025 through the end of the year. It accounted for 33.5% of statewide ICE arrests in that time frame.

Those aggressive tactics stirred broad discontent in the Democrat-led state, prompting many candidates’ decision to run for office. Myrna Muñoz, who is running for a state senate seat, said the ICE crackdown and watching her neighbors lose trust in their leaders was her main motivator for running in May’s primary.

“I think the rise of the DSA is about balancing out the rise of fascism,” Muñoz said.

Data centers draw furor

Lately, many candidates have honed their campaigns on a different matter: data centers. There are 111 facilities in Oregon, according to a recent report from ECOnorthwest and the University of Virginia. The industry employs about 2,600 people statewide but generates about $2.4 billion in economic value.

Washington County was among the first in the state to embrace the data center boom, granting generous tax breaks with the hope of reaping an economic benefit. There are 29 data centers in Washington County, more than any other county in the state.

The county gave up a lot to welcome that industry. Last year, it received $20.5 million in property tax revenue from the facilities, accounting for about 1% of the countywide tax base. By comparison, Morrow County, a rural eastern Oregon County with about 12,000 people, received about $23 million.

Data centers are now caught up in a nationwide political firestorm over their use of water, power and land. The issue is a centerpiece of the 2026 election cycle, with candidates touting the tough stance they plan to take.

Nafisa Fai, a Washington County commissioner first elected in 2020 who is running for chair, proposed a moratorium on new data centers earlier this year. The plan failed as fellow commissioners cited a lack of available industrial-zoned land in unincorporated areas overseen by the county. Other candidates have gone to court, aiming to nullify tax breaks local governments have granted to the industry.

“We’re talking about soil, air, and water,” said Kipperlyn Sinclair, a Hillsboro city councilor who is running for Washington County Commission. She is one of several plaintiffs suing the city over data center tax breaks.

“That is our life source. It is not a corporate resource,” Sinclair said. “What I want people to understand: these are your public dollars being given away to corporations.”

Other candidates haven’t taken such a firm stance. Pam Treece, another county commissioner who is running against Fai for chair, called for the creation of a task force to inform local policy around data centers.

Sinclair’s opponent, Steve Callaway, was the mayor of Hillsboro when the enterprise zone program that has allowed data centers to secure the decades-long tax breaks was renewed.

Callaway, an ally of Treece and the other moderate candidates running in this election, said he opposes the large hyper scale data centers seen in eastern Oregon and other parts of the country.

“I’ll never be convinced that, frankly, Elon Musk or, you know, Jeff Bezos, some of these other folks who are putting out data centers, have our best interests in mind,” he said.

Callaway noted that he is not advocating for data center construction. But he acknowledged companies may need data centers, such as Lam Research, which helps build equipment for computer chip firms and recently launched a massive expansion in Tualatin.

“We need to come up with incentives that address data centers,” Callaway said. “And we need to make sure that resources are protected.”

Tensions rise

The debate has come with political consequences. In the May Democratic primary, state Sen. Janeen Sollman, a longtime legislator from Hillsboro, came under scrutiny for her support of legislation that would have cleared the way for industrial development on farmland.

Though she framed the idea as necessary for economic growth, her opponents seized on it as being favorable to data centers, which she denies. Sollman lost the May primary election to Muñoz, a democratic socialist backed by powerful unions and data center opponents.

Sollman disputed that she fit the mold of an “establishment” politician, noting that her legislative priorities often stemmed from what she was hearing in her community. She said the campaign against her “was based on a lot of misinformation and spinning.” She pointed out that she was a chief sponsor of the POWER act, a 2025 law that seeks to require large energy users, including data centers, to pay their share for electricity.

She blamed part of her loss on pushback from unions, which sought to unseat her due to her vote on a bill that made Oregon the only state to allow striking public employees to receive unemployment pay.

“I by all means do not believe that I own this seat,” Sollman said. “And so if somebody feels like, ‘Wow, you know, I can do better, it’s my time,’ all the power to them,” she added.

Since the election, the furor over data centers has only grown. Critics have filled public meetings and lambasted local leaders, demanding that agencies push back against the encroachment of artificial intelligence.

At a public forum in August, a Cornelius man was accused of accosting Sollman over data centers and immigration enforcement. The senator said Pedro Garcia-Balderrama grabbed her glasses off her face and threw them. He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor harassment and second-degree disorderly conduct. He pleaded not guilty.

“I hope that he doesn’t experience jail time,” Sollman said. “I asked for some safety measures. I don’t want him to have any contact with me. I also want him to get help and to be supported.”

Some state and local leaders quickly condemned the incident as an act of political violence. But others, including some candidates for Washington County seats, accused the Democratic establishment of being quicker to defend a state lawmaker than vulnerable citizens swept up in ICE raids.

“They sprang into action over a pair of glasses in a day,” Delgado, a Hillsboro city council candidate, said in a video posted on social media. “Where’s that energy for the masked men dragging our neighbors out of their kitchens with no warrant and no name?”

Muñoz was criticized for expressing sympathy for Garcia-Balderrama online, writing: “I’m glad you are ok mijo. I was so worried … .” She donated $100 to his legal defense fund, as Willamette Week reported.

Asked about the incident at the Washington County Democrats headquarters, Muñoz said she condemned political violence. She said, “My whole campaign is about fighting political violence. It’s about stopping the kidnappings of our people on the street.”

“It feels a little bit racist to me that while I was saying it for brown people, it seemed not to resonate with anybody. But when it’s being said for a senator, it matters so much,” Muñoz said. “I’m not saying the senator doesn’t matter. Of course, she’s gonna be one of my constituents as well. I want her to live safely here.”

Sollman said she has received other threatening notes since then. As an adult survivor of domestic violence, she said of the incident: “It is about violence, and especially violence against a woman.”

“What I worry about is when we ignore something like that that happens — and take me out of it, another elected official, anybody — we’re condoning that type of interaction in democracy.”

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‘Everyone is on edge’

The Washington County Democrats have embraced many of the election’s more progressive candidates. Martita Meier, the party chair who has been involved in local politics for about a decade, said the swell of activist candidates this year is unlike other elections she’s seen.

“Locally, we are at a crescendo point where we have an opportunity to be action-oriented, and our county is calling for that.”

She compared the uproar over data centers to awakening “the sleeping dragon” but said the incident with Sollman “crosses a line.” Meier disputed that candidates were justifying political violence through their statements.

“They’re just saying in the world when things are this unstable, if you don’t face things head on, you may run into these kinds of problems, so it’s not surprising,” she said.

The civil discourse in Washington County has continued to deteriorate. During a recent public meeting, Washington County Commission Chair Kathryn Harrington flipped off Fai, who is running to replace her.

Under public pressure — including from Treece, whom Harrington had endorsed — the chair announced her resignation. In a statement, Treece said she would return Harrington’s campaign contribution and remove her endorsement from her campaign website.

“I think we’re gonna see a lot more fireworks, honestly,” said Blayne Soleymani-Pearson, a prosecutor and precinct committee person for the local Democratic Party, who lost a bid for the county commission in May’s primary. “Everyone is on edge. Everyone.”

After the large group at the Washington County Democratic Party Office broke off to go canvassing, Delgado and fellow Hillsboro City Council Candidate Dorian Russell walked a wide tree-lined residential street, knocking on doors and sharing their message.

The candidates said they felt compelled to run by the severity of issues facing the county. Russell, a formerly homeless teen who now runs the county’s largest homeless services nonprofit, said Washington County needs leaders with deep connections to the community. Otherwise, they added: “You’re not prepared for crisis leadership.”

“And we’re in a crisis right now,” Russell said.