Washington County Commissioners Nafisa Fai, left, and Pam Treece, in a race for Washington County chair.
Courtesy of the campaigns
Initial election night returns show Commissioner Pam Treece leading fellow commissioner, Nafisa Fai, in the race for Washington County Chair.
Results as of 8 p.m. showed Treece with 51.8% of the vote to Fai‘s 47.3 %, a lead of 4,870 votes in early returns.
In the race to represent District 4, former Hillsboro Mayor Steve Callaway is leading Hillsboro Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair by just a few dozen votes. Callaway had 49.7% of the vote to Sinclair’s 49.5%.
Both races serve as a broader test of the strength of a growing progressive movement in Washington County this year. Fai, Sinclair and a coalition of other left-leaning candidates sought seats up and down the ballot this election. They challenged more moderate and business-friendly candidates such as Treece and Callaway.
The winner of the chair’s race will replace Kathryn Harrington, who resigned earlier this fall after making an offensive gesture at Fai during a public meeting.
Fai has served as the county’s District 1 commissioner since her initial election in 2020, when she made history as the first person of color ever elected to the commission of the state’s most racially diverse county.
Treece was first elected to the commission’s District 2 seat in 2018.
Each of the four candidates in the Washington County races stressed that affordability is one of the county’s top priorities. Treece and Callaway said they would help the economic woes of people living in Washington County by spurring economic growth and bringing jobs to the county.
Sinclair and Fai said they would prioritize everyday residents over large corporations, some of which have recently been granted tax breaks to develop data centers.
