An anti-abortion group says it's working to find a conservative challenger for an eastern Lane County Republican state representative.
Charlie Conrad was the only member of his party to vote in favor of HB 2002, which would expand access to abortion and gender-affirming care. His support for it rankled groups like Oregon Right to Life.
Its executive director, Lois Anderson, said during a press conference held in Conrad’s home town of Dexter that her group will do everything it can to oust Conrad.
“That starts with an already ongoing paid door-to-door and phone campaign to notify every Republican primary voter of Representative Conrad’s deadly record,” she said.
Conrad, who's in his first term in office, calls himself a political moderate and says the primary challenge is not unexpected. He said he made his decision to support HB 2002 after careful deliberation.
“In the legislature we can only say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Those are the only options that we have," he said. "And regardless of what my vote would have been, I would have had support and I would have had opposition for it.”
Oregon Right to Life hasn’t named a potential candidate to challenge Conrad in next May’s Republican primary.
The winner of that primary won't be a slam-dunk for the general election. As of June, Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district by just 1,114 voters. Like many Oregon legislative districts, the largest single category of voter in House District 12 is "unaffiliated."
Last May, Conrad won a four-way Republican primary by just 99 votes over second-place finisher Nicole De Graff.
De Graff blasted her former opponent at the Wednesday press conference, but said she isn't planning to run for the office next year.
"It was clear from day one that he doesn't care what his constituents thinks," she said. "We gave Charlie Conrad a chance. He's pretending that he represents us, but nothing could be further from the truth."
Conrad won the general election by a fairly comfortable margin, taking 57 percent of the vote against Democrat Michelle Emmons.
Oregon Right to Life is part of a political action committee formed to drum up opposition to Conrad. As of Wednesday, state campaign finance records do not show any donations to the "Charlie Conrad You're Out" committee, but those records do not reflect recent transactions.
In addition to drawing the ire of the anti-abortion group, Conrad has also lost support from the Lane County Republican Party.
The organization's chair, John Large, distributed a resolution at the Wednesday press conference showing that party officials had voted to "withdraw all current and future support" for Conrad, and furthermore requesting that Conrad resign his seat.
Conrad does not appear to be considering a resignation, and told KLCC that he plans to run for re-election next year. The filing period won't officially open until September, with the deadline to file coming next March.
The movement to oust Conrad was first reported by the Oregon Capital Chronicle, which earlier reported on Conrad's decision to support the abortion and gender-affirming care bill.
Conrad told KLCC that the dustup over his position on HB 2002 was a reflection of "polarization" in Oregon politics.
"Hopefully folks like myself can bring (us) back together, to where it's not a single-topic state, and where it's really the quality of candidates and the body of work that they put forward in representing their district," he said.
