Oregon voters rejected a gas tax increase and related fee changes in Tuesday’s election, a result that Republicans cast as a response to rising pump prices as the war with Iran contributed to higher costs for consumers. The vote came alongside primary races in which Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley won their party nominations and Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan won the GOP gubernatorial primary to challenge Kotek in November.
The referendum, known as Measure 120, was aimed at repealing a bill that Democratic lawmakers approved last year. According to the measure’s supporters, the changes would have raised the state gas tax by 6 cents a gallon and increased a series of fees intended to pay for road improvements while closing what Democratic lawmakers described as a transportation budget shortfall.
Republicans moved quickly after Kotek signed the legislation, circulating a petition soon afterward and gathering more than three times the number of signatures required to place the measure on the ballot. Republican state Sen. Bruce Starr, who helped lead the referendum campaign, said he was “not surprised at all that Oregonians have rejected a completely unpopular tax increase,” adding, “Oregon voters will not be ignored. Oregon taxpayers will not be ignored,” in comments made to The Associated Press Tuesday night.
On the campaign trail, Republicans sought to counter Democrats’ broader affordability messaging by framing the gas tax and fee increases as additional fuel for the high cost of living. Democrats, meanwhile, pointed to the root cause of rising gas prices as President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, and they acknowledged that the referendum timing worked against them.
Measure 120 also landed in a period when Oregon and other U.S. political leaders were contending with shifting budget pressures tied to changes in how people drive and fuel consumption. The legislation represented Democrats’ answer to a projected decline in gas tax revenue as more fuel-efficient, electric and hybrid vehicles enter the market, with state officials saying the gas tax remains the largest funding source for fixing roads and upgrading highways.
Even in Portland, where voters tend to lean Democratic, support for the measure was not unanimous. Gail Watnick, 56, arrived at a Portland library serving as a ballot drop site and said she voted yes because “I feel like the roads need to be repaired as a bicyclist.” David Trujillo, 25, voted for Kotek in the primary but voted against the gas tax increase, saying rising gas prices and the ongoing war made it “very difficult for folks to get around,” and that higher fuel costs would present a “huge barrier” for more community members.
While Oregon’s statewide races brought attention to the gubernatorial rematch between Kotek and Drazan, and to Democratic efforts to defend other seats, the gas-tax referendum carried its own political weight. Oregon’s Republican governor primary featured 14 candidates, including Chris Dudley, a former NBA player; and David Medina, a conservative influencer who was among those charged after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and later pardoned by President Donald Trump last year.
Voters also chose nominees for U.S. Senate and the state’s six U.S. House seats. In Oregon’s 5th Congressional District—considered the state’s most competitive race—incumbent U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum won the Democratic primary and will face Republican challenger Patti Adair, a county commissioner. The district had been flipped by Republicans for the first time in decades in 2022 before Democrats reclaimed it in 2024, stretching “from southern Portland across the Cascade Range to Bend,” according to the AP report. Seven Republicans ran in the primary to challenge Merkley, with the field narrowed to three candidates as the race continued.
Beyond state lines, the ballot measure reflected how federal and international events were shaping domestic political debate about fuel costs. The AP report said Trump recently stated he will move to suspend the federal gas tax of 18 cents a gallon, a change that would require Congress to act, while the Oregon referendum put state funding questions directly to voters in the middle of an affordability-focused moment.