Since the 2024 elections, Democrats in or seeking office have tried hard to stick to the new playbook: Focus on pocketbook worries, criticize President Trump if you must, but for the love of all that is sacred, avoid the social issues that Republicans have used to paint the party as out of touch — and maybe even a little weird.
A new animal rights measure in Oregon has Democratic leaders like Gov. Tina Kotek going out on a limb. They want voters to know they’re just as committed to killing animals as Republicans.
The measure, known for now as Initiative Petition 28, is the stuff of political nightmares for Democratic leaders in Washington. It would give all animals the same protections from cruelty that Oregon grants dogs and cats, and in the process remake the state’s economy and dinner plates. Hunting, trapping and fishing would be outlawed, along with scientific research on animals, lethal pest control and conventional livestock production.
The goal, said David Michelson, a substitute teacher, vegan and the petition’s organizer, “is to have a system where we’re not killing or hurting animals anymore.”
Democrats in Oregon are fleeing Mr. Michelson faster than Bambi’s mother tried to escape the hunter, or perhaps faster than James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, reached for a barbecued hunk of meat to prove he’s not vegetarian.
“No establishment Democrat in Oregon would ever support this,” said John Horvick, senior vice president with the polling firm DHM Research. Still, he added, “Republicans see this as an opportunity to say, Look at those crazy Democrats being weirdos again.”
Ms. Kotek, up for re-election in November, said in a social media video last month that she wanted “to be very clear”: She’s against something she sees as “attacking the people who feed our communities.”
Republicans are delighted. The party’s nominee for governor, Christine Drazan, described the proposed measure as “an all out assault on Oregonians’ way of life pushed by Tina Kotek’s allies.”
The fight is in some ways very Oregon, long a proving ground for ideas that initially seemed politically impossible only to enter the mainstream, such as medical aid in dying, universal vote-by-mail and legalizing the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms for therapy.
It also reflects a growing divide between mainstream Democrats focused on winning competitive elections and liberal activists, often younger, who are more interested in advancing moral causes regardless of their immediate viability.
“I’ve gotten a few emails telling me it’s not the right time for this,” Mr. Michelson said. “By that logic, it never will be.”
Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican statewide since 2016, and Democrats have held both legislative chambers for more than a decade. To win here, Republicans must mobilize as many of their voters as possible and peel away moderates who usually side with Democrats.
Rebecca Tweed, a longtime Republican political strategist, says the animal rights initiative gives them a chance, however slim, to do that. If the measure makes the ballot, Democratic candidates, she said, will “have to answer questions about it at every campaign event and every debate, when they’re going to want to talk about Donald Trump.”
She predicts it could excite conservatives more than the race for governor.
Mr. Michelson is an unlikely candidate to upend Oregon politics. Originally from Southern California, he moved to Oregon from Denver in 2020 because he figured his chances of meeting another gay vegan were better in Portland. He did part-time work gathering signatures for several liberal ballot measures and realized he could use Oregon’s system for his own passion, convincing people to stop hurting animals.
“Most people really like their companions, their pets,” Mr. Michelson said. “We’re just trying to say, ‘These other animals have those needs too.’”
I.P. 28 is his third attempt to qualify for the ballot. His initial effort collected just 2,000 signatures. This time, he gave himself the full two years allowed under Oregon law to gather signatures and put more energy into fund-raising for paid canvassers. He and other supporters have collected more than 135,000 signatures, topping the 117,173 required by July 2 to make the ballot. They’re hoping to reach 150,000 as cushion for any signatures ruled invalid.
He’s collected more than $305,000 to fund the campaign, with help from PETA, the Craigslist Charitable Fund and his own pockets, where he found $35,000.
“I live very cheaply,” he said. “No car, no children, roommates.”
He also took four donations totaling $35,000 from Leonid Postov, an investor in St. Petersburg, Russia, prompting speculation that the entire idea is a Russian front. Mr. Michelson said the donor is the father of a former campaign volunteer who supports animal rights laws.
He is under no illusion about what will happen if I.P. 28 makes the ballot, saying that “50 percent of Oregonians are not ready to stop killing animals.”
But Mr. Michelson, who like almost half of Oregon voters is not registered with either major party, views this as a political long game. He compared the effort to women’s suffrage, which Oregon voters rejected five times before approving in 1912.
Partisans are thinking about the short run. Republicans are desperate to break Democratic supermajorities in the State Legislature, which allow Democrats to pass tax increases without G.O.P. votes. And though the map would be tricky, national Democrats hope state Democratic lawmakers will consider drawing away Oregon’s one Republican-held House seat if they can maintain or strengthen their legislative majorities.
Even now, the proposition may be reshaping Oregon politics by fueling a new push to refine the state initiative petition process, one of the nation’s most active systems of direct democracy.
Diana Wirth, a Klamath Falls, Ore., rancher and head of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said Mr. Michelson’s success in gathering signatures was proof the state needed to revamp initiative laws to stop “letting outside influencers propose things that would be catastrophic.”
Lawmakers could considering limiting out-of-state donations to new bills, and requiring them to have broader geographic support — as five other states already do — so that campaigns such as Mr. Michelson’s have to show at least minimal strength outside the Portland metropolitan area.
“This is beyond fringe,” Ms. Wirth said. “But in this political climate? I’m not betting against anything.”
Georgia Gee contributed research.
