Kate Brown

For other people named Kate Brown, see Katherine Brown.

Kate Brown
38th Governor of Oregon
Incumbent
Assumed office February 18, 2015
Preceded by	John Kitzhaber
24th Secretary of State of Oregon
In office January 5, 2009 – February 18, 2015
Governor	Ted Kulongoski John Kitzhaber
Preceded by	Bill Bradbury
Succeeded by	Jeanne Atkins
Member of the Oregon Senate from the 21st district
In office January 13, 1997 – January 2, 2009
Preceded by	Shirley Gold
Succeeded by	Diane Rosenbaum
Member of the Oregon House of Representatives from the 13th district
In office November 26, 1991 – January 12, 1997
Preceded by	Judy Bauman
Succeeded by	Dan Gardner
Personal details
Born	Katherine Brown (1960-06-21) June 21, 1960 Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Dan Little
Residence	Mahonia Hall
Alma mater	University of Colorado, Boulder (BA) Lewis and Clark College (JD)
Website	Government website

Katherine "Kate" Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician who is the 38th and current Governor of Oregon. Brown, a Democrat and an attorney, previously served as Oregon Secretary of State and as majority leader of the Oregon State Senate, where she represented portions of Milwaukie and of Northeast and Southeast Portland.

Brown became governor on February 18, 2015, succeeding John Kitzhaber upon his resignation. Brown is the state's second female governor, after Barbara Roberts (1991–1995), as well as the first openly bisexual governor in US history. Her win in the 2016 special election for governor made her the first openly bisexual person elected as a United States governor (and indeed the first openly LGBT person elected as such).

Early life and career

Brown was born in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain, where her father was serving in the United States Air Force, but was raised in Minnesota. She graduated from Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minnesota in 1978. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Conservation with a certificate in Women's Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1981 and a J.D. degree and certificate in Environmental Law from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in 1985.

Oregon Legislative Assembly (1991–2009)

Brown in 2008

Brown was appointed to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1991, filling a vacancy left by predecessor Judy Bauman, who took an executive appointment. She was elected to a second term before being elected to the Oregon State Senate in 1996. Two years later, she was elected Senate Democratic Leader; in 2004, senators made her the first woman to serve as Oregon's Senate Majority Leader.

In July 2007, Brown announced that she would give up her seat in the Oregon Senate to be a candidate for Oregon Secretary of State in 2008. On May 20, 2008, Brown won the election for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State; and, on November 5, she won the general election by a 51–46% margin against Republican candidate Rick Dancer.

Oregon Secretary of State (2009–2015)

Coming into office, one of Brown’s priorities was to perform rigorous performance audits to help balance the budget. In 2008, for every dollar the State spent, performance audits returned $8 in cost savings. In 2010, Brown reported she delivered $64 in cost savings and efficiencies for every dollar invested in the Division.

In 2009, Brown introduced and passed House Bill 2005 to crack down on fraud and abuse in the initiative and referendum system. It gave the Secretary of State more power to prosecute fraud and enforce the constitutional ban on paying per signature on initiatives.

Brown accepting an award from the Oregon National Guard, June 2014

Brown also implemented online voter registration. As of March 2010, a year after its introduction, Oregon Public Broadcasting noted nearly 87,000 Oregonians had already registered online to vote.

In 2009, the Aspen Institute named Brown as one of 24 "Rising Stars" in American politics and awarded her with a Rodel Fellowship. The program is a two-year fellowship designed to break down partisan barriers and explore the responsibilities of public leadership and good governance.

In October 2012, StateTech magazine highlighted Brown's use of iPad and tablet technology to increase accessibility for voters with disabilities. In 2011, Oregon became the first jurisdiction in the country to use this technology to help voters with disabilities mark their ballots.

In January 2015, Brown submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission in support of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger that had been almost entirely ghostwritten by Comcast, a company that has made a total of over $10,000 in donations to her past election campaigns.

Governor of Oregon (2015–present)

On February 13, 2015, Governor John Kitzhaber announced his pending resignation, amid a public corruption scandal; Brown succeeded him on February 18, 2015 since the Oregon Constitution identifies the secretary of state as the successor when the governor leaves office prematurely.

Brown named Brian Shipley, a lobbyist for Oregon Health & Science University and former deputy chief of staff to Governor Ted Kulongoski, as her chief of staff. As her secretary of state, she appointed Jeanne Atkins, who took office on March 11, 2015.

On February 20, 2015, Governor Brown revealed that she was planning to extend the moratorium on executions enacted by her predecessor.

On July 20, 2016 Brown signed HB3402 into law. This law raised the maximum speed limit to 70 MPH on sections of i-84 east and US-95. Previously the maximum allowed speed limit allowed on Oregon highways was 65. This bill also raised speed limits on non interstate highways in eastern Oregon from 60 to 65. The law became affective March 1, 2016.

Brown is the second female Governor of Oregon, after Barbara Roberts. Brown is one of three Democratic female governors as of 2015, the other two being Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island.

2016 election campaign

Brown ran in the 2016 special election for governor. She faced Julian Bell, Chet Chance, Kevin M. Forsythe, Steve Johnson, and Dave Stauffer in the Democratic primary, and won the nomination. By April 2016, she had raised over $800,000 for her campaign in 2016 alone, while her closest Democratic competitor, Julian Bell, had raised $33,000.

Brown won the election against Republican Bud Pierce, Independent Party nominee Cliff Thomason, Libertarian James Foster, and Constitution Party nominee Aaron Donald Auer, receiving 51% of all cast votes in the state.

Controversy

Brown has been criticized for her willingness to undermine her colleagues. She was integral in rounding up votes to pass a bill reforming Oregon's Public Employee Retirement System and then voted against the reform bill in order to preserve her own ties to organized labor. Many of her colleagues would go on to lose their seats due to backlash from labor unions.

As Secretary of State, Brown faced further political backlash when she stated she had made a mistake in the scheduling of the election for Labor Commissioner between Democrat Brad Avakian and Republican Bruce Starr. An early election would have favored Starr, but as the election approached, Brown changed her mind and scheduled the election for November helping Avakian to win the race.

Personal life

Brown lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband Dan Little. She has two stepchildren, Dylan and Jessie. She identifies as bisexual and is the country's first openly bisexual statewide officeholder and first openly bisexual governor.

Electoral history

Oregon's State Senate 21st District Democratic Primary Election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Kate Brown	13,541	98.81
		write-ins	163	1.89
Total votes			13,704	100

Oregon's State Senate 21st District Republican Primary Election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Kate Brown (write-in)	38	23.75
		write-ins	122	66.25
Total votes			160	100

Oregon's State Senate 21st District Election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Kate Brown	52,278	86.52
	Libertarian	Theresa "Darklady" Reed	4,563	7.55
	Constitution (Oregon)	Paul deParrie	3,126	5.17
		write-ins	455	0.75
Total votes			60,422	100

Oregon Secretary of State Democratic Primary Election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Kate Brown	277,853	51.74
	Democratic	Rick Metsger	145,820	27.15
	Democratic	Vicki Walker	96,835	18.03
	Democratic	Paul Damian Wells	14,696	2.74
		write-ins	1,842	0.34
Total votes			537,046	100

Oregon Secretary of State Election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Kate Brown	873,968	51.00
	Republican	Rick Dancer	785,740	45.85
	Pacific Green	Seth Alan Woolley	51,271	2.99
		write-ins	2,740	0.16
Total votes			1,713,719	100

Oregon Secretary of State Democratic Primary Election, 2012
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
Democratic	Kate Brown (inc.)	284,470	91.13
Democratic	Paul Damian Wells	26,177	8.39
Democratic	Write-ins	1,510	0.48

Oregon Secretary of State Election, 2012
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
Democratic	Kate Brown (inc.)	863,656	51.28
Republican	Knute Buehler	727,607	43.20
Pacific Green	Seth Woolley	44,235	2.63
Libertarian	Bruce Alexander Knight	24,273	1.44
Progressive	Robert Wolfe	21,783	1.29
Write-ins	Write-ins	2,561	0.15

Oregon Governor Special Democratic Primary Election, 2016
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
Democratic	Kate Brown (inc.)	494,890	83.06
Democratic	Julian Bell	49,113	8.24
Democratic	Dave Stauffer	16,108	2.70
Democratic	Steve Johnson	13,363	2.24
Democratic	Kevin Forsythe	10,147	1.70
Democratic	Write-ins	6,595	1.11
Democratic	Chet Chance	5,636	0.95

Oregon Governor Special Election, 2016
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
Democratic	Kate Brown (inc.)	747,555	51
Republican	Bud Pierce	637,804	44
independent	Cliff Thomason	32,241	2
Libertarian	James Foster	28,950	2
Constitution	Aaron Auer	13,388	1

Awards and distinctions

• 1995 Recipient, Woman of Achievement Award from the Oregon Commission for Women
• 2004 Recipient, National Public and Community Service Award from the American Mental Health Counselors Association
• 2007 Recipient, President's Award of Merit from the Oregon State Bar
• 2015 Was listed as one of the nine runners-up for The Advocate's Person of the Year
• Profiles in Courage by Basic Rights Oregon

See also

• List of U.S. state governors born outside the United States

Further reading

• Brad Schmidt, "Kate Brown: Next Oregon Governor Described as Tenacious, Personable," The Oregonian, February 13, 2015.

External links

• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN

Political offices
Preceded by Bill Bradbury	Secretary of State of Oregon 2009–2015	Succeeded by Jeanne Atkins
Preceded by John Kitzhaber	Governor of Oregon 2015–present	Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Bill Bradbury	Democratic nominee for Secretary of State of Oregon 2008, 2012	Succeeded by Brad Avakian
Preceded by John Kitzhaber	Democratic nominee for Governor of Oregon 2016	Most recent
United States order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by Mike Pence as Vice President	Order of Precedence of the United States Within Oregon	Succeeded by Mayor of city in which event is held
		Succeeded by Otherwise Paul Ryan as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Mark Dayton as Governor of Minnesota	Order of Precedence of the United States Outside Oregon	Succeeded by Sam Brownback as Governor of Kansas