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Hardesty at an event on May 6th. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Despite a tsunami of outside funding to candidates running to the right of Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, her popularity broke through and she took home 41% of the vote for her City Council seat.

Thats just one of the big headlines from last nights primary election.

Many observers thought the combination of voter outrage at the state of Portlands problems and an influx of money from a political action committee backing Hardestys opponent would do more damage to her chances. But Hardesty was all smiles at her election night gathering at Redwood Cafe on SE Stark and 79th where sources say the good vibes lasted well into the night.

With about 32% of ballots counted, Hardesty has 41% of the votes. Shell be in a runoff with either Rene Gonzalez or Vadim Mozyrsky, who are currently separated by only 879 votes. Gonzalez is currently at 24.2% and is barely edging out Mozrysky at 23.4%. There will be many opinions as to which challenger has a better chance of overtaking Hardesty in November. Gonzalez has been much more direct in his campaign against Hardesty and many of his views on key issues like policing (hes endorsed by the Portland Police Association) and housing are further to the right than Mozyrskys; but hes not nearly as well-funded.

In the other contested Portland city council race, incumbent Dan Ryan did what most people expected him to do. He handily overcame challenger AJ McCreary by a split of 58% to 25% and avoided a runoff.

Here are a few more thoughts and results from other races weve been watching closely:

Theres a lot more analysis and results still to come in, so stay tuned! The next update in the counts is scheduled for 6:00 pm today.

One last note about the results, counts in Clackamas County are going very slowly so we dont have a good picture of how that part of the region voted.

What struck you about last night? Are you happy? Hopeful? Sad? Despondent? Meh?

Jonathan Maus is BikePortlands editor, publisher and founder. Contact him at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

Front Page, Politics election 2022

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Election recap: Hardesty holds onto over 40% of vote as progressives breath sigh of relief - BikePortland.org