Is Eugene, Oregon a Liberal City?

Oregon is a highly liberal state and supports many liberal views. There are cities within states, however, that show different political views than the state’s majority. It is important to learn about the politics of individual cities, rather than simply looking at the state as a whole, especially when looking to move to a new area.

Eugene, Oregon is a strong liberal city, much like the rest of Oregon state. Government officials that are elected are most commonly democratic. Same-sex marriage and abortions are legal and supported. Liberal views are also shown in voting trends, financial donations, and environmental efforts.

There are many initiatives and statistics taken from and shown within the city of Eugene that show it is a liberal city. Oregon is a liberal state, and as one of the state’s largest cities, Eugene is a large contributor to this liberal majority.

Recent Voting Statistics

In the most recent presidential election, the city of Eugene remained strongly democratic. The Democratic Party candidate received 60.5% of the votes in Lane County. A smaller 36.1% voted Republican and 3.4% voted Independent in the same 2020 presidential election.

So, there is a good presence of Republicans and middle ground or right-leaning people in the city. But, they are definitely outweighed by the Democrat presence in the city. No matter what party you are a part of you can live here and you can have good experiences with people from opposing views as well as have friends who share similar views as you do. But, being liberal works out well in this city with its long history of voting patterns.

Lane County has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 2000, showing a strong history of support for the party. Recent statistics show that over half of the city’s voting participants support the Democratic party, representing liberal views.

Financial Donations to Political Parties

In data taken from 2018 through 2021, the city of Eugene, Oregon has shown an astonishingly high amount of financial support to Democratic and liberal campaigns, especially in comparison to competing for conservative and Republican campaigns.

Eugene made a total of 78,267 financial donations to Democratic and liberal campaigns with an average of $53 per donation. They received a final sum of $4,131,195 in contributions from the city in the last four years.

Their opponents received considerably fewer donations contributions. In the same time span from 2018 to 2021, the Republican party and conservative campaigns only received $816,332 from a total of 3,352 contributions. They averaged $244 per contribution made.

Democratic party and liberal campaigns received $3,314,863 and 74,915 more contributions than opposing campaigns in the city. This shows an incredibly strong majority of the city supporting liberal views, and an incredibly small percentage aiding opposing views financially. Liberal campaigns received more supporters and more finances gained within the city of Eugene.

Physician-Assisted Suicide

A physician-assisted suicide allows terminally ill patients who were given a prognosis of fewer than six months to live to legally end their lives more quickly with doctoral assistance. Only ten states in the US have legalized this practice– including the state of Oregon. Conservatives oppose the practice of physician-assisted suicide, true to their religious beliefs valuing all human lives. Liberals are more progressive and support the legalization and practice.

Oregon and the additional ten US states that have legalized physician-assisted suicides are all long-known as Democratic states that promote liberal views in their laws and voting practices. One such law protects physicians in Oregon, New Mexico, Maine, Hawaii, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington, Colorado, Montana, California, and the District of Columbia from prosecution for prescribing medication that decreases the lifetime of these patients.

Of the ten states, Oregon was the first state in the nation to legalize physician-assisted suicides when they passed what is known as the “Death with Dignity Act” in October of 1997. This allows terminally ill patients to voluntarily self-administer doctoral prescribed medication that will quicken their deaths. A data report on the Oregon Death with Dignity Act shows 3,280 recipients of the prescriptions and 2,159 deaths caused by the use of these drugs.

Not only was Oregon the forerunner of legalizing physician-assisted suicides, but the population is also still supporters of this liberal practice and it is still legal and occurring within the state today. This is a strong indication of Eugene’s support of liberal views in both the past and present issues of political views.

Elected Government Officials

The Republican party has never controlled Oregon’s governor, senate, and house in the history of the state. For the last fourteen years, Democrats have controlled all three of these positions. The Democratic party also claims the secretary of state, attorney general, and both chambers of the state legislature in Oregon’s elected officials.

Lucy Vinis is the current mayor of Eugene, Oregon, and is a member of the Democratic Party. She supports liberal views and promotes strengthened gun laws and environmentally friendly resources being more utilized.

Between the Republican and Democrat parties, you will find officials that promise different things that they want to fix in certain ways. This will tell you a lot about the type of leader they are and will help you decide who you want to vote for. But, within the Democrat Party, there are elected officials that want to fix issues a little differently from one another, and this can help you decide who to vote for as well. For the city of Eugene, the decision is based more on which Democrat you want to vote for and not necessarily whose ideas you like more.

Environmental Efforts

How the local and state governments go about environmental issues tells you a lot about their values and what party they side with. Liberal-leaning politicians want to do everything they can to better the environment and make sure that the world is getting better and not worse for the next generation.

The mayor of Eugene gave a State of the City Address on January 5th of 2022. She spoke of her experience with improving the city’s efforts to be more eco-friendly and decreasing the use of fossil fuels and other actions that increase our carbon footprint and ultimately harm the environment.

Mayor Vinis is a strong supporter of improving the city’s environmental efforts. She was chosen to join the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) in August of 2021, a sure sign of her commitment and dedication to this cause.

The Eugene Climate Action Plan is one example of the city’s large support for these efforts. It works to decrease the city’s gas emissions significantly in the coming years, laying out a series of similar goals and plans to achieve them. The city’s Climate Recovery Ordinance states the city’s goal to reduce its gas emissions by 7.6% every year leading up to 2100.

Eugene is electing government officials who work towards their shared goals. The strong majority who elected mayor Vinis is a representation of the high percentage of citizens who value increased efforts against global warming and climate change. This is a liberal view and a clear indication that the city is liberal in nature.

Abortion Views

Liberals believe that abortion should be legalized in every state and made readily available to all women. The recently overturned case of Roe v Wade was announced by the Supreme Court in June of 2022. This decision leaves each state responsible to vote for the legalization or ban of abortions within their state lines, renouncing the previous ruling legalizing abortions nationwide.

This helps and allows each state to do as it will. With abortion being so black and white in terms of people who are for and against it with no middle ground, the overturning helps each side out. In more conservative states they can ban it because the majority of voters and politicians believe that abortion is murder. While in other liberal states where the majority of citizens and politicians can legalize abortion to whatever levels they want because they believe it is about the woman’s body and as the poster above describes it as her choice.

Abortion supporters around the nation held gatherings and protests in defiance of this recent change. One such protest was held in Eugene, Oregon. Only hours after the Supreme Court’s announcement was made, about 1,000 protestors stood outside of the Wayne Morse Federal Courthouse. The citizens promote the pro-choice platform and advocate for legal abortion to be made available throughout the nation.

The city’s support of legalizing abortions shows that the citizens have liberal views. They work to promote this practice among a variety of other liberal views in political efforts.