Dawn Regier is seeking the Oregon Progressive Party’s gubernatorial nomination for the 2026 election cycle. She is currently the first candidate listed by the party for any statewide office in the upcoming election.
While Regier’s campaign has yet to make a formal announcement, her candidacy is reflected both in materials published by the Oregon Progressive Party and on a website produced by the campaign. The party requires that prospective nominees identify as progressive, be willing to acknowledge that its support would benefit their campaign, and have a specific office in mind when they first approach the organization. Prospective candidates are also asked to complete a questionnaire and discuss their campaign with the Progressive Party’s state council.
According to information included in a voter pamphlet produced by the campaign, Regier is a potter by profession. Her occupational background includes work as a registered nurse from 2002 to 2008, and she holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Portland. The pamphlet also lists prior experience with a local neighborhood emergency team.
Regier is running on a platform she frames as making Oregon “the happiest place on earth,” which she says involves tying together issues such as homelessness, affordable housing, clean energy, and climate policy. Her stated priorities include advocating for the creation of a state-owned bank, pursuing single-payer healthcare through Health Care for All Oregon, raising the state minimum wage to $30 per hour, and enacting campaign finance reforms.
Per the pamphlet, Regier also supports maintaining Oregon’s sanctuary state policies, limiting the deployment of the state’s National Guard outside Oregon except in response to emergencies, and opposing the expansion of nuclear power, which she fears would lead to greater AI usage. She also says she would seek to shift the state’s criminal justice system from a focus on punishment toward rehabilitation, specifically citing Norway as a model.
The Oregon Progressive Party is a recognized minor political party under Oregon law, meaning a candidate nominated by the party who then files the required paperwork would appear on the party’s line on the general election ballot. As a candidate seeking a minor party’s nomination, Regier would not participate in Oregon’s state-run partisan primary elections, scheduled for next May.
It is not yet known when the party will make its nominations. However, minor party candidates must be nominated and file for ballot access after the state primary and no later than 70 days before the general election, meaning forms must be submitted between June 3 and August 25.
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