Without even campaigning, Democrat blocks Independent’s path in HD12

Presenter: Charlie Conrad announces he will not seek election to House District 12. Without even running a campaign, a Democrat blocked the Independent candidate’s path.

Charlie Conrad, who served the district from January 2023 to January 2025 as a Republican, saw a path to victory as an Independent appealing to Democrats, centrist Republicans, and non-affiliated voters. 

But a North Eugene High School graduate now living in Cottage Grove—with the email name SwtThang123@gmail—filed and paid the fee to run as a Democrat.

Charlie ran a strong grassroots write-in campaign for the May 19 Democratic primary, to no avail. On June 15, a candidate without any help from the Democratic Party of Lane County, without any apparent campaign spending, and without any known campaign appearances, will be officially declared the winner of the primary election. We spoke with Charlie Conrad June 5: 

Charlie Conrad: Doing the write-in campaign and going through the primary, one of the things that I knew about going into that and running that type of campaign was that it’s really difficult to win a write-in campaign and what was really sobering was the magnitude of the loss, right?

So even though I got over 1,200 write-in votes—which is a lot for a write-in campaign—and the fact that we were able to get that many votes was just a testament to all the volunteers, and the fact that when we’re at the doorsteps people were receptive to the message, right?

People want something different. They don’t want the Democratic Party, they don’t want the Republican Party. They want a government that works for them and functions. 

And so it resonated, but one of the difficulties that we had was just getting to as many doorsteps and contacting as many people as we could. And some of that comes down to just a function of the financing and the funding that we have and the timing and ability.

So even though we were able to get and receive more than 1,200 votes, it was only 25% of the registered Democrats that voted.

So somebody that only filed, did nothing—and even her filing was minimal, right? I mean, it just says that she was a service provider. She went to North Eugene (High School), and that was it.

She got over 4,000, she got 75% of the votes, and the sobering part of that was just the magnitude of effort that we would need to be able to go to as many doorsteps as we could.

The path to victory required a lot of funding, a lot of support to be able to do that, because my competitiveness in November always included the full support of the Democratic Party and full support of the registered Democrats to vote for me.

The fact that she won means that the local Democratic Party can’t get behind me. So all the access to administrative resources, the mailing lists, the voters,  access to the software programs—I don’t have that. And that just increases the expense and the cost for my campaign that much more.

And without all the registered Ds behind me, the likelihood of me being successful in a three-way race is very small. 

And so as I did some outreach to some of donors, some of the other organizations out there, supporters, there was not a lot of funding support that I would need to be able to make that happen.

And so with that, it was—the path to victory was not there. And I considered a couple other things, a couple other options came up that I considered. But there really just was not a path to victory in getting the votes that we needed. 

And I don’t want to continually ask folks for money to help contribute, for their time, effort, and energy for something that I know is essentially going to be a futile effort.

I mean, there’s something to be said for running a campaign as a statement campaign. But I don’t want to run a statement campaign that has no chance of victory and to keep asking people to contribute and to donate. So with all that was the reason why I decided that, you know, November wasn’t going to happen.

Had I lost, but the vote count been closer, right, had it been like a 45%-55%-type scenario, ‘Okay. You know, we can close that gap. That’s doable.’ 

But 75% for somebody that did absolutely nothing, that’s a lot of work and a lot of effort and we need that background support to be able to make that happen. It just wasn’t going to be there.

Presenter: Results from Lane and Linn counties at the Secretary of State elections website as of May 28 showed 4,157 votes for 76.43%. It shows the power of the Democratic Party branding, that a candidate can win without even a statement in the Voter’s Pamphlet. Charlie Conrad:

Charlie Conrad: Yeah. And it really was minimal. She wouldn’t even, again, she didn’t even talk to the Democratic Party when they reached out, and there are a number of folks, including the Chair, that reached out to her and she wouldn’t talk to them.

And so the fact that, again, she wrote about six words on her filing form, paid the fee, there was nothing there, and no effort, no energy. I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t even show up on the November ballot if she pulls out well beforehand, as soon as she finds out that I’m not running.

And so that on the ballot is probably just going to be one name and then the write-in slot.

The effort that went into getting the 1,200 votes, you know—we knocked on more than 3,000 doors. We had hundreds of phone calls, sent mailers to 8,000 residences. That’s a lot of work to get to that 1,200.

And again, so every time that you try to connect with somebody, you know, a lot of times at the doorstep you could talk to somebody one time and they’ll remember you, right? They’ll take your card, your information. They’ll have a conversation, they’ll be memorable. You’ll get their vote. 

If you are not able to talk to them and look them in the eye, usually you’re going to have to get two or three different pieces of information to them. And so that it, it’s not just a one-for-one, right: Send out a mailer, get a vote. It’s usually not going to happen that way. You’re going to have to send out two or three different kinds of things. 

And even though I’ve done some radio interviews, there are some newspaper articles written about my campaign, the endorsements from a number of local newspapers, it was not enough. 

And again, that just again, goes to that, that effort that it wasn’t even close when you come down to the percentages. 

And so many (to your point), so many people just voted party line. The name—the name was there and they circled in the bubble. And that was all there was because there’s no website, no background information, no research. 

And so in terms of just looking at, to your point, how many people circle in the bubble next to the letter that they want, whether it’s the D or the R, because it would work both ways on both parties. It’s not just a Democratic Party and registered voter scenario, but that just shows that influence of the party.

And for folks like me that are in the middle, you know, we’re trying to get a little bit of both sides, right? It’s the moderate Ds or the Ds that are happy.

Same thing with the our side and then all of the unaffiliated voters and Independent voters trying to come together to be a significant voting bloc. There’s a lot that goes into that.

And without folks that—and funders that—are willing to step outside of the traditional, ‘I’m going to fund the D side of the ledger,’ ‘I’m going to fund the R side of the ledger,’ without those folks being able and willing to step out of those ruts, it’s going to be incredibly difficult for somebody to mount that campaign.

You know, I had a lot of people donate $25 or $50, and the fact that they were willing to contribute what money that they had, particularly in these economic times, it’s incredibly meaningful to me.

And I don’t want to misuse their funds and their support, but it would take so many more donors at that level to mount the effort and the campaign that would truly make it competitive and make it worthwhile, right?

It’s that return on investment, you know, it’s—a vote is always the most important thing, but I need your vote and I need 10 more people like you to be able to vote for me to make it a competitive race. 

And yeah, it was a sobering experience to see that gap differential at 25% to 75%. 

And when I talked to my brain trust, and we talked about the numbers, we talked about: What does the path forward look like? Does anybody see a path forward? Is there messaging? Is there anything out there?

Nobody saw it different than, the way that I saw it was that it was just not going to be worthwhile to do that, for the voters.

Presenter: His public service in public policy does not end with this election. We congratulated Charlie on starting as a lobbyist with the League of Oregon Cities. 

Charlie Conrad: Yeah. I was very grateful for the League of Oregon Cities to hire me on. Again, this is what I love doing. 

I’ll still be in Salem, I’ll still be able to advocate, support cities and be able to support good public policy and be able to do the things that I talked about on the campaign trail, and the things that are meaningful to me and meaningful to, obviously people in the district, but people throughout Oregon, right?

There are 241 cities in Oregon. The fact that I get to advocate and represent the cities and all the people that live in those cities, it’s rewarding that even though it’s not, you know, winning the election, it still enables me to continue pursuing my passions and to do what I want to do, which is hopefully be a good, solid voice for good public policy and Oregonians. 

And I’m happy ’cause I worked for League Oregon Cities 10 years ago.  So to go back and be able to work with them again and advocate for them and local government in general, yeah, it’s meaningful and I’m very appreciative of that.

Presenter: He also served the public this year on a project with Lane County. Charlie Conrad:

Charlie Conrad: Yeah, trying to bring in all the unprotected lands within Lane County that don’t have fire protection—they’re not covered by a rural fire protection district, or Oregon Department of Forestry. 

And to look about, you know, come up with a process. And there’s some bills that were passed that enabled rural fire protection districts to bring those lands in, and so it was looking at implementing that policy.

And so I was there for a month. I would still be there if the League of Oregon Cities job hadn’t come through, ’cause I enjoyed that. I always enjoyed working for Lane County, and I enjoy working with all the folks in emergency management, rural fire protection.

It’s meaningful work and it’s nice to get in on the implementation side because for me, the way my brain works getting into the details really helps me out when I go evaluate policy.

You’ve got these high level concepts that sound good. But are they practical? Right? And how are we going to make them practical and how are we going to make ’em work? Otherwise then why are we going through this process?

And to be on that implementation side, to get the brain into the details, try to figure it out, I enjoyed that and I appreciate Lane County giving that opportunity to work for them and start bringing that process together. 

Presenter: He sent a thank-you letter and informed his supporters about his decision. Charlie Conrad:

Charlie Conrad: There were so many people that knocked on doors, you know, we had volunteers that came out and did four or five different door knockings with us. The organizations that endorsed—the Firefighters Association, Carpenter’s Association—all those folks that endorsed and helped fund my campaign were great.

And then so many just individuals that were out there, my campaign team. I’ll be calling them out in those emails. I don’t want to embarrass them. But they know who they are and I thanked them personally quite a bit because it was meaningful to get out there and to have those conversations, particularly upfront when, you know, some of these folks were people that I had never had a conversation with.

And again, to see that message resonate and to get to know them and to get them engaged and their willingness to go out and spend time on Saturdays, knocking on doors and talking to strangers. It takes a lot. But it was a wonderful experience in that regard. I got to know so many new people that I had never had that opportunity to meet before and work with.

Presenter: We asked what Charlie Conrad will tackle as some of his top priorities at the League of Oregon Cities. 

Charlie Conrad: I’m just completing Week 1, and so getting my head wrapped around a number of different things, but there are some things that came through with the emergency management realm with FEMA—a FEMA report that came out on the federal side, that there’s some more work to do to go back and get it approved and see if they’re going to adopt updating FEMA and how the agency is run.

So that’s one of the things getting my head wrapped around are the implications. Some of the things seem to be positive towards reducing FEMA’s traditional bureaucracy and difficulty in getting money out and helping communities. There’s some things in there that might cause some concern.

So, getting out there, introducing myself to folks I’ve met in different circumstances, but some other folks that I haven’t, so that they know who I am and that I’m back, and what the portfolio is and what the issues are addressing.

And the other side of that is working through public safety. So there’s some things on public safety.

The way that the League operates, there’s some policy committees that come together. And so some of those policy committees are finishing up their work and what their legislative agenda is going to be for 2027.

So, catching up on what those conversations have been and where they’re at and looking forward to, okay, how we’re going to bring that forward to the capital in 2027 and help advocate for some of the city issues and concerns.

Presenter: All 12 incorporated cities in Lane County are members of the League of Oregon Cities, so Charlie Conrad gets to continue to serve Oakridge, Westfir, Creswell and Cottage Grove, and the rest. Meanwhile, The News project continues to send email to SwtThang123@gmail.com to learn more about the likely Democratic candidate for HD 12. The final and official primary election results will be released at 5 p.m. Monday June 15.