Tobias Read

State Treasurer Tobias Read won the Democratic primary for Oregon secretary of state in Tuesday’s election.

Preliminary returns shortly after 8 p.m. showed Read with 70.5% of the votes tallied and Sen. James Manning with 20%.

Ballots that reached drop boxes or county election offices Tuesday or were postmarked on Election Day have yet to be counted.

Read will be heavily favored in the November general election. Oregon voters have only elected a Republican to serve as secretary of state once since 1985. Democrats currently hold every statewide elected office.

On the Republican side, state Sen. Dennis Linthicum secured his party’s nomination, with 65.86% of the vote as of 8 p.m. Linthicum opted to run for secretary of state after he was barred from reelection to the Legislature due to his participation in a Republican-led walkout of the Senate in 2023.

Read and Manning campaigned on similar platforms. Both said their top priorities if elected would be restoring trust in an office that has faced controversy in recent years. Former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigned last year after reporting from Willamette Week revealed she took a lucrative side job with an Oregon marijuana company while her office was auditing the cannabis industry.

It has been more than a decade since an Oregon secretary of state served a full four-year term.

Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, whom Gov. Tina Kotek appointed to replace Fagan, did not run for election.

The secretary of state oversees elections, serves as the state’s chief auditor and heads the Oregon Corporation Division. The secretary of state also sits on the Oregon State Land Board, chairs the Oregon Sustainability Board and is first in line to become governor if the governor leaves office or dies.