Soros-backed Portland county DA's crushing loss to anti-crime candidate prompts celebration online
Journalists and political commentators celebrated news that voters in Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes Portland, ousted incumbent District Attorney Mike Schmidt and replaced him with a former Republican on Wednesday.
"It's official: Portland got the Schmidt kicked out of it!" Portland-based journalist Andy Ngo wrote. "Soros-funded [Schmidt] has finally conceded after the surge of last-minute ballots failed to help him overcome his gap against centrist challenger Nathan Vasquez. Antifa now have a new target."
Prosecutor Nathan Vasquez defeated Schmidt — a progressive DA who took office amid the George Floyd protests and whose campaign has received contributions from groups linked to liberal billionaire George Soros — by a margin of 55.7% to 43.8%, according to the National Review. It is a major victory in one of the most dependably blue regions in the country.
Vasquez plans on stopping "open air drug dealing and drug use while helping connect individuals to treatment," he told Fox News Digital in a statement after beating Schmidt, his former boss.
PROGRESSIVE OREGON DISTRICT ATTORNEY OUSTED BY TOUGH-ON-CRIME CHALLENGER
Schmidt reportedly intends to serve out his term through December.
As part of his campaign pitch, Vasquez argued that Schmidt neglected to enforce the law and prosecute criminals.
"Prior to him coming into office, we ranged somewhere between 12,000 to 20,000 cases a year," Vasquez told Politico in a recent interview. ahead of the election "Under him, post-COVID, we were under 6,000."
After Schmidt conceded the election Wednesday, some local journalists and political commentators celebrated his defeat as a sign that Oregon residents want law and order back, especially in Portland.
"A victory for sanity," TurningPoint USA founder Charlie Kirk wrote.
The New York Post Editorial Board called Schmidt a "soft-on-crime, cop-hating district attorney" in a hard-hitting column published Wednesday.
"Vasquez, a centrist and former Republican, won by vowing to end public drug use and dealing in Portland, repair ties with police and, essentially, return the DA’s office to its actual purpose — prosecuting crimes," the editorial board wrote.
Author Xi Van Fleet pointed to the defeat of former DA Buta Biberaj in Virginia as a similar example of voters seemingly rejecting progressive policies.
"Great news!" she wrote. "Last year we fired Soros’ DA Buta Biberaj in Loudoun County VA. She refused to prosecute the Trans rapist. Instead, she went after the father of the rape victim. We must clean up our justice system by kicking out all of the Soros-planted Communist activist DAs."
Before Vasquez's victory, Discovery Institute senior fellow and journalist Jonathan Choe shared a photo of an attack advertisement against Schmidt, labeling Portland as a "Schmidt Show."
"But not if law & order candidate Nathan Vasquez wins," Choe wrote. "Schmidt is being blamed for all the Antifa madness and no consequence culture of allowing rampant crime to flourish in the city."
Some Oregon residents told Politico in a feature on Vasquez before his victory that locals were tired of high crime and drug use.
Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer said Portlanders can no longer tolerate the high levels of drug use and crime.
"It has galvanized a lot of crankiness and people are right to be cranky," Blumenauer told Politico.
"In a one-party city and state it’s pragmatic Democrats vs. progressive Democrats fighting it out," Republican strategist Dan Lavey told Politico. "I call it therapy vs. discipline."
Schmidt's office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Hannah Ray Lambert contributed to this report.