Napaea Dioica

Rene Gonzalez is an American entrepreneur and politician who has served on the Portland City Commission since January 2023. He challenged incumbent commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in the 2022 election,^[1] running on a platform that emphasized law-and-order and livability.^[2] In December 2023, Gonzalez announced his plans to run for Mayor of Portland.^[3]

Gonzalez was raised in Anchorage, Alaska, where his father worked as a trial judge and federal prosecutor.^[4] In 1993, Gonzalez moved to Salem, Oregon to attend Willamette University, where he was elected president of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and played varsity soccer.^[5] After obtaining his bachelor's degree, he continued at Willamette's law school to obtain a Juris Doctor degree.^[5]

Gonzalez started his legal career at Stoel Rives, a regional law firm.^[6] After Stoel Rives, he moved to KinderCare Learning Centers, where he served in legal advising and corporate strategy roles. He no longer holds a license to practice law.^[7] Following KinderCare, Gonzalez founded a technology consulting company called Eastbank Artifex that primarily sells Microsoft software services.^[8][4]

Prior to running for office, Gonzalez was known locally for founding United PDX, a youth soccer club in the city of Portland, and for organizing ED300, a political action committee working to support school board candidates that were focused on reopening public schools in the wake of the pandemic.^[4]

Gonzalez ran for the Portland City Commissioner seat in 2022 against incumbent Hardesty. As of November 9, he garnered 54.3% of the vote versus 45.4% for Hardesty, leading to The Oregonian to declare him the winner and Hardesty to concede.^[1][9][10]

Gonzalez ran a campaign largely focused on combating homelessness, crime, and investing in revitalization of downtown. In particular, he and Hardesty had starkly different approaches to policing and how to address homelessness.^[10][11] Gonzalez was endorsed by the editorial boards of The Oregonian, Willamette Week, and the Portland Tribune, as well as the Portland Police Association, Portland Firefighters Union, and the Portland Chamber of Commerce.^[12][11] During the race, his campaign attracted some controversy for incurring a fine from the city's elections program for accepting discounted office space, but the fine was later overturned in court for failing to prove that the rent was in fact below market rate.^[13][14]

Though both candidates were registered Democrats,^[8] during the campaign Hardesty attacked Gonzalez as right wing, with ties to Republican political consultants and conservative school board candidates supported by the political action committee he organized.^[13] The Hardesty campaign provided extensive documentation proving the connections. The Portland Mercury criticized Gonzalez for posting an election thank you to supporters on his Twitter and tagging Quincy Franklin, a member of the far-right-wing group Patriot Prayer.^[15]

Gonzalez's term began on January 1, 2023. The transition was headed by Tom Miller, a former chief of staff for former mayor Sam Adams.^[16] Gonzalez will serve a two-year term. ^[10] Gonzalez was assigned management of Portland Fire & Rescue and other emergency services, excluding the police department.^[17][18] According to a 2024 interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting, Gonzalez stated that he considers it a "success" that he banned fire bureau and Portland Street Response staff from distributing tents and tarps.^[19] Mayor Ted Wheeler appointed Gonzalez to be Portland City Council's representative on the Steering Committee Overseeing the Joint Office of Homeless Services.^[20] Gonzalez first proposed an amendment to Mayor Wheeler's camping ban that included up to a year in jail for rule-breakers, before transitioning to a proposal that removed the proposed criminal penalty for violating the camping ban, but still proposing large fines. The amendment failed and the criminal penalty was imposed.^[21] In January 2024, Gonzalez announced the creation of a new drug overdose treatment response team pilot program to help address the city's drug crisis.^[22]

Gonzalez is married to Angie, whom he met in college and who currently works as an office manager.^[5] Together they have three children.^[5] He identifies as half-Latino,^[5] as his father is Mexican-American and his mother is white.^[4]

Prior to a historic cold snap, he ordered staff with the Portland Street Response to stop distributing tents to unhoused Portlanders and instead encouraged them to seek out shelters. There were, at the time, over 5,000 unhoused individuals with 2000 shelter beds available.^[23] Gonzalez went on to attempt to drastically cut funding for the popular Portland Street Response program started by his predecessor and, after criticism, eventually agreed to move the program out of his portfolio.^[24][25][26]

Gonzalez announced in a February 2024 video on social media that he would no longer use public transit because he claimed he faced "deliberate, unwanted physical contact" while riding the Orange Line of the MAX on his way to work.^[27] It was later revealed in TriMet video obtained by The Oregonian that any contact by the passenger on the train was likely unintentional and was followed by a short conversation about Gonzalez's policy positions.^[28][29]

In August 2024, The Oregonian reported that Gonzalez spent $6,400 of city taxpayer dollars to hire a contractor, WhiteHatWiki, to make edit requests for his Wikipedia page in an effort to "spruce up his profile" as part of his mayoral bid.^[30]