Tina Kotek

Tina Kotek, a Democrat, has been Governor of Oregon since 9 January 2023. She spent nine years as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives before that. In the November 2026 election she faces the Republican Christine Drazan, and data centres have become a point of dispute in the race.

Her letter of 9 October 2026 asks the Department of Environmental Quality to use its existing discretion and hold back discharge permits for new or larger data centres until July 2027. It reaches city wastewater plants that want permits to accept data-centre discharge, sets no megawatt threshold, and links the pause to the state's Data Center Advisory Committee reporting before the 2027 legislative session. On 8 September she had paused state land deals for data centres to 1 July 2027, saying the state lacks the authority for a statewide moratorium and asking the Legislature to pass one in 2027.

Oregon had already shifted grid costs onto big users. Her campaign cites her part in the 2025 POWER Act, which Portland General Electric applied first with a rate class for sites of 20 MW or more. The state's utility regulator approved a 29% rise for those customers in July.