In this season of reviewing the year’s top news stories in Oregon — either because of importance or attention — this year, in this state, the job is unusually and maybe eerily easy.
There was only one big story in Oregon in 2025: Donald Trump, not just nationally but specifically in Oregon.
Trump administration actions and responses to them were the dominant subject this year for Oregon’s congressional delegation. Town halls the state’s two U.S. senators held in each county saw crowds four or five times the size of previous years, drawn by complaints or concerns about administration policies.
Federal employment in Oregon, despite its lack of large military bases, is considerable, and it felt the impact of DOGE cuts early in the year. Cuts in a variety of agencies continued all year.
Federal stances on enforcing a wide range of environmental laws changed drastically last year along with those cuts in agencies (at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service, for example). Plans were being developed to remove development protections from about two million acres of forest land in Oregon, along with Forest Service staff cuts.
Federal rules on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or “food stamps”) were changed dramatically, along with cuts in other areas.
Federal agencies began pressuring for changes in state and local agencies in a variety of areas as well. This summer state and local governments in Idaho scrambled to approve wind and solar electric projects — which largely are out of favor with the Trump Administration — ahead of expiring federal tax credits. Another example, as the Capital Chronicle reported in September: “The Trump administration on Tuesday opened an investigation into a contested Oregon policy of requiring prospective adoptive and foster parents to affirm their child’s gender identity, spelling uncertainty for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for the state.”
While Gov. Tina Kotek was at work on various issues including homelessness and housing, and called a special legislative session on funding for the Department of Transportation, conflicts with the administration, not least the question of nationalizing the Oregon Guard and placing troops on city streets, never were far away.
Both the governor and the Legislature have had to contend with an unusually unpredictable economic and budget environment resulting in large part from Trump Administration actions, making planning far more difficult.
Attorney General Dan Rayfield had barely taken office early in the year before he began launching or joining in legal battles against the Trump Administration on dozens of occasions, on subjects ranging from health issues, federal funding for emergencies, salmon recovery, consumer protection, electric vehicle charging stations, use of the national guard, survivors of crime, housing assistance, sex abuse, sustainable energy, immigration, student loans and much more. The numbers of cases and specific actions are so large and complex that developing specific objective numbers becomes impossible.
Rayfield also has held town hall meetings through the year, which like those of the senators have been dominated by concerns about administration actions.
Not that state officials are alone in court filings. A Newport group even filed a lawsuit over relocation of a helicopter.
Secretary of State Tobias Read has been doing battle with the administration, sometimes in court, over voter registration information and election procedures in the state.
Oregon has Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the streets, in all seasons, and Latino communities around the state have been turned upside down. A number of communities have experienced raids; the actions in Woodburn may be the largest, and the November detainment of a McMinnville high school student (and U.S. citizen) were among the highest profile, but by no means unique.
Nor was the administration alone on the streets. The Trump administration prompted what may be the largest single-day protests — under the heading of No Kings — in the state’s history, from Portland and Salem to Lakeview and Burns. That’s in addition to the persistent protests at the ICE center in Portland.
Owing in part to drastic budgeting changes and to the federal government shutdown (another one of those could be on the way in late January, by the way), state and local governments have seen expected federal funds turn shaky, upsetting infrastructure and service projects which had been considered solid.
On the business side, tariffs and other economic actions have had often deleterious effects across a range of industries. Oregon’s wine industry is among those hard hit; one person in the industry remarked to me that conditions are the “worst since prohibition.” But such unlikely sectors as Oregon’s large nursery industry were caught up too.
Tourism on the Oregon coast is down this year. And, after squabbles over a relocation of a critical helicopter away from Newport (a decision apparently reversed, for now) and possible construction of an ICE facility in that city (still apparently a live possibility), that concern may grow in coming months.
All of the preceding is of course an incomplete list.
Oregon had only one really dominant story in 2025, overwhelming anything that originated from within the state. It was the Trump administration.
A repeat of that is possible for 2026.
Randy Stapilus has researched and written about Northwest politics and issues since 1976 for a long list of newspapers and other publications. This guest commentary is from news partner Oregon Capital Chronicle, and it may or may not reflect the views of The Corvallis Advocate, or its management, staff, supporters and advertisers.
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