Politics

Former Trail Blazer Chris Dudley to run again for governor of Oregon

Published

5 months ago

January 26, 2026

Former Portland Trail Blazer center Chris Dudley has launched a second attempt to run for governor of Oregon as a Republican, a long-shot bid in a blue state even as the incumbent has struggled in polls.

Dudley, who played six seasons for the Trail Blazers and 16 for the NBA overall, said in an announcement video Monday that he would ease divisiveness and focus on public safety, affordability and education in a state where support for Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek has been low for her entire tenure.

“The empty promises, the name calling, the finger pointing and fear mongering that has solved nothing must stop,” said in his election announcement. “There are real solutions, and I have a plan.”

Dudley is one of the most successful Republicans of the last 25 years in Oregon, coming within 2 points of defeating Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2010.

“I think it’s imperative that we get somebody from outside of Salem who’s away from the partisan politics, away from the name calling, the finger pointing,” Dudley told The Oregonian. “Who has the expertise and background and the ability to bring people together to solve these issues.”

In his election announcement, Dudley spoke about his love of the state and frustration people have with the current state of politics. He mentioned education, safety and affordability as key issues he plans to address but did not give any key policy specifics.

Dudley is a Yale graduate who worked in finance after leaving the NBA. A diabetic, he also founded a foundation focused on children with Type 1 diabetes.

In the GOP primary, Dudley faces a field that includes state Sen. Christine Drazan, who lost to Kotek by nearly 4 percentage points in 2022.

Other candidates include another state lawmaker, a county commissioner and a conservative influencer who was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Kotek is a relatively unpopular governor. Her approval rating has consistently remained under 50 percent her entire term in office, according to polling analysis by Morning Consult. She has not announced her campaign but is expected to run for reelection.

Despite expectations that Democrats will do well in the midterms, a number of Oregon Republicans have become more involved in state politics since the last election. Phil Knight, a co-founder of Nike, donated $3 million to an Oregon Republican PAC focused on gaining seats in the state Legislature in October. It was his largest political donation to date, according to the Willamette Week.

Dudley received significant backing from Knight in his 2010 race, but it’s unclear if he will get the same level of support this time around.

Any Republican faces an uphill battle for governor in Oregon, where a GOP candidate has not won since 1982 and where Democrats have a registration edge of about 8 percentage points.

Politics

Iran set to progress at World Cup

Published

37 minutes ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Iran’s adventure through a World Cup beset by geopolitical complexity and logistical complications will likely continue after the team landed a frenetic 1-1 draw against Egypt. The high-stakes encounter kicked off hours after a tenuous peace between Washington and Tehran was threatened by American strikes on Iranian military installations along the Strait of Hormuz. Read the full story from Seattle by Sasha Issenberg and Sophia Cai here.

Politics

The “Pride Match” that wasn’t

Published

2 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SEATTLE — As a lesbian who was born in Egypt, Noha Mahgoub could have chosen to dress for what local organizers branded a “Pride Match” in colors associated with either her sexual orientation or her country of origin. The 43-year-old Democratic legislative aide — one of the top staffers in Washington state government — chose the latter, arriving in a red Egyptian national team jersey, a black hat emblazoned with YALLA and red-white-and-black tricolor facepaint.

“I’ve seen Pride shirts, I’ve seen Pride face paintings,” she observed from a concourse minutes before national anthems began echoing around Lumen Field. “It’s been really great, but I’m seeing a lot more Egypt and Iran and people cheering for their countries and singing their songs.”

Indeed, despite FIFA’s announcement that rainbow flags would be permitted in the stadium, few were visible as the match began. Instead, the stands rippled with the colors of the two Middle Eastern countries on the field, including many of the pre-revolutionary lion-and-sun flags that FIFA has attempted to ban under a stadium code of conduct that prohibits political displays.

Mahgoub had seen Egypt’s national team in person only once before, as a child while the team was angling to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. Since then, Mahgoub and her family relocated to Washington state, where she said the local Egyptian-American community has become enlivened by new arrivals coming to work at Seattle-based tech companies.

“You know how it is, you start calling everybody your cousins — a lot of cousins that I wasn’t related to,” Mahgoub said. “Well, I think a lot of them are here.”

Politics

Why Belgium’s prime minister isn’t cheering on the Red Devils

Published

5 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ah, Belgium. The country of fries, chocolate, Kevin De Bruyne and, some might say, chronic political division.

Beyond Brussels, a mighty international melting pot, the country is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and a small German-speaking community. Those linguistic divisions are mirrored in its politics: Belgium has separate party systems on either side of the language border, as well as a highly devolved federal structure that gives significant powers to its regions.

Today, Belgian politics is as fragmented as ever. It took 234 days to form a federal government after the June 2024 election (yes, you read that right). The delay was driven largely by the fact that no camp came close to winning a majority, forcing months of negotiations between parties with sharply different ideological and linguistic bases.

Flemish nationalism has also become a growing force, shaped by two right-wing nationalist parties: the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which wants to transform Belgium into a looser confederal state and ultimately give Flanders far greater autonomy, and the far-right Vlaams Belang, which openly campaigns for Flemish independence.

So, you might think the 2026 World Cup would offer Belgium’s leader a rare opportunity to rally and unify the country behind a shared national symbol, right?

Wrong.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who hails from the N-VA party, has expressed almost no public support for the Red Devils, Belgium’s national soccer team.

That contrasts with leaders in nearby countries that also qualified for the World Cup. The leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and France have all publicly backed their squads, whether on social media or through public appearances.

The reason may be simple: De Wever just doesn’t care for the sport.

A Belgian official told Blue Light News: “The prime minister is not a soccer fan, so he doesn’t seek to project that image publicly. To do otherwise would not be authentic.”

Flemish media have indeed reported that the prime minister has little interest in soccer. In a podcast appearance a few years ago, he said the sight of people “going totally crazy in a group in the stands” left him feeling “ice cold.”

But politics is likely part of the story too. De Wever has led the Flemish nationalist N-VA since 2004. Throughout his political career, he has argued that Flanders should have far greater autonomy and that Belgium should evolve into a confederal state. For a politician with that background, overt displays of Belgian national unity probably don’t come naturally, and in fact contradict emphasis on Flemish autonomy.

This is not the first time the N-VA’s relationship with the Red Devils has attracted attention. In 2015, after Belgium reached No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings, Francophone Socialist Party leader Laurette Onkelinx asked the Chamber of Representatives to applaud the team. All parties joined in, except the N-VA.

During Euro 2016, the N-VA had to deny it instructed ministers and MPs to avoid publicly celebrating the Red Devils so as not to appear too Belgian, after rumors circulated in Belgian media.

One of De Wever’s few comments about this year’s World Cup concerned Belgium’s official tournament song. His complaint: It did not contain a single word of Dutch.

“My staff have confirmed to me that not a single word is sung in Dutch. That is, to put it mildly, not elegant,” he said, in keeping with his ideologies of promoting Flanders, when asked about the song during a parliamentary committee hearing.

Sport is often treated as a vehicle for national unity. In New Zealand, Belgium’s opponent in today’s match, elite teams have successfully woven elements of Māori culture into their sporting traditions, most famously through the prematch haka, which has helped create a shared cultural identity that connects Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders.

In Belgium, however, this World Cup has not yet become that kind of unifying project. At least not from the very top.