Oregon Senate Republicans walk out for 3rd straight year, citing governor’s COVID-19 restrictions

Oregon Senate Republicans carried out their first Capitol boycott of the legislative session on Thursday, in what has become an increasingly common tactic by the party that holds a minority of seats in both chambers of the Legislature.

Unlike in 2019 and 2020, when Senate and House Republicans walked out to kill proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions and other Democratic proposals, Senate Republicans decided to no-show this time in order to protest Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 restrictions. They outlined their reasoning in a letter to the governor.

All 11 Republicans in the chamber were absent Thursday morning, as was Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas, who recently switched his party registration to the Independent Party of Oregon. Sen. Tim Knopp of Bend, who remained during some of the previous Republican walkouts, joined his party this time. Both the Oregon House and Oregon Senate are required under the state constitution to have a two-thirds quorum present in order to conduct business, which in the Senate means Democrats need at least two senators from outside their party.

It was not immediately clear how many of the absent lawmakers might have been excused ahead of time, as Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said one or two of them had said ahead of time they would not be at the in-person session Thursday morning. But all 11 members of the Republican caucus signed a letter to the governor in which they insisted she “immediately reopen schools because science says it’s safe” and increase the amount of COVID-19 vaccines available to older Oregonians, especially in rural areas.

“Our previous efforts to bring these issues to your attention have gone unacknowledged,” the 11 Republicans wrote in their letter. “Thus, we are protesting today’s floor session. In this show of solidarity with Oregonians who are being failed by the current direction of your policies, we hope this action conveys the importance of these issues.”

While researchers have found that schools can reopen safely, doing so requires significant modifications and an immediate reopening of schools “for full in-person instruction” that Senate Republicans demanded would not be safe. At a minimum, educators and students need to wear masks and maintain six feet of social distancing which has forced schools that do return to in-person instruction to bring students back to the classroom only part of the week.