1. This will be an interesting race to watch for those interested in the future of the @gop. Can a moderate, non-Trumpy Republican win a state-wide election in a blue state like Oregon? theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
2. Oregon has a long (though now fairly remote) history of moderate Republicanism. GOP Governor Tom McCall (1967-75) declared the entire coastline public property and off-limits to private developers. He also instituted one of the nation's 1st bottle bills to encourage recycling.
3. OR elected moderate Republican senators like Bob Packwood and Mark Hatfield up until the 1990s. But since then, as the national Republican party has moved further right, Oregon has gotten increasingly blue. 4 of our 5 reps are Dems, as are both Senators. Last R gov was 1982.
4. Here's a thread on the recent, right-ward trajectory of the Oregon @gop that I wrote up after the party's annual gathering in Salem this past May.
5. Knute Buehler seems to be bucking this rightward trend. He's even gotten support from the folks in the Oregon GOP who are significantly to his right. Should he pull off this victory, it would be interesting to see how this impacts the OR GOP moving forward.
6. It's worth noting that Buehler (the presumptive frontrunner) did not attend this year's GOP Dorchester Conference and did not win in its straw poll. opb.org/news/article/o…
7. Yet it's also worth noting that the person who did win that straw poll, the pro-Trump Greg Wooldridge, has endorsed Buehler. This is what pragmatic, effective parties do...they hash out their policy differences in the primary, then unite around a candidate for the general. 
8. Can Buehler can craft a message capable of turning out both the substantial MAGA constituency at the heart of the Oregon GOP base & the anti-MAGA independents in the suburbs? If not, it's hard to imagine a candidate who could and this is bad news for the GOP in OR & elsewhere.
9. If yes, then perhaps Buehler is one indicator of what a post-Trump GOP might look like.
10. Should Buehler win and become the figurehead of the Oregon GOP, I assume we would not see pictures like this from future Dorchester Conferences--keynote speakers hanging out with Proud Boys in the hotel bar retweeted by Alex Jones.
