Eugene lawmaker Nancy Nathanson faces a challenger who’s run quiet campaign

The race for an Oregon House seat that covers most of north Eugene is a two-way contest, but the incumbent has won every election since 2006. 

State Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene, is running for another two-year term in the Nov. 3 general election after winning the May Democratic primary for Oregon House District 13 with more than 90% of the vote. Nathanson appears poised for a general election win against Republican candidate Jonathan T. Abrahamsen, who has run a low-profile campaign.

Nathanson has easily carried her district in every election since she took office. In 2024, Nathanson won reelection with nearly 67% of the vote in the November general election against a Republican candidate. About 39% of the district’s voters are registered Democrats, and 20% are registered Republicans. The rest are unaffiliated or belong to third parties. 

Oregon House District 13 includes north Eugene’s Cal Young, Northeast and Goodpasture neighborhoods, as well as much of the Harlow neighborhood and incorporated and unincorporated areas of the Santa Clara and River Road neighborhoods. 

“I am running for reelection because my time in the Legislature has been really rewarding,” Nathanson said in a recent interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

Abrahamsen did not respond to interview requests from Lookout. He also did not submit a statement for the Oregon Secretary of State’s November election voter pamphlet, unlike Nathanson and more than a dozen candidates for other state House and Senate seats.

Nancy Nathanson

If reelected, Nathanson said she’ll continue working to improve access to quality, affordable healthcare, strengthen consumer protections and address other affordability issues as federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and government health programs leave many Oregonians needing support. 

She also plans to push for more state investment outside the Portland metro area.

“A lot of state money goes to the Portland metropolitan area,” the 75-year-old lawmaker said. “It’s time to broaden out that support and invest in other regions.”

“I’m really proud of passing bills that have made a difference in people’s lives,” Nathanson said. “Some of my legislation that might seem ‘the most behind-the-scenes of bureaucracy’ has actually helped people.”

For example, she said, House Bill 2601, which she was a chief sponsor of in 2019, added safeguards for older adults, people with disabilities and others whose medical care and living arrangements are managed by court-appointed guardians. The law allows court review if a guardian restricts someone’s contact with family or friends. It also requires guardians to consider the person’s known wishes about their care, home and relationships — protections designed to guard against isolation and overridden preferences, as well as financial abuse that can drain a person’s savings through fees and other often-unnecessary expenses.

“I was surprised when someone who I didn’t know showed up at a public hearing to provide testimony in support of the bill,” Nathanson said. “Their mother had been the subject of one of these abusive situations, and they felt that my bill would help.”

Before joining the state Legislature, Nathanson served three terms on the Eugene City Council and worked as an academic librarian, primarily at the University of Oregon. She chairs the House Committee on Revenue and serves on the House Interim Committee on Transportation and the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Capital Construction, among others. 

Nathanson said her approach to developing legislation includes researching problems in-depth, building relationships, listening to constituents and organizations, and considering different viewpoints. 

During the 2026 legislative session, Nathanson said she helped write and pass Senate Bill 1507, which raised Oregon’s earned-income state tax credit from 9% to 14% of the federal credit, with a higher rate for some families with children under the age of 3. It also created a $1,000 Oregon tax credit for each net new Oregon job paying at least 150% of the applicable minimum wage, capped at 10 jobs per taxpayer per tax year.

In the lead-up to the 2027 legislative session, Nathanson said she is drafting about 10 bills focused on healthcare affordability and access, including proposals that aim to protect independent medical practices from corporate control and keep clinical decisions with physicians who are licensed and based in Oregon.

“I want to make sure that the physician in charge is actually an Oregon physician, not some out-of-state corporate representative for a profit-making company,” she said.

As Election Day approaches, Nathanson said she has been knocking on doors several times a week since mid-September, focusing in part on areas added to her district after redistricting a few years ago.

“I just want to hear directly from voters about what’s on their mind,” Nathanson said, adding that her campaign is also sending out mailers to voters in her district.  

Jonathan T. Abrahamsen

Little is known about Abrahamsen’s personal background, campaign or policy positions. As of press time, the website listed in Abrahamsen’s candidate filing with the Oregon Secretary of State was no longer online. His campaign email doesn’t appear to be active, either. 

His candidate filing says he is the CEO of Buck Point Tools LLC. However, the Oregon Secretary of State’s business registry currently lists the LLC as inactive following an “administrative dissolution” on July 9. It’s not clear whether the company is still operating under a new name, what the products and services it sells are, and who its owner is.

In a May interview posted on YouTube with former KEZI anchor Rick Dancer — who ran for Oregon Secretary of State as a Republican in 2008 and lost — Abrahamsen said about three years of various disputes involving his son’s education in local public schools prompted him to run for House District 13.

Abrahamsen said those disputes include him questioning Bethel School District officials about a Rainbow Club at a district elementary school, which taught students “how to respect” diverse gender identities.

Bethel School District spokesperson Alisha Dodds confirmed that the district received complaints from Abrahamsen and others about the club.

“The district took (the complaints) seriously,” Dodds said in an email. “All clubs were briefly paused to ensure that all elementary schools were aligned in what was being offered at that level before being offered again.”

Abrahamsen also told Dancer that he supports expanding school choice in Oregon so public education funding follows students to the schools their families choose. In Oregon, tax dollars can generally follow students to local public charter schools and sometimes to public schools outside of the school districts where students live, but not typically to private schools.

If elected, Abrahamsen said he would push for legislation limiting nondisclosure agreements for child-abuse survivors that sometimes even prohibit victims from talking to counselors.

“That would be the first thing I sponsor,” Abrahamsen said in the interview.

Nancy Nathanson

Age: 75
Residence: Eugene 
Education: Bachelor’s degree in urban geography, University of Oregon, 1975. Previously attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Occupation: State legislator, former academic librarian
Prior elected experience: Previously served three terms on the Eugene City Council, 1993-2004.
Family status: Married
Campaign finance: As of Oct. 10, Nathanson reported about $79,731 in contributions in 2026 and $106,256 in spending, according to ORESTAR, Oregon’s online campaign finance records database. Her campaign has about $28,662 in cash on hand, which includes campaign contributions that carried over from 2025.