Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Trails “I Am Antifa” Challenger by 11 Points
Richard Moorhead
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Neoliberal Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is trailing a left-wing election challenger who identifies herself as a member of the ANTIFA movement, according to a new poll from the Portland Business Alliance.
Wheeler is supported by 30% of likely Portland voters, while ANTIFA-affiliated progressive challenger Sarah Iannarone has 41% support. Iannarone had challenged Wheeler, who has since become universally unpopular in the city for his efforts to appease left-wing militants while largely blaming the failures of his administration on President Trump.
Another recent poll indicates that Ted Wheeler has an unfavorability rating of 63% with only 26% of Portlanders approving of his job performance. It is difficult to win reelection to any office with those sorts of underwater approval ratings.
Iannarone has openly identified as a member of ANTIFA. She had previously challenged Wheeler for the mayoralty in Portland’s non-partisan elections in 2016, but the atmosphere of violent leftism in the city appears to have boosted the prospects of the leftist candidate.
To those who say Antifa are violent thugs: I am not a violent thug and I am Antifa.
I am Antifa because the Red Hats are coming after brown & black people, after Jews, after queer & trans people, and more.
They are coming after our democracy. #HolocaustMemorialDay #NeverForget
— sarah iannarone (she/her) (@sarahforpdx) January 27, 2019
If Iannarone wins the November election, the Portland Police would stand to be either sharply limited from performing law enforcement duties at ANTIFA riots, or abolished entirely. It’s likely that federal police and US Marshals would have to return to the city in force to prevent the destruction of the Hatfield Federal Courthouse.
Perhaps Mayor Iannarone would push for the wholesale secession of the city of Portland from Oregon and the United States if President Trump secures reelection in November. We could be looking at the first real independent ANTIFA-occupied zone in the United States, if you’re not counting the month-long existence of Seattle’s CHAZ.
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