Forest Alexander

Forest Alexander

Democratic Party

Candidate, Governor of Oregon

Elections and appointments

Next election

May 19, 2026

Education

Bachelor's

DePaul University, 2016

Personal

Profession

Political organizer

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Forest Alexander (Democratic Party) (also known as Fora) is running for election for Governor of Oregon. Alexander declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on May 19, 2026.^[source]

Alexander completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Forest Alexander earned a bachelor's degree from DePaul University in 2016. Alexander's career experience includes working as a political organizer.

Elections

2026

See also: Oregon gubernatorial election, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on May 19, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

General election for Governor of Oregon

Alexander Ziwahatan (Independent Party) and LaNicia Duke (Unaffiliated) are running in the general election for Governor of Oregon on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Alexander Ziwahatan (Independent Party)
		LaNicia Duke (Unaffiliated)

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary

Democratic primary for Governor of Oregon

The following candidates are running in the Democratic primary for Governor of Oregon on May 19, 2026.

		Candidate
		Tina Kotek
		Forest Alexander
		James Atkinson
	Submit photo	Donnie Beckwith
	Submit photo	David Beem
		Brittany Jones
	Submit photo	Cal Kishawi
		Steve William Laible
	Submit photo	Tristan Sheppard
		Miranda Weigler

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary

Republican primary for Governor of Oregon

The following candidates are running in the Republican primary for Governor of Oregon on May 19, 2026.

		Candidate
		Danielle Bethell
	Submit photo	Hope Dalrymple
		Ed Diehl
		Christine Drazan
		Chris Dudley
	Submit photo	Kyle Duyck
	Submit photo	Caleb Kintz
		Patrick Kopke-Hales
		David Medina
	Submit photo	Robert Neuman
		Brad T. Peters
		Matthew Piatt
		Paul Romero
	Submit photo	DeAngelo Turner
		Wen Waddell
		Martin Ward
	Submit photo	Tim Youker

---

	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• David Burch (R)

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Forest Alexander completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Alexander's responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Fora. I'm a working class trans woman who moved to Oregon in 2020 from Texas. Leaving Texas wasn't easy, while living in Austin I served as a Human Rights Commissioner (2018-2021) under my deadname (Nathan White). But I fell in love with Oregon on my first visit in 2016 and I knew I would be safer here.

I jumped into this race when our current Governor refused to adequately address the SNAP crisis, instead chasing headlines about blaming Trump. As much chaos as this current federal administration has caused, they did not create our affordability crisis. They are just taking advantage of it.

Portland Metro has seen a 60+% increase in homelessness in the past few years. We continually find out more evidence of mismanaged funds across the state. The Dalles is facing a water crisis with giant corporations using 1/3rd of their water supply. Hood River will see a 50% reduction in farming over the next 5 years if farmers don't see 5 cents more for cherries and 10 cents more for pears.

These problems did not happen overnight. They are the consequences of a society designed to make the wealthy wealthier. While people struggle to pay their bills, our Governor forced a regressive gas tax bill through and is now suffering her own consequences. Major unions and community organizations are refusing to endorse in this race.

I won't be beholden to big donors, I won't be flying on private planes. I'll be working for you every day.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Tax reform, working people are paying far too high while the rich don't pay their fair share
• Healthcare, with threats from the federal government to withhold money we need to make big investments in a healthcare for all system
• Transparency, I will conduct an audit within the first 6 months of my term to ensure current funds are being spent on people not corporations. I'm setting a goal that all departments need to spend at least 60% of all funds on direct, tangible services

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Economic justice. Working people are being squeezed so hard that progress in all other areas is grinding to halt. When people don't know where their next meal is coming from, they aren't as able to participate in public life. We need comprehensive revenue reform to make that happen. People are already working jobs, they need to keep more of the money from those jobs to spend on essentials.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

MeltICE

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also

2026 Elections

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External links

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Candidate

Governor of Oregon

Website

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