Oregon GOP leaders want constitutional hunting, fishing protections in response to ballot measure

GRESHAM — To counter a failed ballot initiative from animal rights activists that attempted to ban hunting, fishing and animal slaughter in Oregon, the state’s Republican leaders pledged to introduce their own constitutional amendment to guarantee fishing, hunting and farming rights.

State Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby and the Republican nominee for governor, is leading the campaign to enshrine the right to “hunt, fish, gather wild foods and raise animals or crops” in the Oregon Constitution.

She announced the proposed amendment Tuesday at White’s Country Meats in Gresham, along with Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, and Rep. Court Boice, R-Gold Beach.

Another lawmaker will need to introduce the 1.5-page proposal because Drazan vacates her Senate seat next January whether she wins the governor’s race or not. If the Legislature approves the measure during the 2027 session that begins in January, it would go to Oregonians for a vote in November 2028.

“Oregon should not be the testing ground for extreme measures that threaten affordability, local food production, consumer choice and thousands of jobs that connect us with putting food on the table with our farms and ranches,” Drazan said. “Activities like farming, ranching, hunting and fishing are all a part of our heritage, our economy and our everyday lives.”

Backers of Initiative Petition 28 did not immediately respond to emails and a call requesting comment on Tuesday. In late July, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office announced the petitioners had less than 75% of the valid signatures needed from Oregon voters to make it onto the November ballot.

It was the third election cycle that animal rights advocates have introduced a version of the initiative, and the closest they’ve come to making the ballot. It faced widespread opposition from Democratic and Republican political leaders, the farming, ranching and fishing industries and Oregon’s federally recognized tribes, whose treaty-protected rights to hunt and fish in their traditional land would not have been exempted from the ban.

Drazan and Starr repeatedly talked about hunting and fishing protections as a bipartisan issue and said they expect the amendment to pass handily through the Legislature. Drazan said she invited Democratic state lawmakers from the Clackamas County area to the event but they did not respond.

“I think that that is not a big deal because the reality is all of them opposed IP 28. Nobody supported it, and the chief petitioner said: ‘We’re going to do this again and again and again,’ and so I think that we will continue to establish alignment,” she said.

Her Republican colleagues, as well as the president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, Angi Bailey, and several farming and fishing industry representatives also used the event as an opportunity to stump for Drazan.

“With Governor Drazan’s leadership and both parties working together, we can send this constitutional amendment to the voter,” Starr said.