Oregon Gubernatorial Candidate: ‘Completely Wrong’ to Require COVID Shots for Children

'Our schools need to get back to reading, writing, and math as far as the core focus of our education system.'

Oregon’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan (R) and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Courtesy John Burke

Oregon’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan has promised that, if elected, she'll do everything in her power to prevent COVID-19 vaccine requirements for children to attend school.

“Yeah, I will be pushing back against that as governor,” Drazan told the Washington Examiner during an interview on Thursday. “We’re not talking about eradicating measles. We’re not talking about polio.”

“Especially for our school-aged children, families know best,” Drazan noted, adding that she‘ll certainly make COVID-19 vaccines widely available for those that choose them, but she’ll always oppose mandating the shots for children to attend school.

Drazan is among a number of Republican governors and gubernatorial hopefuls who have vowed to fight an effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to adopt an updated immunization schedule that will include COVID-19 vaccines.

Advisers to the CDC voted on Oct. 20 to recommend including the shots on the next version of the child and adolescent immunization schedules, which will be published in early 2023.

The CDC still has to adopt the recommendation, but the agency has been aggressively pro-vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To mandate it as a condition of entering and remaining in our public school system is completely wrong,” Drazan told the paper, speaking after a roundtable on homelessness in a small city three hours outside Portland.

Increased Homelessness, Poverty, and Crime

Meanwhile, Drazan also vowed to get politics out of the classroom, declare an emergency to address the homeless crisis, roll back ballot measure 110 which decriminalized hard drugs, and restore public safety in the state.

“Our schools need to get back to reading, writing, and math as far as the core focus of our education system,” Drazan said. “We need to get politics out of the classroom, get parents back in.”

Drazan also criticized state measures that have prevented law enforcement officials from making arrests for lower-level offenses such as open drug use.

“It just doesn’t make sense that heroin and meth and fentanyl would be legal,” she said. “Right now, too often we see that people are openly using those substances, and it has made our communities less safe.”

With four different polls surging in Drazan’s favor, she welcomed Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to a rally in Oregon on Oct. 18 to campaign alongside her just days after President Joe Biden traveled to the state to support her Democratic opponent Tina Kotek last week.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin at an election rally in Oregon with Republican candidate for governor Christine Drazan. Courtesy John Burke

“Oregonians are ready for a leader who wants to keep schools open, keep the streets safe, and keep their money in their pockets,” Youngkin said, urging voters to choose change.

“It’s your moment to take back your state,” he added. “That’s what we’ve done in Virginia, and it’s what Christine Drazan is going to do in Oregon as your next governor.”

Drazan is leading in a three-way race against Kotek and independent candidate Betsy Johnson. She has mounted an unusually strong bid for governor in a state that has not chosen a Republican leader in 40 years.

Scottie Barnes contributed to this report.

From NTD News