Election results: Lisa Fragala leading Doyle Canning in Oregon's 8th District primary race

Early voting results released Tuesday evening indicate higher education administrator Lisa Fragala had a significant lead over community organizer Doyle Canning in the Democratic primary for Oregon Representative District 8.

Fragala was at the Democratic Party of Lane County watch Party Tuesday evening. She said there was a lot of excitement, with many candidates present leading their respective races.

Fragala told the Register-Guard that she spent the last eight weeks knocking on doors and plans to take her conversations with constituents to the office if elected. She said she plans to be collaborative and solutions-oriented in the state role.

"I'll do my very best to represent the community," Fragala said.

District 8 spreads from South Eugene down toward Cottage Grove, west of Interstate 5.

There were still a number of ballots still to be counted, but Canning sent out a press release Tuesday at 11 p.m., congratulating Fragala and thanking those who have supported her.

"As a community organizer, it was a joy," Canning said. "We were up against $120,000 in negative campaigning from developer Brian Clem. Although tonight's results were not as we had hoped for, there is still more work to be done to create the change our community needs."

The second round of returns counted 75,784 ballots county-wide, for about 27% turnout. The last Lane County May election in a presidential year had about 47% turnout. Lane County was scheduled to post the next round of results at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The two candidates are vying for current Rep. Paul Holvey's seat, who announced his retirement in February after 20 years in the Oregon Legislature.

Canning, a community organizer and consultant, has lived in Eugene since 2015. Previously, Canning studied education as an undergrad, then attended law school and became an attorney. She has worked as a community organizer, founding the Center for the Story-Based Strategy, which trains community organizers in storytelling and communication. She has been the legislative director for Rep. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, since 2022. Canning owns a consulting agency, working with labor unions and environmental organizations.

"I feel very proud of the campaign we ran," Canning told the Register-Guard Tuesday evening.

Canning said she knocked on almost 1,500 doors herself and has had some amazing conversations with other Democrats. She was expecting the margin to narrow as more votes came in.

Fragala, a Pacific University administrator and vice chair of the Lane Community College Board of Education, has lived in Lane County since the early '90s. Fragala worked in forest services before becoming an elementary school teacher in Eugene School District 4J. Fragala works at Pacific University in the College of Education's teacher preparation program. She was appointed to a vacant seat on the LCC Board of Education in 2018, then elected in 2019 and reelected in 2023.

Fragala raised more than $166,200 for the race as of the end of last week, according to filings with Oregon's campaign finance database, while Canning raised nearly $82,800.

For the District 8 Representative race, no Republican candidate filed, meaning whoever is elected in the Democratic primaries would run uncontested in the November ballot.

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Fragala leads Canning in Oregon District 8 Democratic primary