PORTLAND, Ore. — Voters in Portland, Oregon, elected political outsider Keith Wilson as their new mayor, following a campaign in which he tapped into years of growing frustration over homeless encampments, open drug use and concerns on quality of life to surpass three cities. Council members, including one caught in a driving record scandal, who had also tried to lead the city.

Wilson, CEO of a trucking company and founder of a nonprofit that works to increase shelter capacity for the homeless, unveiled an ambitious pledge to end unsheltered homelessness within a year of taking office. the charge. The Portland native says he will accomplish this in part by increasing the number of overnight emergency shelters at existing facilities, such as churches and community centers.

His message appears to have resonated in a city where surveys in recent years have shown that residents see homelessness as a major problem.

“It’s time to end homelessness and open drug use, and it’s time to restore public safety to Portland,” he said in his acceptance speech Thursday, speaking at a community center in North Portland that It has also served as an emergency overnight shelter in extreme times. cold and heat waves. “Voters aren’t interested in pointing fingers. They just want us to get things done.”

The mayoral race, which featured 19 candidates, was thrown open when Mayor Ted Wheeler decided not to seek reelection after holding the city’s top job since 2017. Wheeler rose to national prominence in 2020 when nightly protests broke out in the streets of Portland and across the country in response to the police killing of George Floyd.

Wilson won in an election in which Portland voters used ranked-choice voting for the first time. In ranked-choice voting, voters rank their selections in order of preference on the ballot. If a candidate is the first choice of more than 50% of voters in the first round of counting, that candidate wins.

Otherwise, counting continues until a second round. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and voters who chose that candidate as their first choice see their votes redistributed among their next choice. The process continues eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes until someone with the most votes emerges.

About 35% of voters ranked Wilson as their top choice, according to the first and second rounds of preliminary results released Tuesday and Wednesday. This compares to Councilmembers Carmen Rubio and René González, who ranked first according to approximately 19% of voters, and Mingus Mapps, who ranked first according to approximately 13% of voters.

Rubio and González said they called Wilson to congratulate him on his new role.

For much of the year, the two City Council members were seen as favorites. But recent revelations about Rubio’s driving record (as well as González’s, to a much lesser extent) shook up the race.

Rubio has received approximately 150 traffic and parking violations over the past two decades. He failed to pay many of them for months or even years and had his license suspended six times. She lost some endorsements after the news, which was first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Gonzalez also had his license suspended twice more than 20 years ago and racked up seven speeding tickets between 1998 and 2013, including one that was dismissed, as Willamette Week first reported.

In previous statements, Rubio apologized for his actions and Gonzalez said he had become more responsible with age.

Wilson will oversee an entirely new system of government. Portland is expanding its City Council from five to 12 members, elected by voters in individual districts rather than citywide, and is adding a city manager position.