Patti Adair (OR-05) Research Report

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• June 2025: Adair supported the One Big Beautiful Bill.
• The One Big Beautiful Bill enacted the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, kicking more than 26,000 OR-05 residents off their health insurance and slashing local hospital revenue.
  • Hospitals in OR-05 were projected to lose more than $55 million in revenue as a result of Medicaid cuts.
• The One Big Beautiful bill enacted the largest SNAP cuts in history, threatening food assistance for more than 36,000 households in OR-05.
• Adair supported the One Big Beautiful Bill’s billions in tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working Americans.

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• 2017: Adair repeatedly advocated for a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, calling the legislation “2700 pages of a million unintended consequences.”
  • 2025: Repealing the ACA threatened the coverage of more than 28,000 individuals in OR-05 on Marketplace plans, and would end coverage protections for 701,000 Oregon residents with pre-existing conditions.
• Adair opposed the extension of Affordable Care Act Advanced Premium Tax Credits, whose expiration drastically raised health care costs for OR-05 residents on marketplace plans.
  • Insurers that participated in the ACA Marketplaces raised premiums in response to the expiration of Advanced Premium Tax Credits, driving up health care costs by nearly 300% for some households in OR-05.
• October 2023: Adair approved a budget that raised health insurance payment rates for county workers by 29% and expressed concerns that the increase was not high enough.

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• Adair repeatedly voted to raise property taxes on Deschutes County residents despite expressing concerns about high taxes.
  • May 2023: Adair voted to raise property taxes for rural residents by six cents per $1,000 in assessed property value.
  • May 2022: Adair voted in favor of a property tax increase of six cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
• Adair supported Trump’s tariffs, retweeting a post calling them a “reset” which “may be the best thing that has happened to Americans in a very long time.”
• Trump’s tariffs were a tax on consumers and estimated to cost American families more than $2,500 a year on average as they pushed up the prices of everyday goods.

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• Adair repeatedly voted against a proposal to expand health insurance coverage for county workers to fully cover abortion, which would have aligned the county with state law.
• 2021: Adair touted her endorsement by Oregon Right to Life PAC, an extreme anti-abortion group with the goal of banning abortion nationwide without exceptions.

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• Adair was criticized for making “erroneous and egregious […] statements that have no basis in fact” on “any number of issues,” expressing positions that one resident called “too extreme for Deschutes County.”
• Adair repeatedly refused to answer if she believed that climate change was real and humans were the main drivers, saying “Weather is changing. It changes all the time.”
• Adair promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, including that vaccines caused autism and called for the flu vaccine to be removed from the market.
• 2016: Adair spread conspiracy theories about Barack Obama being a secret Muslim.
• April 2022: Adair attended an event where she was prayed over by a pastor who was known for his affiliation with the QAnon conspiracy.

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• 2023: Adair voted to raise her own salary by $14,000, or 12.3%, raising her total compensation above both the area median income and the pay for commissioners of neighboring counties.
• Fellow Deschutes County Commissioner Chang declined to take the raise because he thought it was “wrong” in light of county budget issues, and a Deschutes County Resident said Adair’s decision was “a classic example of having your cake and eating it, too.”
• 2018-2025: Adair repeatedly criticized salary raises for county and state employees, citing budget issues.

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• 2026: Adair was a “fierce” supporter of President Trump and refused to disavow her strong support for him despite his deep unpopularity in the 5th district.
• 2016: Adair was the Eastern Oregon Director and Coordinator for Trump’s presidential campaign, was a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention, and attended his first inauguration.
• 2020-2021: Adair repeatedly spread misinformation about the results of the 2020 presidential election and later attempted to minimize her role in the wake of the January 6th insurrection.

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• May 2023: Adair reversed her support for a project that would have turned Arnold Canal into a closed pipe, conserving water lost from seepage.
• Adair said she opposed the piping project due to cost, concerns about property values, and because “If you're piping everything, where do the wildlife get a drink?” and wrote to Congressman Cliff Bentz urging him to oppose the project.
• The piping project was a “crucial” initiative to ensure farmers had enough water for their crops and was supported by Bentz and Central Oregon farmers.
  • Central Oregon farmer Mike Hayes: “It is disheartening to see a county commissioner prioritize the potential impact on property values over securing a reliable water supply for our farms.”