Young people in Clackamas County are entering their mayoral era.

Come January, the cities of Oregon City, Milwaukie and West Linn will all be led by mayors born in the year 1999 or later. After election victories this week, Oregon City’s Adam Marl and Milwaukie’s Will Anderson will join West Linn’s Rory Bialostosky as some of the state’s youngest mayors.

In Tuesday’s election, voters resoundingly supported Marl, 26, with more than 70% of the vote.

Anderson, 25, unseated Milwaukie Mayor Lisa Batey. Vote tallies released late Thursday showed Anderson with over 50% of the vote to Batey’s 38% and 11% for Leslie Weight, the owner of a janitorial service business and former Marine. Batey had served on the council since 2015 (when Anderson was an eighth grader at Cascade Middle School in Bend).

Rory Bialostosky became West Linn’s youngest-ever mayor at 23, when he was appointed interim mayor in January 2023 and then elected to the seat that May. He was first elected to the city council in 2020 at the age of 21. His term as mayor ends in 2028.

This election’s youth wave also reached Oregon’s high desert, where the city of Prineville elected 20-year-old Zach Levesque as mayor. But young mayors are nothing new east of the Cascades. Madras elected a 26-year-old back in 2006 and in January 2007, 18-year-old Kyle Corbin was sworn in as mayor of the small city of Union.

The day after the election, Anderson, Milwaukie’s mayor-elect, acknowledged that serving in local office is not the traditional pastime for people in their 20s.

“It’s certainly a different experience going to a Tuesday night council than going out to drinks with friends,” he told OPB.

Anderson said he’s been interested in politics for much of his young life. He says the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in 2015, legalizing gay marriage, was the moment he realized the impact government can have on people’s lives.

“I was gay growing up in Central Oregon, and Central Oregon looked a lot different back then than it does now,” he said. “But I remember as a kid when Obergefell was decided, just feeling like I was seen in the political process.”

Marl said he likewise has been interested in politics since he was a kid. He mentioned growing “enamored” with the functions of government in a middle school social studies class.

While a student at Willamette University in Salem, Marl began working as an intern in the Oregon State Capitol in 2019. In his six years there, he also served as a legislative assistant and policy analyst.

Marl’s involvement in city politics began in 2020 when he started attending Oregon City Commission meetings, testifying during public comment on his dissatisfaction with the current mayor. Marl eventually led the successful campaign to recall Mayor Dan Holladay. He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the commission in 2021 and then elected to a full four-year term in 2022.

Anderson’s involvement in politics also began in Salem, where he started working for the campaign of Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, who is now Oregon’s House Majority Leader. Anderson first won election to the Milwaukie City Council two years ago.

Bialostosky was a known face around West Linn City Hall years before his first election. As a high schooler, he frequently attended council meetings to testify about the need for more parking around West Linn High School. In 2019, he sued a city councilor for the notes she took during meetings, a case the Oregon Court of Appeals eventually decided in his favor. In the 2020 race for two council seats, he finished with more votes than any of the other nine candidates.

Both Marl and Anderson said they ran for local office because they felt city government would give them the best opportunity to make an impact.

Anderson said he also felt compelled to run because so many young people don’t feel represented by most office holders.

A 2022 analysis from Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found people aged 18-25 were half as likely to run for office as people 62 or older. However, the analysis found that between 2010 and 2020, young people were becoming more likely to run.

Both Bialostosky and Anderson said their age is the main reason they understand the struggles young people and families face trying to buy a home — a big issue for many young voters and one of Anderson’s main campaign priorities.

“The cost of housing and the ability for young people and working families to afford a house in the community that they live in — us, the young mayors, are in that exact same boat,” Bialostosky said.

Marl said it can be difficult at times to navigate the generational differences between himself and his colleagues at the commission, but said it’s also very rewarding.

“When I first started, I knew that I would have to go above and beyond in proving myself and proving my ability to do the job,” he said.

For Marl, this election proves he’s been able to do that.

Marl and Anderson said the young elected officials don’t have a Gen Z politician group chat, but they have enjoyed working together.

“We’ve had a lot of opportunities to meet and get to know each other and commiserate about all the things that we’re dealing with,” Marl said. “Having the opportunity to talk to someone who understands what it’s like has been really helpful for me.”

Anderson mentioned his friendship with Marl has grown since they got to know each other while working in the Legislature.

“Adam actually used to work in the Republican office while I was working in the Democratic office,” Anderson said. “I think it’s a great example of so much of the politics that we face at the local level transcend regular partisanship.”

Bialostosky noted that despite their youth, he and his fellow Gen Z mayors were elected with years of council experience already under their belts.

Bialostosky also acknowledged it can take time to get other leaders to take you seriously when you’re the youngest person in the room by several decades. But he said he has formed strong relationships with elected leaders all over Clackamas County.

“It just took showing up to meetings,” he said. “You get to know people, and the whole thing is building relationships to help with regional policy.”

Bialostosky said the election of three new Gen Z mayors across the state this year felt historic.

Marl said he hopes other young people see now is their time.

“To say that young people ought to wait their turn in order to be a leader is something that I think we need to challenge,” Marl said. “And I’m so excited by what we’re seeing in Oregon and Clackamas County and across the country, that young people realize ‘I don’t have to wait until I’m 40 or 50 years old to run for something and try and make a difference.’”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/11/06/clackamas-county-mayors-gen-z-west-linn-milwaukie-oregon-city/