Edward Tevis Wheeler (born August 31, 1962) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 53rd mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 2017 to 2025. A moderate member of the Democratic Party, Wheeler served as the state treasurer of Oregon from 2010 to 2016 and the chair of the Multnomah County Commission from 2007 to 2010.
Wheeler was elected in the 2016 Portland mayoral election and reelected in 2020. Formerly a registered Republican, he has been described as a moderate Democrat.
Early life and education A sixth-generation Oregonian, Wheeler was born in Portland to a family with roots and wealth in the Oregon timber industry. His father, Sam Wheeler, was executive vice president at Willamette Industries, a Fortune 500 lumber company formed in 1967 by mergers and acquisitions of timber companies (Sam Wheeler sold Wheeler Lumber Company, incorporated in 1900 by Wheeler's great-grandfather, Coleman Wheeler, in Wheeler, Tillamook County, Oregon.) Sam Wheeler divorced Ted's mother, Leslie, in 1972; Wheeler was 10 years old at the time. He later discussed his father's alcoholism.
Ted Wheeler attended Portland Public Schools, graduating from Lincoln High School. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Stanford University in 1985. He also earned an MBA from Columbia University in 1989 and a master's in public policy from Harvard University. Wheeler worked for several financial services companies, including Bank of America and Copper Mountain Trust.
Political career Wheeler's political career began with a campaign for the Boston City Council. He finished 11th in a field of 12 candidates in the 1993 Boston City Council election. Wheeler was registered as a Republican until 2001 and described as "the wealthy heir to a timber fortune controlled by social and fiscal conservatives". In 2006, he defeated incumbent Multnomah County chair Diane Linn to become chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, taking office in January 2007.
Multnomah County Commissioner
Shortly after he was elected chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, Wheeler worked with his colleagues to balance a county budget that had called for $22.3 million in cuts in 2009. Wheeler also fought to preserve social safety net programs and to eliminate hidden fees from state-issued debit cards.
Following the loss of nearly $16 million in Oregon Common School Fund and Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund investments, Wheeler co-filed a class-action lawsuit with Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to recover the money after firms misled investors.
Building, preserving and updating public space and infrastructure was a focus during Wheeler's time as County Commissioner. He led efforts to construct new libraries in Kenton and Troutdale and to construct the new East County Courthouse in Multnomah County. Wheeler also fought to fund repairs for the crumbling Sellwood Bridge.
Under Wheeler Portland became Oregon's first municipality to "Ban the Box", which reduces employment discrimination against residents with a criminal record by removing the criminal history check box on forms.
State treasurer
On March 7, 2010, incumbent Oregon State Treasurer Ben Westlund died of lung cancer. Two days later Governor Ted Kulongoski appointed Wheeler to the office. Wheeler defeated fellow Democrat Rick Metsger in the Democratic primary election on May 18, 2010, and defeated Republican Chris Telfer, Progressive Walt Brown and Michael Marsh of the Constitution Party in the November special election for the rest of Westlund's term, which ended in 2013. He was elected to a second full term in the Oregon state elections, 2012.
Wheeler practiced aggressive financial management, achieving more than $172 million in cash flow savings since 2013. He promoted environmental stewardship, committing to double Oregon's investments in renewable energy resources by January 2020, and double them again by 2030. Wheeler also pledged not to pursue new investments in coal. He promoted the use of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) for all state investments to improve long-term performance, and urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to institute tougher reviews of carbon asset risk disclosures from 45 major corporations.
Wheeler was chair of the Oregon Retirement Savings Task Force, which developed what became the OregonSaves program to assist state residents in saving for retirement. It grew Oregon's pension fund to more than $72 billion, one of the country's five strongest state pension funds.
Portland mayoral campaign
Wheeler launched a run for mayor on October 14, 2015. He campaigned on addressing income inequality and ensuring government accountability. During his speech, Wheeler promised to build a government that worked "for every person."
In October 2015, former Portland mayors Vera Katz, Tom Potter, and Sam Adams endorsed Wheeler. Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis also endorsed him, as did State Representatives Lew Frederick and Tobias Read, former State Senators Ron Cease, Jane Cease, and Avel Gordly, and 2012 mayoral candidate Eileen Brady. Wheeler was also endorsed by Basic Rights Oregon, the Portland Business Alliance, and the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council.
On May 17 Wheeler was elected mayor by winning the first round with 54% of the vote.
Mayoral tenure Wheeler was sworn in on December 30, 2016, and his term began on January 1, 2017. One of his first actions was to make initial assignments of city departments (known as bureaus) to the five commissioners, of which the mayor is one. He assigned to himself the Portland Police Bureau, the Portland Development Commission, and the Portland Housing Bureau, among others. He said he intended to reconsider the initial assignments during the annual budget process in April.
In July 2018 The Oregonian newspaper reported that half of arrests in Portland were of people who were homeless. Wheeler, who oversaw the police department, said he saw this as a problem and that it would influence his budgeting decisions. In September 2018, Portland residents who found Wheeler's response to the growth of homeless encampments inadequate petitioned his office and other local agencies to take stronger action.
In September 2020, Wheeler announced his intention to withdraw the city from the Joint Office of Homeless Services partnership with the Multnomah County in a push to get campers on downtown streets into shelters. In 2018, the city auditor found that the city regularly ignored citizen complaints about transient camps. The Oregonian reported the city's lack of response was inconsistent with crackdown on illegal camps instituted earlier in Wheeler's term.
Far-right protests and counterprotests In 2017, after white supremacist Jeremy Joseph Christian murdered two people on a Portland train, Wheeler called for a halt to far-right rallies in Portland. He declined to grant a city permit for an event to be staged by far-right provocateur Joey Gibson, and called on the federal government to revoke a rally permit granted to far-right groups in the federally owned Terry Schrunk Plaza.Mayor Ted Wheeler Asks Feds to Help Him Block Alt-Right "Free Speech" Rallies from Portland in Wake of Hate Slaying , Willamette Week (May 29, 2017). In asking the federal government to revoke that permit, Wheeler incorrectly stated that "hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment." The U.S. General Services Administration declined to revoke the permit.Elise Herron, Feds Reject Portland Mayor's Pleas to Revoke Permit, So Alt-Right Rally Will Proceed in a Shaken City , Willamette Week (May 31, 2017). In that rally and subsequent ones in Portland in 2017 and 2018, violence erupted as far-right activists (including Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys) repeatedly brawled with antifa and other left-wing counter-demonstrators on Portland streets.Derek Hawkins, Antifa, far-right protesters clash again in Portland, disrupting peaceful rallies , Washington Post (September 11, 2017).Amelia Templeton, Portland Mayor Wants More Power To Regulate Protests — And Needs Just 1 More Vote To Get It , Oregon Public Broadcasting (October 8, 2018).Mayor Wheeler's protest-restricting ordinance fails in city council vote , KGW (November 14, 2018). In October 2018, Wheeler sought greater power to regulate protests, proposing an ordinance that would give him (in his role as police commissioner) greater powers to control the location, duration, timing, and size of protests in Portland and to keep opposing groups physically separated.Portland Mayor's Controversial Protest Ordinance Fails In City Council , Oregon Public Broadcasting (November 14, 2018). Wheeler described the measure as an attempt to stop people from "beating the bejesus out of each other on the streets of our city." He described the proposal as a valid time, place, and manner restriction, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed it, arguing that it would impinge on constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly, and indicating that it would legally challenge the ordinance if adopted. In November 2018, the council voted down Wheeler's proposal, 3–2. In August 2019, Wheeler requested that Governor Kate Brown keep the National Guard ready to respond in anticipation of a potentially explosive standoff between far-right groups and antifa demonstrators. Brown and state adjutant general Michael E. Stencel denied the request.
George Floyd protests
On May 30, 2020, Wheeler imposed a curfew on Portland during the Black Lives Matter protests (sparked by the murder of George Floyd, the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor, and the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, earlier in the year). Critics of the curfew argued that police officers would have an incentive to restrict free speech and incite violence on peaceful protesting using crowd-control methods such as tear gas and stun grenades, both of which were deployed on crowds of demonstrators in Portland and nationwide. This earned him the nickname Tear Gas Teddy. On June 2, Wheeler lifted the curfew due to his perception of a "significant [peaceful] shift in the tenor." Wheeler also requested the deployment of the Oregon National Guard to Portland in response to protests following the murder of George Floyd, but Governor Kate Brown refused.
In response to the Portland Police Bureau's use of tear gas on protesters, Portland organization Don't Shoot PDX filed a class-action lawsuit against the city on June 5, 2020. On June 6, Wheeler said that he supported nonviolent demonstrations for "meaningful reform and restorative justice" and had "serious concerns about the use of CS gas for crowd management"; he said he would not ban police from using tear gas, but that he had "directed Portland Police Chief Jami Resch that gas should not be used unless there is a serious and immediate threat to life safety, and there is no other viable alternative for dispersal."
On June 15, Wheeler called for an overhaul of Portland's police oversight system, which he said doesn't have "any real teeth."