Oregon Attorney General Candidate Will Lathrop on the State’s Urgent Legal Challenges, His Priorities and His Approach to the Job

Editor’s Note: Election Day is Tuesday, November 5. Stay up-to-date with OPB on the presidential race, key congressional battles, and other local contests and ballot measures in Oregon and Southwest Washington at opb.org/elections.

OPB asked the same questions to candidates running for Oregon Attorney General. Candidates were given a 150-word limit. Anything over 150 words was not included in these answers. Read our coverage of the race here.

To begin, we ask you to provide your name and basic biographical information, including your current position or job, the positions you have held, and any key facts you would like to share with voters.

Will Lathrop, candidate for Oregon Attorney General

Occupation: Lawyer

Previous Government Experience: Deputy District Attorney – Yamhill County, Marion County

Education: Juris Doctor from Willamette University College of Law, 2004; Bachelor’s Degree, University of Puget Sound, 2001.

What are the duties of the Attorney General?

The Attorney General heads the Oregon Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer for the state and all of its departments. The Attorney General is a law enforcement and executive function, not a law-making function. The Oregon Attorney General is required to enforce Oregon’s laws fairly and without a political lens.

The Attorney General’s role is to police all organized crime, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion, and organized shoplifting. The Attorney General is also Oregon’s top child protection officer. No one relies on the criminal justice system for protection more than our children. The Department of Justice is also charged with investigating allegations of corruption and misuse of taxpayer dollars.

As Oregon’s leading law enforcement officer, I am committed to solving problems, advocating for victims of crime, and protecting Oregonians by enforcing Oregon’s laws.

Why should you be elected Attorney General of Oregon?

I am a public servant, a seasoned prosecutor, and a victim advocate—not a politician. As a child abuse prosecutor, I served for 9 years as a deputy district attorney in Yamhill County and in the Marion County Special Victims Unit. I prosecuted homicide, domestic violence, human trafficking, and drug trafficking cases, but my primary focus was protecting children from sexual abuse and holding pedophiles accountable. I was then recruited to the National District Attorneys Association to modernize law enforcement practices and protect victims of crime nationwide.

In 2014, I joined a global human rights organization in Uganda to protect widows and orphans from violence. I was subsequently promoted to lead the West African anti-trafficking operation in Ghana, where I led a large multinational team to rescue children from forced labor and prosecute child traffickers.

My experience in local, national and international law enforcement makes me ideally suited to lead our Department of Justice.

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What do you see as an underutilized power of this office? Be specific.

The Attorney General is Oregon’s most senior law enforcement officer. As such, they are expected to lead the work against organized crime – drug trafficking, human trafficking, organized shoplifting, extortion, and political crime. No one in Oregon should be making millions of dollars by exploiting people suffering from addiction, crushing families, and destroying communities. The prevalence of fentanyl and dangerous drugs in our state has left a growing Oregonian population vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

As Oregon’s next Attorney General, I will rebuild the Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Division. I plan to use my law enforcement experience to work with state, local, and federal law enforcement to keep our communities safe, hold drug traffickers accountable, and make it extremely difficult for meth and fentanyl to be trafficked in our state.

What is the most pressing legal challenge facing the state? What is your proposed solution to that problem? Be specific.

Our state agencies, especially DHS, are failing to protect our children and uphold the law. There was recently an $18 million lawsuit against DHS for placing foster children in hotels in Oregon. The Department of Justice should be advising state agencies on what they can and cannot do. In this case, the judge appointed an outside arbitrator to tell DHS what to do because the Department of Justice failed to do its fundamental job.

Do you support your party’s presidential candidate?

I focus primarily on Oregon’s most pressing public safety issues, rather than national politics.

Related: Issues important to Oregon voters

Does the Oregon Department of Justice have a culture of defending the state at all costs? Explain your answer.

There are certainly examples where the state expends valuable resources defending clearly illegal or unlawful state actions. The attorney general has two important functions: the first is to be the legal advisor and defend state agencies in court, and the second is to ensure that our state agencies comply with the law.

It is not the role of the Attorney General to defend acts of the state that are clearly unlawful.

Are there any state laws that you would not defend? If so, which ones and why?

The role of the Attorney General is to enforce laws passed by the legislature unless they are clearly unconstitutional.

The state is currently engaged in a lawsuit to implement Ballot Measure 114, a voter-approved ballot measure that would add firearms regulations to the state. Would you pursue this lawsuit and implement the law? Are there any changes you would make to the state’s legal strategy? If so, how?

The Attorney General’s role is to enforce the law. Ballot Measure 114 was passed in 2022 and remains the law pending the Supreme Court’s ruling. It would be unprofessional of me to comment on the specific pending litigation without being privy to the litigation team’s internal discussions and confidential information.

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As attorney general, you might be tasked with defending state laws or positions that you personally disagree with, or you might be in a position where you are asked to defend the state in cases where you believe it is liable for wrongdoing. How would you balance defending state laws that do not align with your personal ethics, beliefs, or political philosophy?

I don’t have a political background, I have a law enforcement background. I have a proven track record of enforcing the law. That’s what I’ll do as Attorney General.

As Attorney General, you have the power to introduce legislation. If elected, what would be the first two or three bills you would introduce in your first legislative session? Please provide some context and explanation as to what the bills would accomplish and why they are needed.

This is a law enforcement position, not a law-making position. I will focus on enforcing Oregon’s laws, protecting children from abuse, holding drug traffickers accountable, and tackling public corruption.

If there was any legislation I would encourage others to introduce, it would be to make the Attorney General a nonpartisan position. Law enforcement positions should never be partisan or political.

Oregon has had the same attorney general since 2012. What would you do differently as an outsider?

Oregon was once a leader in victim protection and had a dynamic approach to law enforcement, victims’ rights, and defendants’ rights. Over the past decade, we have gone from first to worst in almost every category. Oregonians are most concerned about crime, drug trafficking, and public safety. As the only outsider in this race, my leadership will focus on solving problems and enforcing Oregon’s laws to keep our communities safe.

As Attorney General, I will protect children from abuse, combat drug trafficking and crime, and end corruption in Oregon. We can’t keep electing the same politicians and expecting different results. I’m confident that together, we can get through this.

In 2022, Oregon lawmakers passed SB 1584, which allows people who were wrongfully convicted to seek compensation. But few who were found innocent have received compensation. The Oregon Department of Justice has publicly distinguished between people who are “exonerated,” saying that this is not the same as “innocent.” Is this how the law should work? Are there any changes you would make?

I agree with the Ministry of Justice on this point.