Derrick Peterson, a retired Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputy, will drop out of the race for the Portland school board, after his alleged ties to Christian nationalists drew national media coverage and a firestorm of criticism on social media.
Before last week, Peterson had been considered the leading contender for the seat and had been endorsed by all current school board members, and the local chapter of the Willamette Women Democrats, along with The Oregonian’s editorial board and Willamette Week. His opponent, retired teacher Patte Sullivan, has not publicly disclosed any endorsements and has no record of fundraising, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s campaign finance database.
Some voters have already received their ballots for the May 16 election. In a statement, Peterson said that even if he still wins, he will resign from the seat, giving the current school board members the chance to appoint someone to fill the seat.
Continuing in the race, and potentially serving on the board would have proved a “distraction,” Peterson said in a statement released Wednesday. In a brief conversation with The Oregonian/OregonLive, he said he believed, “This is not going to let up. It’s not going to go away.” Peterson declined to answer whether he thought further evidence connecting him to the Christian nationalist movement might surface, saying he had to take another call.
“Over the past week, my affiliations with various churches have been presented in the media,” he wrote in a statement. “This has taken a toll on my family and takes away from the critical work that needs to be done at PPS. I respect our youth too much to allow this distraction to continue.”
Peterson was named an “apostle” for Harvest International Ministries, a California-based evangelical megachurch whose founder, Che Ahn, spoke at the January 6, 2021 insurrection outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, though he did not enter the building.
Up until late last month, a website affiliated with Ahn and Harvest International Ministries listed Peterson as an advisory board member of 1Race4Life, an anti-abortion nonprofit founded by Ahn who described its vision as a new pro-life movement [intended to] defend biblical values in our homeland,” that could “remove” the need for abortion nationwide.
In an interview with The Oregonian, Peterson acknowledged that he had attended a conference at Ahn’s church in 2020, and that he had been present when Ahn first outlined his plans for 1Race4Life. But he insisted that he had left the room as soon as he realized the substance of the conversation and that his photograph and biography had subsequently been used on their website without his permission.
Peterson, a registered Democrat, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he believes that “everyone has the right to make their individual personal choice about what they do with their own body,” and that as a school board member he would not seek to restrict services offered by student health centers or the content taught in health courses.
But an article published a few days later in Rolling Stone detailed how Peterson had later preached at churches in the Pacific Northwest that had been linked to Ahn, at which he identified himself as a “commissioned marketplace apostle,” and that he had received donations from leaders associated with the church.
Sullivan did not immediately respond to calls and text messages Wednesday. She has said she was inspired to run after attending meetings of the group Standing Up for Racial Justice and learning more about the far right’s efforts to win school board seats nationwide as a way to impact treatment of LGBTQ+ students, what children are taught about human sexuality and the country’s complicated, dark history with race, among other topics.
— Julia Silverman, @jrlsilverman, jsilverman@oregonian.com
