From 1999 to 2001, Read worked for the
United States Department of the Treasury as an aide to then-Secretary
Lawrence Summers. His immediate supervisor was
Sheryl Sandberg. Read then returned to Oregon after graduate school, working for startup SkyTaxi for several months before finding work at
Nike as a footwear developer, where he worked from 2004 to 2012. In 2012, he left his role at Nike to focus full-time on his political career.
State Representative Read served in the Oregon State Legislature from 2007 to 2016 as the representative from the 27th district. As a legislator, Read was a strong advocate for fully funding Oregon's full-day kindergarten; supported state investments in
green tech jobs and research through Oregon InC and other initiatives; worked to stabilize state funding and enhance the state's Rainy Day funds; and sponsored legislation to redirect unclaimed funds from class action lawsuits to legal assistance for low income Oregonians; rather than back to the original corporate wrongdoers. Throughout his legislative career, he sought to expand savings in Oregon's college savings program, and sponsored legislation to create additional options for retirement savings for Oregonians. During his time in the Oregon House, Read served as House Majority Whip, and in 2015 he was elected Speaker Pro Tempore. He served as chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Economic Development and the House Committee on Higher Education, Innovation, and Workforce Development. He also served on the House Revenue Committee and the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, the committee of the Legislature primarily responsible for writing the state budget.
State Treasurer In 2016, Read ran for
Oregon State Treasurer, to succeed
Ted Wheeler, who was barred by term limits from running again in 2016. He was unopposed in the primary and won the general election by a plurality in November 2016, defeating
Republican Jeff Gudman, Read ran for and won re-election as State Treasurer in 2020, facing Republican Jeff Gudman again in a rematch. This time, Read secured a decisive win, beating Gudman 51 to 41%. Later, Read again became first in the gubernatorial line of succession after Secretary of State Fagan resigned on May 8, 2023. He remained first in the line of succession when Governor Kotek appointed Secretary
LaVonne Griffin-Valade.
First State-Sponsored Retirement Savings Plan In 2015, in an effort led by Read and organizations such as
SEIU and
AARP, the Oregon Legislature enacted legislation which created the Oregon Retirement Savings Board and tasked it with establishing a state-run retirement savings program and managing its oversight. The retirement program created was called OregonSaves. In 2018, Finance industry publication Pensions & Investments and the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) honored Read and OregonSaves with the Excellence & Innovation Award. The award recognizes public and private-sector efforts to enhance retirement security. In 2019 Read was invited to speak to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on the states innovative approach to retirement savings.
Sale of Elliott State Forest In 2017, Read voted to sell 82,500 acres of the
Elliott State Forest to a Roseburg-based timber company for $221 million. Revenues from the sale would have been added to the state's education fund. Following pushback from environmentalist and other Oregon Democrats, Read withdrew his support for the proposal. Later in his tenure as State Treasurer, Read unveiled a proposal for the Elliott State Research Forest, an innovative solution to keep the forest in public hands and combat climate change.
Oregon College Savings Plan As Treasurer, Read oversaw the Oregon College Savings Program (OCSP), which helps Oregonians save for education after high school. Read worked with the Oregon State Legislature to pass the Education Savings Credit which changes the tax advantage from a deduction to a refundable credit. Begun in 2020, the Education Savings Credit makes it easier for low-to-moderate income families save for education after high school. Read worked with a diverse group of organizations including the Latina Network, Stand for Children, and the Oregon Student Association and legislators to pass the Education Savings Credit.
Net-Zero Plan Early in 2024, Read announced his plan to move OPERF, Oregon's $100 billion pension plan, to carbon neutral by 2050. The 97-page document built a roadmap for Oregon to move Oregon away from high-risk investments in fossil fuels, and built in an intermediate goal of achieving a 60% reduction of emissions by 2035. The inaugural progress report was published on January 2, 2025.
2022 gubernatorial campaign On September 27, 2021, Read officially announced that he was running for governor. More than a dozen candidates contended for the Democratic nomination, including
New York Times journalist
Nicholas Kristof and eventual winner, Oregon House Speaker
Tina Kotek. In February 2022, Kristof was barred from running due to residency requirements, narrowing the field of leading candidates to Read and Kotek. While Read and Kotek shared many views, Read stressed the need to return to school once students received COVID vaccines and took a harder line on ensuring improved educational outcomes and moving homeless people off the streets and into shelters. Ultimately, Kotek topped Read 56 to 32%, with all other candidates receiving 2% or less.
Secretary of State Read announced his intention to run for
Secretary of State in July 2023 and officially launched his campaign on September 13. He faced state senator
James Manning in the Democratic primary In the general election, Read faced Republican State Senator
Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls. Read ran a campaign centered around rebuilding trust and integrity in the Secretary of State's office, which had faced years of turmoil and changing leadership. During the campaign, the
Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees the state's automatic voter registration system, announced that they had incorrectly registered more than 1,500 noncitizens to vote. Read and Linthicum both spoke out against the error, with Read declaring that "Oregonians deserve a thorough investigation of the automatic voter registration program's implementation, as well as accountability at both the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Secretary of State's Office." That November, Read won the general election with 54% to Linthicum's 42%.
Changes As Secretary of State During his transition into the Secretary of State's office, Secretary-Elect Read recruited Dena Dawson, the Lane County clerk, to serve as Oregon's next Elections Director, following the abrupt departure of previous director Molly Woon. The following spring, Secretary Read announced on social media that he had begun traveling to each county in the state to meet with their county clerks and elections officials. He also removed a compromised state audit from the books which previous Secretary of State Shemia Fagan had issued while taking a lucrative consulting check from the audit's subject. ==Personal life==