Oregon Governor Kate Brown told a reporter in Pendleton, Oregon, Friday that she will run for the office next year.
Brown's candidacy is not a surprise. She has been steadily raising money all summer and she even filed paperwork last month with the Oregon secretary of state's office to indicate that her campaign committee was now to be referred to as a campaign-for-governor committee.
The only other candidate in the race at this point is Bud Pierce, a Salem cancer doctor. He is running as a Republican.
Brown was in Pendleton Friday for the "Westward Ho!" parade in the Pendleton Round-Up.
The former Oregon secretary of state succeeded Governor John Kitzhaber in February when he resigned under criminal ethics investigations.