Betsy Johnson is firmly behind the wheel, driving through an urban dystopia of poverty and despair.
"God knows, we need a real solution to the homeless crisis," she says brusquely. Tent cities and garbage-strewn sidewalks flash by. It will require new leadership, she goes on, and a different type of politics, embracing the best ideas of Democrats and Republicans, without regard to party labels.
"We shouldn't have to choose," says Johnson, who is waging an improbably strong bid for Oregon governor, raising the prospect the sapphire-blue state could elect a gun-loving, corporate-hugging, woke-bashing political independent as its next leader.
