Erik Sten (born October 1967 in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

) is an American politician who served as a member of the Portland City Commission from 1997 to 2008.

Early life and education

Sten was born in

and raised in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1989.

Career

In the mid-1990s, Sten was a founding member of X-PAC, a group of politically minded young citizens, and has participated heavily in the Oregon Bus Project. Sten was first elected to Position 2 on the Portland City Commission in 1996, defeating Chuck Duffy. He ran successful campaigns for re-election in 1998, 2002, and 2006. As a Commissioner, Sten was an early supporter of Portland's publicly financed elections system. In 2005, he was named as one of Oregon's 15 most influential people. During the 2000 presidential election, Sten was an Oregon state co-chair of GoreNet. GoreNet was a group that supported the Al Gore campaign with a focus on

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

and

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organizing as well as hosting small dollar donor events. He resigned from his position April 4, 2008, and was succeeded by attorney

Nick Fish Nicholas Stuyvesant Fish (September 30, 1958 – January 2, 2020) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a Commissioner of Portland, Oregon from 2008 to 2020. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, Fish worked with Portland P ...

. After leaving office, Sten relocated to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. In 2019, it was announced that Sten had joined Strategies 360, a political consulting and lobbying firm, as an advisor.

References

Living people 1967 births Stanford University alumni Portland City Council members (Oregon) Oregon Democrats Politicians from New Haven, Connecticut {{Oregon-politician-stub