Michael R. McLane is an American politician and lawyer currently serving in the

Oregon State Senate The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the State legislature (United States), statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. Ther ...

. A member of the Republican Party, he represents the 30th district, which covers a large portion of

Southeastern Oregon Southeastern Oregon is a geographical term for the area along the borders of the U.S. state of Oregon with Idaho, California, and Nevada. It includes the populous areas of Burns, Oregon, Burns, Klamath Falls, Oregon, Klamath Falls and Lakeview, ...

. He previously served as a judge in the

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer) * Jefferson (singer) or Geoff Turton (born 1944), British s ...

and

Crook Crook is slang for criminal. Crook or Crooks may also refer to: Places Canada * Crooks Inlet, former name of Kangiqturjuaq, Nunavut England * Crook, County Durham, a town * Crook, Cumbria, a village and civil parish * Crook Hill, Derby ...

County

Circuit Court Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

from 2019 until 2021, and in the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the upper house being the Oregon State Senate. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of ...

from 2011 to 2019.

Early life and education

Born in

Condon, Oregon Condon is a city in and the county seat of Gilliam County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. The population was 682 at the 2010 census. The city, with an historic main street along Oregon Route 19, is a farming and ranching community. The John Day ...

, McLane graduated from Condon High School in 1983, and then from

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

with a degree in Agricultural Resource Economics in 1987. He earned a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree from

Lewis & Clark Law School The Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College (also known as Lewis & Clark Law School), is an American Bar Association#Accreditation of U.S. law schools since 1923, American Bar Association-approved private law school in the United ...

and clerked for Justice

W. Michael Gillette W. Michael Gillette (born December 29, 1941) is an American attorney and retired judge in the state of Oregon. He was a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, where he served from 1986 until 2010. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he was previously ...

at the

Oregon Supreme Court The Oregon Supreme Court (OSC) is the highest State court (United States), state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States.

Career

McLane worked as a law clerk at the U.S. Attorney's office and has assisted with prosecutions in

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland metropolitan area. The state's smallest and most populous county, it ...

Circuit Court, as well as federal court. He worked at the law firms

Stoel Rives Stoel Rives LLP is a U.S. business law firm with 10 office locations in seven U.S. states and Washington, D.C. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, in the Park Avenue West Tower, it is the largest law firm in the state of Oregon, having 326 attorn ...

and Miller Nash, before co-founding Lynch, Conger McLane in 2016. McLane also has experience serving as a circuit judge pro tem in

Deschutes County Deschutes County ( ) is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 198,253. The county seat is Bend. The county was created in 1916 out of part of Crook County and was named for the Deschu ...

, Oregon. McLane co-founded a publishing company that produced the Flying Rhino children's book series, which led to the ''

Flying Rhino Junior High ''Flying Rhino Junior High'' is a fantasy Animated series, animated television series produced by Neurones Animation, Nelvana Limited, and STV Studios, Scottish Television Enterprises. The show was originally aired from 3 October 1998 until 22 ...

Saturday morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series and live-action programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre was a ...

series.

Oregon House of Representatives

McLane was elected to the Oregon House in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and was re-elected in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, 2014, 2016 and 2018. He served as the Republican Leader in the Oregon House from January 2013 to January 2019. He stepped down from the leadership position after the November 2018 elections, but retained his seat.

Judge

After the retirement of Daniel J. Ahern, McLane was appointed by

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Kate Brown Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th governor of Oregon from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th distr ...

to replace him on the 22nd

, which comprises

and

Counties. He resigned his seat on the legislature on July 1, 2021. In 2021 McLane resigned from the court and returned to private practice.

Oregon State Senate

In November 2023, McLane announced his candidacy for the

district 30 A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

for the 2024 election. Incumbent Senator

Lynn Findley Lynn P. Findley (born 1952) is an American politician who served as a member of the Oregon State Senate from 2020 until 2025. He represented the 30th district, which covers much of Eastern Oregon. Biography Findley was born in Vale, Oregon, gra ...

was rendered ineligible to run for re-election due to his participation in the 2023 Oregon Senate walkout and the passage of Measure 113, which denied eligibility to run for re-election to any state legislator with 10 or more unexcused absences in a legislative session. McLane defeated rancher Douglas Muck and former soil and water district director Robert Neuman in the primary election. He ran unopposed in the general election and was officially declared the winner after the November general election. In the 2025 session, McLane was appointed vice-chair of the Finance and Revenue Committee and co-vice chair of the Joint Committee on Tax Expenditures. He was also appointed to the Judiciary Committee and the Joint Committees on Legislative Counsel, Ways and Means, and the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Capital Construction.

Military career

McLane currently serves as a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the

Oregon Air National Guard The Oregon Air National Guard (OR ANG) is the aerial militia of the Oregon, State of Oregon, United States, United States of America. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and along with the Oregon Army National Guard an element of the O ...

. He previously served as an Oregon Air Guardsman at the

173rd Fighter Wing The 173rd Fighter Wing (173 FW) is a unit of the Oregon Air National Guard, stationed at Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base, Klamath Falls, Oregon. The 173d Fighter Wing is responsible for training combat pilots and support personnel on the M ...

Kingsley Field Kingsley may refer to: People *Kingsley (given name) * Kingsley (surname) Places Australia * Kingsley, Western Australia Canada * Rural Municipality of Kingsley No. 124, Saskatchewan England * Kingsley, Cheshire * Kingsley, Hampshire * Kingsley ...

, an

F-15 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected McDonnell Douglas's des ...

training base in

Klamath Falls Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city wa ...

. Prior to his service in the Oregon Air Guard, McLane was an officer in the 41st Infantry Brigade in the

Oregon Army National Guard The Oregon Army National Guard is a federally mandated and equipped military organization under the civilian direction of the Oregon Military Department, with the Governor of Oregon as its Commander-in-Chief. It responds to state and national eme ...

Personal life

McLane, his wife Holly, and their three children live on a small farm in

Powell Butte Powell Butte is an extinct cinder cone butte in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is part of the Boring Lava Field, which includes more than 80 small volcanic edifices and lava flows in the Portland–Vancouver metropolitan area. The regi ...

, near Bend.

Electoral history

References

External links

Campaign website

Legislative website

Project VoteSmart biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLane, Mike American book publishers (people) Lewis & Clark Law School alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly Oregon lawyers People from Powell Butte, Oregon People from Gilliam County, Oregon Year of birth missing (living people)