PORTLAND, ORE. — J. Schuberth launched a write-in campaign for Oregon governor under the name Pencil, appearing in a pencil costume at the downtown Portland Saturday farmer's market on April 23, 2026. Schuberth, a former college professor and longtime literacy advocate, built the costume earlier this year to draw attention to the state's education performance.

Oregon fourth-grade students rank last among states in reading, according to national test analysis. Schuberth has spent nearly $30,000 of their own money on the Pencil campaign.

"I'm running for governor because we need to raise awareness about education," Pencil said. Schuberth said Governor Tina Kotek's approach to education has been ineffective and said more needs to be done for Oregon to emulate Mississippi, where focused literacy efforts have resulted in improvements.

Kotek is seeking another term in November and faces no serious opponent in the May 19 primary. "We have a problem when it comes to literacy and reading and writing in our state. That's why it's been a priority for me since my first year as governor," Kotek said. She pushed major investments in upgrading programs used to teach children to read and authored a new law granting state officials more ability to intervene in underperforming school districts.

At the farmer's market, Suzanne Lassen voiced support for the campaign's focus. "Our education system's horrendous and it's only gone down," Lassen said.

Oregon's constitution contains no provision that allows an anthropomorphized object to serve as governor. Under state law, election officials only tabulate write-in votes for individual candidates if the total write-ins exceed the votes for the leading candidate. Schuberth is looking into tallying votes cast for Pencil by requesting images of ballots. After the primary, Pencil will run in the November general election.