Keith Wilson, a 2022 HDT Truck Fleet Innovator and a newcomer to politics, has been elected mayor of Portland, Oregon, running on a platform of tackling the city’s homeless problem and making the city a climate leader.

Wilson is CEO and president of Portland-based regional less-than-truckload carrier Titan Freight Systems.

In a Nov. 10 interview with KATU News, the mayor-elect was asked about taking on what some say is the hardest job in Oregon and perhaps one of the toughest in the country.

“You know, when you’re in transportation and trucking, it’s already a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour job,” Wilson said, and acknowledged that being mayor would be, as well. But being born and bred in Portland, he said, knowing the city, “all four corners,” he wants to “get that vision back of being one of the most livable cities in America again.”

Bringing Trucking Experience to City Government

While the homeless issue was his main campaign issue, Wilson’s also passionate about addressing climate change, and he’s bringing his experience decarbonizing trucking to his role as mayor.

On his campaign website, he said, “We’ve seen it firsthand. Summer days approaching 120°F, claiming dozens of lives among our most vulnerable. Wildfire smoke blanketing our beautiful city. The shrinking Cascade glaciers, and a ski season that feels shorter every year. 

“Climate change is no longer a distant warning; it’s here for all to see.”

He’s already made Titan the state's first fossil-free trucking company with the help of electric trucks and renewable diesel fuel. He wants to push the use of renewable diesel instead of petroleum diesel to slash the amount of black carbon pollution. 

Wilson also wants to work on converting the city fleet to electric vehicles.

“Between federal grants, state rebates and credits, and the plunging cost of high-capacity battery technology, there has never been a better time to convert Portland’s vehicle fleet to electric power,” he said on his campaign website. 

“As one of the first freight carriers in the nation to convert to electric [trucks], I have the experience and success needed to do the same for our city.”

In an episode of KGW’s Straight Talk, Wilson said he hopes to make Portland into a city with the lowest carbon footprint in the nation. 

Reversing Transportation Neglect

As a trucking executive, the state of the city’s transportation infrastructure is also something Wilson wants to address.

“The roads, bridges, and bike routes we depend upon are crumbling. With hundreds of millions in deferred maintenance, an antiquated funding model, skyrocketing construction costs, mismanagement, and congestion, we’ve lost critical time and ground.”

He wants to address the issue of fairly funding the city's deteriorating infrastructure, noting that electric vehicles mean fuel tax revenues have fallen despite rising construction costs. He eschews the idea of tolls to fix the problem and instead wants to see a wider rollout of the state’s OReGO road use fee mileage program.

Ending Suffering on Portland’s Streets

WIlson founded a non-profit called Shelter Portland, which focuses on creating a system of nighttime walk-in emergency shelters and daytime shelters with services, and is following a similar blueprint in his plans for addressing the city's homeless problem as mayor.

“Five, six years ago, I really started seeing the suffering on our streets, and they ended up being like high school classmates,” said Wilson, who grew up poor next to public housing projects, whose family dealt with addiction.

He started digging in to find the why and ran for city council for years ago. The pandemic, he said, short-circuited that, but he continued to build a team to look into how to address the city’s homeless problem both short-and long-term.

Now he’s in a position to put what they learned into action.