Former NBA player Chris Dudley announced his candidacy for Oregon’s governorship on Jan. 26, joining the race just four months before the state’s primary elections.

Dudley, a former Portland Trail Blazers player, will be running as a Republican and competing against several state lawmakers.

If he earns the Republican nomination, he would face current Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek in the November general election.

In his campaign announcement, Dudley said he believes his home state of Oregon has some “serious problems,” but that the state’s “best days are ahead of us.”

“In order to solve these challenges, the empty promises, the name-calling, finger-pointing, and fear mongering that have solved nothing must stop,” Dudley said. “You deserve better.”

The Republican primary will see Dudley facing state Senator and former House minority leader Christine Drazan, state Rep. Ed Diehl, and Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell, among others.

Dudley attended Yale University, where he played for their basketball team, before playing 16 seasons in the NBA, making his career the longest held by an Ivy League player.

The basketball player-turned politician was also the first player in the league to play with Type 1 diabetes. He now hosts basketball camps for children with the same illness.

Dudley retired from the NBA in 2003 and became a certified financial planner, launching his company, Filigree Advisors.

This isn’t Dudley’s first time in a contest for the state’s executive office.

In November of 2010, Democrat John Kitzhaber took the gubernatorial race over Dudley by less than two percentage points, or just over 22,000 votes out of more than 1.4 million ballots counted.

The last Republican governor of Oregon was elected roughly 40 years ago. Former Gov. Victor Atiyeh was in office for two terms, from 1979 to 1987.

The state went to former President Ronald Reagan in both of his terms, and President Gerald Ford before that. However, every election since then has seen a Democrat take the state’s eight electoral votes.

In Oregon, the largest group of registered voters identifies as “unaffiliated,” accounting for over 36 percent of the electorate.

Oregon has just over 3 million registered voters. Fewer than 1 million are registered Democrats, slightly more than 700,000 are Republicans, and around 200,000 are affiliated with third parties.

In his campaign announcement, Dudley spoke to what he believes are the most important issues of the day: “What they all have in common is a love of our great state and a desire for these same things: quality education, safety, affordability, and a good job. ... These are achievable. There are real solutions, and I have a plan.”

Kotek’s campaign did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.