Oregon is, for the first time in years, back on the national political map — attracting presidential visits, national newspaper coverage, and speculation that the state could make Christine Drazan its first Republican governor in nearly four decades. All the interest is, in part, due to one person: Betsy Johnson, a longtime Democratic state legislator who left the party to run for governor as an independent.

Johnson, a multimillionaire timber heiress, has virtually no chance of winning the race. There is not, as it turns out, a sizable constituency in Oregon for an independent candidate who is pro-choice but has an A-rating from the National Rifle Association and ties to the far right. If there remains any sort of center in Oregon politics, there is scant evidence that Johnson’s brand of faux-populist grievance politics represents it.

What Johnson does have going for her, however, is the backing of the richest man in the state. Phil Knight, the cofounder and longtime CEO of Nike, has given Johnson’s campaign $3.75 million — money that helped her gather the signatures she needed to qualify for the ballot as an independent, saturate the airwaves, and signal the seriousness of her candidacy to both state and national media.