Jessica Vega Pederson, a first-term Multnomah County commissioner, is strongly considering a run for Portland mayor, said a person close to Vega Pederson with knowledge of her thinking.

Vega Pederson had been thinking of running for secretary of state in 2020, the person said, but was approached by the leaders of Portland-based racial equity and labor union groups, who convinced her to turn her eye toward City Hall. The person asked not to be named because their conversations with Vega Pederson were private.

On Wednesday, Vega Pederson declined to directly address questions about whether she is mulling a race for city office. She said her caginess stemmed from caution to avoid invoking a provision of the county charter that she said could require her to resign if she were to declare her candidacy for another office.

Still, Vega Pederson, 44, said that she had not made up her mind about what elected office to seek in 2020, when her term on the county board of commissioners ends.

“I’m trying to figure out the best way I can continue to serve the community,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Nothing’s off the table.”

Vega Pederson said she has enjoyed local politics, where she has worked on a range of issues from the needs of children to transportation and climate change.

Born to a Mexican-American family in Crow Point, Indiana and raised in Chicago, Vega Pederson worked at technology companies, eventually rising to become a manager at Microsoft, before being elected to represent most of East Portland in the Oregon House of Representatives in 2012. She served two terms there and was elected county commissioner in 2017.

Portland’s incumbent mayor, Ted Wheeler, has said he is undecided about seeking re-election. If Wheeler declines to run, it would make him Portland’s fourth consecutive one-term mayor.

Police reform advocate Teressa Raiford is the only declared candidate for the 2020 race. But Diego Hernandez, a state representative who represents the same district Vega Pederson did, has said he has not ruled out a run.

At least one City Council seat will be open in 2020, when Commissioner Amanda Fritz retires after three terms. Possible candidates include Hernandez; Carmen Rubio, a former City Hall aide who now directs a Latino-focused nonprofit; consultant and former mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone; and deaf activist Philip Wolfe.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com