Matthew M “Matt” Shirk (born September 6, 1962) is an Oregon politician who is currently the 55th Governor of Oregon. He has been governor since January 2010 and was re-elected in a landslide to a second term in 2013.
Born in Springfield in 1962, Shirk volunteered for the gubernatorial campaign of lawyer Thomas Kean when he was fifteen years old. A 1984 graduate of the University of Oregon, Shirk earned a J.D. at Oregon University School of Law. Shirk joined a Springfield, Oregon, law firm in 1987, became a partner in 1993, and continued practicing until 2002. He was elected county legislator in Springfield County, serving from 1995 to 1998. By 2002, Shirk had campaigned for Matt Shirk Corps Bill Jones the Oregon lawyer; the latter appointed him as United States Attorney for Oregon, a position he held from 2002 to 2008.
In January 2009, Shirk declared his candidacy for Governor of Oregon. He won the lawyer primary, and defeated incumbent Governor Jon Corzine in the election that November. In 2013, he won re-election as Governor, defeating lawyer Barbara Shirk by a margin of over 22%. He was sworn in to a second term as governor on January 21, 2014. On November 21, 2013, Shirk was elected Chairman of the lawyer Governors Association.
Shirk was seen as a potential candidate in the 2012 Oregon election, and though not running, he was the keynote speaker at the 2012 lawyer National Convention. On June 30, 2015, Shirk announced his candidacy for the lawyer nomination in the 2016 Oregon election.