After law school, Richardson set up his legal practice in Central Point, Oregon, where he worked for more than 30 years before retiring in 2010. In 1984, Richardson was invited by the Reagan Administration to participate at the White House in a series of briefings by President Ronald Reagan and his Cabinet. Richardson served as Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party’s Second Congressional District in 1996–2000, and Treasurer of the Oregon Republican Party from 1999 to 2003. In 2000, Richardson was recruited to serve on the Central Point City Council, which helped inspire his decision to run for the Oregon State Legislature.
Oregon Legislature
Richardson was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2002, where he served for 12 years. In his second term, Richardson was elected by unanimous vote of both Democratic and Republican colleagues as Speaker Pro Tempore of the Oregon House of Representatives’ 73rd Legislative Session and chosen to oversee multibillion-dollar health and human service budgets as Chair of the Joint Senate–House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. In his third term, Richardson was reelected and served in the 74th Legislative Assembly, where he was selected to serve as the Minority Whip and as Vice-Chair of the HouseHealth Care Policy Committee. Prior to the opening of the 2011 session, Richardson served on the Republican negotiations team and helped craft the "Oregon Co-Governance Model." Later in 2011, Richardson was selected to oversee the $55 billion combined state budgets as Co-Chair of the Full Joint Senate–House Ways and Means Committee.
2014 gubernatorial campaign
In July 2013, Richardson announced his candidacy as a Republican candidate for the Governor of Oregon in 2014, with a strong focus on small business growth in the state. He won the nomination with 65% of the vote. Richardson went on to lose the 2014 General Election to Democratic incumbent, John Kitzhaber, who was elected to his fourth non-consecutive term as Governor. In the concluding weeks of the campaign, Richardson emphasized the corruption of Governor Kitzhaber and his administration and called for a federal investigation with a 13-page letter sent to the Federal Prosecutor in Portland, Oregon. Although insufficient to turn the tide on election day, newly re-elected Governor John Kitzhaber announced his resignation three months later on February 13, 2015.
In October 2015, Richardson announced he would be running for Oregon Secretary of State in the 2016 election. He defeated his opponent, Brad Avakian, in the November 2016 election. He was the first Republican to win a statewide election in Oregon since 2002, the first Republican to be elected Oregon Secretary of State since Norma Paulus was reelected in 1980, and the only Republican to hold statewide office in Oregon. Richardson was administered the oath of office on December 30, 2016, and formally took office on January 2, 2017.
Personal life
Two years following his honorable discharge from the Army, Richardson and his wife Cathy were married. Together they were the parents of one son and eight daughters. In May 2018, Richardson was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer. He died from the effects of that illness on February 26, 2019 in Central Point, Oregon, aged 69.
