Episode 3 - Dr. Melissa Bird - Congressional Candidate, OR-4

Dr. Melissa Bird is a congressional candidate challenging the incumbent in Oregon's 4th Congressional District Democratic primary. She holds a PhD in social work and brings years of experience writing and killing legislation at both state and federal levels as an advocate and lobbyist.

A descendant of the Shivwitz band of Southern Paiutes, a bisexual woman, and someone who has lived through poverty, Dr. Bird speaks to the lived experience that informs her policy work. She discusses why new voices are essential to democracy, what she's learned fighting for communities left behind, and why we need people in Congress who understand what it's like to struggle to afford groceries.

As fascism rises and the social safety net crumbles, Dr. Bird argues we need fighters in Congress who aren't bought by corporations. Tune in to hear from the candidate the Oregon Education Association did not want you to hear from.

Guest: Dr. Melissa Bird, Congressional Candidate, Oregon's 4th Congressional District
Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

From the coast to the highlight fire. We've been talking about the same old line. Big suits taking up all our time while the ring clock and the kids dance five. Kitchen table feels like town hall. We don't fit in that shopping mall. So we built this show and we said it all.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hello and welcome to the next episode of Oregon Voices. I'm Eric McGuire.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

And I'm Catherine Watkins.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

And we are joined today by Dr. Melissa Byrd, who is a congressional candidate in District 4 in Oregon. Just happens to be in the area of my hometown, Cottage Grove. And so we are super excited to bring her into our podcast and to get to know her a little bit and to get Oregonians to hear from her that maybe haven't heard yet. So welcome very much.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, it's going to be great. Just the pre-talking that we've done already. I can't wait for everything you're going to share with us. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So the first thing we usually do is um just ask uh our guests to kind of give their own background and to the degree in which you're comfortable. Um, give us a little bit of your story, um, kind of that brought you to this point of wanting to run for Congress against an incumbent uh and be a challenger pushing back against a system that isn't working for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm really, really happy about it. Um, and I'm really happy to be here with both of you. Uh, I am Dr. Melissa Byrd. I have a master's degree and a PhD in social work. Um, actually, my bachelor's is in human development and family studies and early childhood development. And then I have a master's degree in social work that I received in 2003 from the University of Utah. And then I went on full scholarship to the University of Southern California, which sometimes I laughingly joke and call the University of Spoiled Children. Uh I graduated my my PhD uh in 2017 in social work. And what led me, I want to talk about that a little bit because I think it's really important. What led me on that journey was um I entered my master's program thinking that I wanted to be a play therapist for the rest of my life. I'd been a preschool teacher for a number of years and I'd worked with abused and neglected kids who were preschool age. And um I really thought, well, my goodness, I could do this for a living. It would be amazing. And then I took my very first policy class, my first year of my master's program, and I was like, wait a minute, what is this? I can impact literally my whole community by engaging in social welfare policy and advocacy, and that was it. It just took off from there. And so we can get a little more into that if you want to. But that's really where my career took off. And so um, because of the work that I did in my master's program, I ended up um writing my first piece of legislation because of the research I did on homeless youth in Utah. I wrote an emancipation of a minor bill on my dining room table, taught myself how a bill becomes a law, and passed into law two years later. Wow. So two or three years later. From there, I was hired by a quality Utah, Utah's political action committee. Um, and then I was swept away by Planned Parenthood of Utah to be their chief lobbyist and the executive director of their C4 and their PAC. So that's where my career kind of went as an activist and an advocate. And um, I've written a lot of legislation and killed a lot of legislation and had a great time doing it at the federal and the state level. So I have experience in in both of those arenas. Um I am um a descendant of the Chivwitz Band of Southern Paiutes from Utah. And um I was born and raised in Utah, but I'm okay. No teaching. Um I grew up in a small town in Utah, a tourist town, Park City, Utah, which is not so small anymore, but um, you know, I graduated with 120 people. Um so uh I actually have a foundational understanding of tourism and tourism economies, which I think is um we could get into that about the district, especially with the coast and um our economy here in Oregon in the fourth congressional district. I came out um as bisexual in 1999 in Utah. So that was rough. That was a challenge. Um and ended up here in Oregon because my now husband, who um uh he, when I graduated with my PhD, he got into Oregon State University on the GI Bill. So he has a degree in marine biology and he works in the fisheries uh off the coast of Newport as a fisheries observer. So we have three kids. Wow. Uh they are teenagers, and one is um my oldest is 23. She just graduated from Portland State University. Congratulations! Um, another one's a senior, and then I have a freshman in high school. So in Corvallis. In Corvallis, yep. Yep. It's amazing. Two dogs. I drive a Camaro because my husband said I needed a car that reflected my personality. And I'm I was driving a Toyota Corolla, and I was like, well then I'm gonna buy a Camaro. So that's that's a little bit about me in a nutshell. I think that uh there's a lot of things that led me towards this run for Congress to get back to your original question about why I'm running for Congress in Oregon's fourth congressional district democratic primary. Um, I've always wanted to run for office. So when my friends were playing teacher and nurses and all the things, I was the president. Um and um I've always wanted to run for public office. I've been asked several times in my career in Utah as I was doing advocacy and lobbying and engaging in the political process. I'd been asked to run several times, but it was never the right time for me. And in 2024, I decided that we needed people in Congress who not only understand the structures of what's happening as a social worker and a trained macro macro practitioner in social work, understanding how all of the decisions that are being made at the federal level deeply impact our communities and the people in our communities. I really knew that we needed someone in Congress who was ready to fight and who had been through a lot of adversity and who knows what it's like to put things away at the grocery line because I can't afford them. Um, our family has been on Medicaid and food stamps. I live with a disabled veteran. You know, we have been through our fair share of struggles. And um I think it is really critically important at this point in our political juncture with the rise of fascism and the destruction of the social safety net that we have people in Congress who understand what it's like to live in this daily existence. Yeah. And that's why I'm running for Congress.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

I think that's amazing. Um I'm just super excited for you in terms of just challenging someone who's got this experience there and is an incumbent. Apparently, you know, when you're an incumbent, it somehow gives you the right to be in the seat just by virtue of being an incumbent.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yeah, I think I think that made a lot of sense maybe 30 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Maybe then.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Maybe. But I I think that in the face of what we have going on uh politically in this country and what we have going on with this current administration and the Republican leadership that we have in Congress at this moment, we need fighters. Yeah, we need people who are not bought and sold by corporations. We need people who are on the front lines living this life. And incumbency does not guarantee you a seat, particularly in the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is a two-year term because it's meant to represent the people. Right.

SPEAKER_05 7:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

And it's meant to be a body that transforms often. Um we talked, we talk a lot on the campaign about the fact that the House changes its rules every two years.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

There's a reason we created this democracy in that way. And the way the House of Representatives remains robust is to have new voices coming in, to have different people coming in with different perspectives. That's how you create a rich democracy. It's not the same people over and over and over again doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

And it has become that. Yep. But also the wisdom of the founders to have made the speaker of the house the third person in line to the presidency tells you like how important that person is and how close they are to the people. Yes. That's why that person has that position.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

So well, and this is like the crux of what we're dealing with is those who are trying to conserve and those who are trying to progress. And so if you have the conserving, you know, what are you conserving? You know, and what is that keeping us from progressing? And so we are alive people. We're always moving, the times are always moving. There's nothing permanent. And so we have to roll with the times. Otherwise, we lose our children, we lose all these things because we become archaic. And so this idea of conserving, conserving what? Because we're not conserving the land. We're not conserving, you know, um, we're not conserving dignity, we're not conserving rights. And so, like, what are we trying to hold on to and saying that's tradition and using that as a virtue signal when tradition it is very sacred, but when you're using it to control people, it loses all of its sanctity. And so you're just, I don't know, I just listening to you, I just feel like you're so the candidate because you've lived so many lives within your short amount of time. And I say short because we still have 40 to 50 more years. We're gonna be the I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

I don't know if you want to make her that.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

We 50-year-olds, uh, we're gonna be here for a while, you know. Um, and so you've just lived so many different lives that you really will understand the struggles of the people. And you're such a um self-starter, self-learner, a pragmatist trying to figure out what the issue is and all the different ways that you can figure it out. Those are the people that we need in these positions, not people that are like, I want clout chasing or I want the money. And that's what is becoming so evident as we're doing all these interviews now. I'm just like, we're we're seeing amazing people and in the shadow are these subpar people that just get it, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:44

Well, I think that I think what you're bringing up is really important because, you know, I'm the kid who barely made it out of high school. I really struggled. I was telling you this earlier, but one of my most favorite interviews we've done as a part of the campaign is my interview with my high school history teacher, which is on our YouTube channel, and I'll make sure you link to that in my show notes. But, you know, he is he said that he, you know, he watched me struggle. He the the the teachers in my high school were wondering what they were gonna do with me and my sisters because we were growing up in a very violent household. We there, my parents, my stepdad and my mom had a lot of struggles. My dad committed suicide when I was six years old. It broke my mother's heart. She ended up going on a very personal journey that was really difficult. And I, you know, I grew up in Utah in 19, like my dad died in 1980. We weren't talking about any of the things that we do now, right? And so I really struggled. And, you know, my high school history teacher said that he's more, he's like, yeah, you're running for Congress. Nobody is surprised about that. But the fact that you have a PhD is what blows my mind. And I think there's something to that, you know, to understanding the difficulties of life and having to think really creatively about how to survive in a world that does not want me to be in these spaces.

SPEAKER_05 12:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Uh, you know, as a woman, as a member of the LGBT community, as a native person, as all of these things, I don't, I'm not, we this whole system is created to keep people like me out of that system. And that's exactly why I'm running for Congress, because I represent the variety of this nation.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um okay, so as a challenger in the state of Oregon, uh, I know many states have actually gotten rid of this process, but Oregon has a closed primary system. And so what what that in effect what that does is we know for a fact that the number of Republicans in the world are shrinking. We know for a fact that the number of Democrats are also shrinking. So there's this huge middle of independence that don't get to be re represented in that in that way. And so I wondered maybe you could talk about how you're mounting a challenge against that reality. Um, and then we can talk more about that.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Yeah, so I grew up in a state that had an open Democratic primary and a closed Republican primary. So in the state of Utah, the Democratic primary is open and the Republican primary is closed. So it's a it varies by state by state, which I think is really interesting. Um being in Oregon where both of the major parties have a closed primary, um, I think it does a couple of things. First of all, 43% of the voters in Oregon are unaffiliated voters because of our motor voter. And so the independent folks who are registered as independents are actually registered with the independent party. And one of the things that we have really realized from the campaign is that people don't realize they're actually part of an actual party when they're registered independent. But then you've got these 43% of folks who really want to be involved in the political system, but they have no political home because of the way we here in Oregon have a closed primary system. So uh last fall, the rural uh caucus of the Democratic Party and the gun owners' caucus of the Democratic Party brought a resolution to the state party and said we would like to open the primaries to unaffiliated voters because we have a feeling that they would really like to be involved in this process. And the Democratic Party said no. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

You don't say.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

I know I'm so surprised. But here's the thing that I think is really critically important for people who are listening to this podcast to understand and who are who are thinking about this particular election cycle. Uh, we last fall we were looking at some research that nationwide, 7% of the voting populace nationwide makes up 83% of the people on the ballot because of closed primaries. That is not a democracy. That is a select chunk of voters picking the people we have on the ballot. And if you ever wondered why we do not have inspiring candidates on the ballot, it is a closed primary system because it keeps people who working people, people who are not funded by corporations or special interest people like that, it keeps people like that out of the system. It keeps regular people, which by the way, this is a democracy that is supposed to be representative of the people, not the corporations. This is a system that was built on that. And so the reason it's all wonky is because we have created systems that keep elite special people in power and have kept people like me out. And and I think that what we are seeing across this country and what we are absolutely gonna see in this race is the people want representation that represents them. Absolutely. And that's why I know I'm gonna win. Yeah. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Well, and it's so interesting. When I moved to the state, I I learned about that. And I've always identified as an independent, um, coming from the Bay Area. Um, you know, we had our government class, and I was like, I don't like what either of this is. And it's like the same bird, just different wings. So let's be real. Um, but I knew that I wanted to vote, and so I chose Democrat. Um, and my partner, um, he was that's a long story, but he was raised a Republican. And so he was just doing what he was told from his father. And so once he started seeing everything, um, he was like, Well, I'm just gonna go and be an independent. I said, You're gonna have to stay with either party, but if you're doing that, you're not gonna be able to vote. And um, so he's like, Well, maybe I'll just stay to be a Republican, but I'll vote Democrat.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

I think, I think what I really want people in Oregon to realize is that, you know, and we've had this conversation a lot as we've been on the campaign trail, you know, we have put thousands of miles on my car, speaking of my car. We have been up and down this district multiple times talking to voters and and being out with the people, and they are all deeply inspired by what we are doing. I've heard this now thousands of times, like, thank God you're running. I'm so happy you're running. And the question uh we follow up with them and ask is, are you a registered Democrat? And oftentimes the answer is no, I left the Democratic Party a long time ago. I'm sick of their crap. I don't, they're not giving me candidates that resonate with me. No. And then we have to have the conversation about well, if you want to vote for me in the primary, then you have to be a registered Democrat. And you can tell, because you know, voting is sacred. Like, like the voting is a sacred act between you and that ballot. You can tell that people are really struggling with this.

SPEAKER_05 17:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

Um, some of them are changing to vote for me, some of them aren't because they're just so fed up with this process. And I think that if we really want to exist in a true democracy, then we have to open our primaries.

SPEAKER_05 17:53

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 17:53

And all these lies and stories that are told about Republicans voting for the lesser of two evils and Democrats voting for the lesser of two evils, no, they're not gonna. It's just it's just not gonna happen. Yeah. We live in Oregon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Exactly. Exactly. So going back to the Democratic Party of Oregon, so my eyes became open to that last year, about this time when I ran for school board. Um and I had worked in Beaver Beaverton for 30 years, and you can't run for school board if you work in the district. So I finally left Beaverton and went to to Centennial, which meant that I could run, which I did. And I went to the night, which just recently happened. The Democratic Party endorsed our candidates just this week, I believe. And I went to that and my all of my visions as a 50-year-old dude were were completely shattered by that process. Going through that process was like just heartbreaking, but it it motivated me to what you were talking about, which is now calling people out in terms of how they support candidates and who they're gatekeeping. And so maybe if you could kind of parlay that into your experience with OEA and the process of of how you were um asked about PAC and what you went through for that.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

So there's a couple of things I want to talk about with this process because I think it's really important for just regular people to understand this. And, you know, I've worked on candidates, I've uh I've worked on campaigns, I've worked with candidates, I've, you know, I've endorsed candidates. I've I've been on all these different sides of of a race, right? And um it wasn't until I was actually a candidate that boy, it's a whole different thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

It's really behind the curtain.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

Woo!

SPEAKER_01 19:50

You know, it really is.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

I mean, you talk about laws and sauces that is being made, but you don't talk about the campaign process happening. So um the endorsement process, I knew it was gonna be rough. Like I I know that a lot of organizations, a lot of groups do not get involved in primary races, right? I know how that works. I've been I've been on that end of saying, no, we're not gonna get involved in your primary race. Um when you've got two really great candidates. I've been that person on that side. So there have been a lot of conversations that I've had with many organizations where I reached out personally, uh, particularly um to national organizations like Plain Parenthood and you know, Pro Choice America, because I mean, I worked there. So of course I reached out. And so this process of endorsing, of endorsing, I think is really fascinating because I I I think that it has become an entity in and of itself. And I've been endorsed by by some phenomenal organizations. I've been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America, um, both nationally and here in Oregon, Working Families Party of Oregon. Yeah. I just recently got the news last night, you're hearing it first, that I received the track APAC endorsement. Um, so congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Thrilled about that.

unknown 21:09

Yay!

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Um it several indivisibles have endorsed me. And we have applied. We applied for OEA's endorsement. We've applied for a couple of union endorsements because I'm pro, you know, pro-labor. I'm a working person. I understand, you know, um, especially as a social worker, you know, um, we are represented by a union here in Oregon. And so I have applied for endorsements from multiple unions and not heard back a thing. Um, OEA is not unique in that. Um, I I've haven't heard back from several organizations and um, or I've been rejected from organizations. Okay. Um and so I think what's really important for people to realize is that endorsement isn't about money necessarily. Endorsement is about Helping voters in the district know who your candidates are and know who is there for you. Um, and also be able to build volunteer support, you know, because it's a big district. It goes from the border of California all the way up the coast to the top of Blinken County, all of Benton County and all of Lane County and half of Douglas. I mean, that's this district is huge. Yeah. So if I could get the support of unions, we'd have extra volunteer support. And I'm not, and that's fine. Like, whatever. We're still gonna do this, and we still have an incredible, just incredible volunteer support throughout the entire district. But I think this endorsement process, particularly when it comes to the unions, I think that they should be giving their members a chance to hear from everybody who's running in a primary. Yeah. If I have applied for that endorsement, I should get the opportunity to be present to the members to speak to the members about why I'm applying for that endorsement and why it's important to me. One of the things that we've heard a couple of times is, of course, people always talk about the viability of a campaign. Well, is your campaign viable against an incumbent? Well, how are you measuring viability? Because the way I'm measuring viability is the way people are responding to me when I'm at their doors or when I'm in their community, or when I'm walking a protest line, or when I am standing with a group of human beings. And how are they responding to me? Because that's how I'm judging viability. Am I raising money? Absolutely. Am I raising millions? No, I'm not raising millions. That was never my intent in the first place. Right. My intent is to connect with people in their communities and give them another option and win, but really to give them another option and help them see that this is actually a representative democracy that represents all of the people. And so viability and the way that endorsing organizations judge viability is based on white supremacist capitalistic standards of performance. And I know that's important to y'all because I know your purpose of doing this podcast. If we are going to judge viability by how many millions of dollars I can raise, we have lost the plot, people. We have absolutely lost the plot about what it means to live in a representative democracy. If the only way you are judging my viability is based on how much money I can raise. Because that's not what I'm doing here. What I'm doing here is building a movement. I'm giving people hope.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

I am connecting with people in Port Orford and Brookings and Roseburg and Lincoln City and Newport and Floomuth and Cottage Grove and you know Junction City. Like I'm sitting in a room of voters in Junction City at the Senior Center, and two of them started crying. And I was like, why are we weeping? And they were like, no one has ever sat down to talk to us. No one has ever sat down and spoken to us about what issues are most important to me. And it feels so good to know that you would be at that federal level in Washington and still care about what's happening to me in the senior center in Junction City. So my viability may not be based on whether or not I can raise be raise$2 million, but it is based on whether or not I can reach a certain number of voters to get them to vote for me in the primary. Yeah. And I think that endorsing organizations like OEA and other organizations need to really, if you're going to be disrupting the narrative of white supremacist, capitalistic, patriarchal, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, all the things that people say they stand for, then you have to start with elections. Amen. You have to start with elections.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

And by not doing something shows that they are supporting that system.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Absolutely shows they're supporting that.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Yeah. If people are making a decision about my viability without speaking to me.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Yeah. And and just to know that the that process that your opponent received about 60%, which is not very much when you're talking about that process. Like people get 85, 95% when they get endorsed by the union. This person didn't get and with your presence, just your presence here, knowing in that room, if you would have been there, you would have been endorsed.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

So so that's that's what's so frustrating is like, you know, the the gatekeeping is is really sickening. Yeah. Um, to keep a candidate like you out of a process that could give you some momentum.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

That could not just give me momentum, but could give the members of the union hope. That could give people and something to look at as we are facing poverty and food insecurity and housing insecurity. And, you know, it doesn't take much to become homeless in the state of Oregon. It sure doesn't, especially in our district. In, you know, Corvallis is so rent-burdened. It you you miss one check and that's it. Yeah, right? Our hospital system is falling apart in the fourth congressional district. People are one paycheck away from a catastrophe in the fourth congressional dist. I mean, we're like that everywhere in the country. But imagine if the teachers who are part of the OEA union actually knew that they had not just someone who believes in public education, but who actually would go to the map for them on the floor of Congress, who would stand up and say, not on my watch. Because that's what we need is someone who's willing to pull the levers of Congress to say, not today. We're not gonna do this today. Whether or not I win in that debate is up for question because of the leadership right now. But that doesn't mean you don't get up and start doing it.

unknown 27:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Well, and this is the thing too. Like, so what I'm grappling with is like one, as a voter, I'm always looking at who the endorsement is because I see it as a vetting. And so if I see different organizations that I either participate in or I appreciate, or I've seen them do great work, when I see the candidates under, then I know I'm gonna spend my time looking deeper. I don't have to look too deep because they've already done it. Um, but it it helps me make my decision.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

That's such an important point.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:24

Because what we are exposing here, and what I'm hoping all of the voters in Oregon's fourth congressional here, and quite frankly, around the state of Oregon, is if you don't see an endorsement of an organization that you think is important, call the candidate and find out why. Email the candidate and find out why. DM them on Instagram and Facebook and tell them, ask them why. Because likely, especially in races like mine where I'm pushing the incumbent, the answer is going to be I wasn't invited. I filled out the application because yes, OEA is incredibly important to me. Talking to teachers and connecting with voters who are teaching our children. I'm an educator. I have taught from preschool up to master's level. I have been in, I have been in those spaces, whether it was it as an educator or a social worker. I know what goes on. I have kids in school. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_05 29:20

Right.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

And so, so I think what's important for all of us to get out to people, you know, you talk to your friends in OEA, you talk to your teacher people, you talk to the people in your community and say, this year is the year you ask a different question in a primary. This year is the year you ask, you ask the person challenging the incumbent if they went for the endorsement of the organization that you like so much and what happened.

unknown 29:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Well, and this is the other thing that mess that makes me angry. Um, I'm not with OEA anymore, um, but um, because I'm teaching in a charter school. Um, but um when I was, I was um chair of the core of racial equity. Um, and I was also in a really great program that OEA had um called Equity Sparks, which was supposed to bring up all the teachers of color, make sure that we were retaining them, supporting them, growing some more. And so everything that you've said is everything OEA at least told us, teachers of color, that they were wanting to see was that we were going to be rising up into positions of power and that they wanted to, you know, like see this, you know. And then so it's like, here you, you know, taught college, you were doing all this great educational work, you're a woman of color, you're a change maker. Are you not the face of OEA? You know, so it's like, how are we not, not we, because I'm not there anymore, but how are they not endorsing you when what they have told us is supposed to be the progression of what OEA is supposed to be is, you know, giving people who are not seen and heard the opportunity.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Well, and I think this is why this race is so important. I think this is why me running for Congress at this particular moment in time with the rise of Christian nationalism, the rise of white supremacy, the rise of these structures that keep people in power in power. This is why this race is so important. Because it's I know that I can do the work of Congress. Right. They're not doing a lot of work. So, I mean, I know I can go in there. I mean, we keep a running list. Every issue a voter brings up, we have a running list of possible potential pieces of legislation that we could introduce in Congress when we get into Congress.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

And I think the the thing that you're talking about that I've kind of realized in the last year, year and a half, is that as awful as these Republicans are, right, it's all out there, right? They don't hide it. Yeah. But once the water level starts coming down and you start getting into democratic politics, you start finding that there's a lot of things that are the same.

SPEAKER_05 31:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

There's a lot of gatekeeping going on, there's a lot of whiteness, there's a lot of dominant culture thinking, there's a lot of clutching of pearls. And so once you start exposing Democrats for that, that's where things are going to start getting uncomfortable. Yeah. And that's what you have to make.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

And it should be uncomfortable. This is a democracy. Yeah. This is a place where we can mess with stuff. That's the point. The point of this three branches of government, particularly when it comes to Congress, is that we're supposed to be bringing the issues of our district, of our people, all the people, including the Republicans, because I'm representing everybody, including the independents, including the unaffiliated voters. What are your issues? And how can we use the levers of Congress and the tools of Congress to help our communities? And that is a way different way of thinking than who are my donors? All my donors are just regular people. Mostly in the beginning, it was my friends and family, you know, because that's what they tell you when you run for office. Call everybody you know first, right? Ask what's your list? What's your call list? Who do you know? And then once you've built that base up, then you start calling people in the district and asking them for money. So my I have a mishmash of all the people, right? Right. And I think that's also something that's really important for people to really think about when you're looking at a grassroots race like mine, is that I'm not asking people, I don't mind the max out$3,500 checks. Don't get me wrong. I love those donations. Bring them. But this, this, the average donation is$93 in my race. Um, we get a lot of five and ten dollar contributions. We get some good chunky changes too, you know. But for the most part, this is this is a campaign that is powered by people.

SPEAKER_05 33:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

And I hope that the members of OEA and other unions push back against their leadership and say, why did we not get to talk to this person? Because this person actually has our best interest at heart and will not just doesn't just have them, but she understands what we go through and she will get on the floor of Congress or be in committee and fight like hell for us.

unknown 34:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

All right. So I wanted to ask you about cost because I remember in high school, they were talking about campaigns and all the things that people had to do to gain money. And I was always very much like, why would you need money to win when it's based on people voting? Um, and then as I have been looking at the treasury, at the different kinds of account candidates that are out there, um, seeing the disparity and um, you know, how people have hundreds of thousands and then just just a few tens of thousands. Um, and it makes me worried, you know, because I feel like if the real message is money is what makes you win, what are we even doing anyway? So I would love to just know about the cost and like all of the things that it is required for you to even qualify to get to the line. What is the money looking like on your end?

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Oh, thank you so much for asking this question. It um, oh, the cost of running for Congress. So I think there's a there's a couple of things that I I think is are really important for people to understand. It, I mean, it costs money to run for for any office, uh, no matter whether it's school board or judge or you know, it doesn't matter. It costs money to run for office. That's just how it is. And so, so when we first initially budgeted for this race, we budgeted big. Like we we were like, what's the pie in the sky number? And then what do we actually need to win? And those numbers are really different, right? Like, what could we do with millions? And what could we do with a hundred thousand? Um, and what are those things? And I and I think that what's really important for people to understand as they're thinking about how we do elections and what are the costs of elections. You have to pay to be on the ballot, um, or and that cost is not an extreme cost. It's it's it's expensive, but it's not like absurd. It's not absurd to get on the ballot. Or you can get signatures, right? Which is a great way of raising your your uh public persona in the world. Um, but I'll tell you where the costs get big. Uh what the party charges for the voter file for a congressional race is in the thousands of dollars, right? So five thousand dollars to get access to the voter file through the Democratic Party.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

And are you speaking about Van?

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Yeah, the voter action network. And that's a lot of money. That's a big chunk of change for someone who's running a grassroots campaign. It takes a that's an investment. That's a huge investment. The one that really got me though, that really kind of chaps my hide a little bit, is so what people don't know is that the voter's pamphlet statement, you know, you get your ballot and you get that nice booklet with everybody's picture in it and their occupation and who they are and what they do and their background and what they stand for, and then their endorsements, right? So in the state of Oregon, um, you have two options. You can pay$2,500 for 365 words or something like that. It's not a lot of words they give you in that statement. So you can pay$2,500 to do that, and you can edit it at any time you want. Okay. Or you can get 300 verified signatures on a petition, but you have to submit your voter's pamphlet statement and you can never edit it again.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

Because it's a petition, right? So people are signing something that they have read and they expect it to say exactly the same. So you can never, ever, ever edit your statement again. So, back to your point about endorsements and how you look on that voter pamphlet statement to look for endorsements. Mine's not going to have some really key endorsements because they didn't come in until after I had to submit the statement so I could collect the signatures. Because here's what we decided as a campaign. This is a great opportunity for me to get the word out to voters. This is a really good opportunity for me to engage my voter base in every county in the district, collect signatures, and then submit those to the state because we also had a goal, a signature goal, right? So if you need 300 confirmed signatures, you need to double that at least. And we did. And so we submitted all of these signatures to the Secretary of State, but I can't ever amend that statement again. So the track APAC endorsement won't be there, the Working Families Party endorsement won't be there. I think uh Progressive Victory won't be on there, the it, the indivisibles that I'm pulling in now won't be there. Uh, the people who have endorsed me won't be there because we chose to go the route of voter engagement, which because that's what this campaign is all about. It's about connecting with the voters and connecting with the people. And so I also want people to think really critically about what they're seeing in the voter pamphlet statement. I want this word to get out to people that, and you can look at our expenses, you can look at who has paid for the statement and who did the petition route.

SPEAKER_05 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Because I think that's actually a really important litmus test for who's running in an in the offices. If we're engaging with the voters because we are running on a budget where all of that money goes to field, because that's what it does. Everybody who donates to the campaign, that's all going into field. My staff is working as volunteers. Um I would love to raise all the money in the land to pay them, y'all. Hear me. Because they're doing great, exceptional, phenomenal work. Um, but you know, it costs a lot of money to run a campaign, right? Especially at the congressional level.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

It seems interesting that they there would be this just two pathways, but that the second pathway of signatures with the world of technology that we live in.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

That you couldn't add your endorsements as they come in and know that everybody that signed this believes in this statement. Or, you know, somehow you have to be able to adjust because that's a completely inequitable system.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Like without system. I I think without messing with the body of the statement, right? If you get endorsements and you want to include those on your statement, I think that the state of Oregon should allow that. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Well, and it kind of goes back to that idea of the conservation. What are you conserving? Gatekeeping of the common person being able to run. Do we is that what we're wanting to do? Because we have a lot of archaic practices that were purposely done to keep poor people from running, to keep people of color from running. And here we're in 2026, it's still happening. It's more expensive than anything. People are trying to just pay their rent.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

And so how are they gonna be able to do that? And they want to run for office, and they're really passionate about running for office. Absolutely. And they want to run for school board, city council, county council, you know, state office, federal office. A system, and I think you know, this leads so poignantly into another thing I want to make sure that I say. Of course. The the people who are entrenched in the system that got us here are not going to work to change the system. So when we talked about incumbency really early on as somehow this thing that just pulls you into the next thing, I am running against someone who's been in politics for decades. That doesn't make them a better leader than me. No.

SPEAKER_05 42:09

No.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

It doesn't.

SPEAKER_05 42:10

No.

SPEAKER_03 42:11

That the the we've bought into this narrative of the professional politician being the expert. When I when you look at the this this makeup of state elected officials throughout the country, we're talking about housewives and cow farmers and you know, they're not all attorneys, right? They're regular people who are running because they're passionate about their communities and representing in office. And so we have to remember that the people who are entrenched in this system of corporate donors, millions of dollars, really fat, you know, really fat political action committees, people who have multiple political action committees, my opponent has two. So that means if someone gives 3,500 over here, they can also give 3,500 over here. I'm just got one. Y'all, what you give me is what you give me, right? And I think it's really important for us to pay attention to that. Yeah. That this notion and this idea that the professional politician knows the things. No, they're just entrenched in a system that keeps them in power. And I think, you know, when you keep talking about this idea of what are we conserving and what are we progressing to, people want to conserve that proximity to power because they think that's what gives them knowledge. And what I want us to start really agitating when we think about politics and people who are running for public office is that knowledge comes from all of our collective lived experiences. And we need a diversity of voices at the congressional level all the way down to best represent the people of this nation, the people of Oregon, the people of the 4th district. Because I will tell you what they need. In Lincoln County is not what they need in Douglas County. And what people need in Eugene is not what we need in Corvallis. But we do have to have someone who's willing to look at the entirety of the district and say, What do you need? And how can I use my office to get you the services that you need?

SPEAKER_01 44:20

And if you if you go back and listen to our first episode, one of the things that I mentioned is this very thing that Oregon was created by people that look like me. Oh, 100%. And no one else comes into the picture for hundred, you know, well over a century or more. Yeah. And so those systems that are all made that way have always been sustained that way. Yeah. And so this is what you're seeing is because Oregon has changed demographically over the last 35, 40 years. And yet we have still there have been two statewide elected officials that have been people of color. One I remember because it was in the 90s when I was just getting out of Oregon State, uh, Jim Hill was the treasurer. And and that really that's just about it. And he was a state rep, he was a senator, he was a treasurer, ran for governor twice, and that's it. So like the gatekeepers are doing their job. They're keeping people that look like you and that look like you out of power because they know what the consequences are.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Well, and this is why I'm really urging everyone to go to the state treasury page because I've been looking at people's uh bank accounts or whatever it's called, and looking at all the money that people who are in positions of power and looking at the people who are giving them the money. And I'm like, how is that not a red flag there, there, there? It's like all of these corporate people. Why do you think corporate people care a little bit about Oregon here? And so it's just, it's just such a huge dog whistle, I think, when you go into the Treasury and you start going through everything and you're this like, hmm, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Well, and I really do encourage people to go look at the the Federal Elections Commission website and look at the difference between my opponent and me. Yeah. Look at where the money's coming from. I think it's really important.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

Yeah. And it's alarming. It's very alarming. Very alarming. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

So Oregon has had quite a deficit or had to deal with the deficit during this short session about trying to replace some of the backfill from HR one, which has called has has wreaked all kinds of damage, and in particular, healthcare. And I know that in Coos Bay there was a hospital that was almost ready to close, which would have been devastating for the people of that region. So maybe you could talk a little bit about um what you're seeing, uh, what are some solutions that you feel feel like might be viable, and then just go from there in terms of the issues for your district that are most important.

SPEAKER_03 46:57

Yeah, I think that Oh, healthcare. I take a big deep breath. I think um one of the most disconcerting things uh that I've learned in the district since I started running for Congress is how corporate healthcare has just completely devastated our systems. Um for example, in Corvallis, uh United Healthcare took over the Corvallis Clinic and fired every single one of our OBGYNs.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

Yeah. So it left the responsibility of not just gynecological care, like OB care, but also gynecological care, cancer screenings, you know, all of the things women go to the doctor for, the burden is now placed on Samaritan, which is also going through its own transformation of being bought out um by another is that also in Corvallis? Yeah. Okay. Samaritan actually covers um uh uh Lincoln County, Benton County, and Lane, Lane County. And so that's a huge hospital system that's gonna that's also being impacted by uh a buyout. And then in Coos Bay, um, I actually, while I was doing call time, randomly called a doctor who happened to be a doctor who worked at the hospital. And he said, I'm really glad you're running. I hope you can figure out how to save our hospital because we're gonna you we're gonna lose our um cardiac care unit. And so for stroke care, for for any sort of vessel care, and especially in emergency situations, they were at a crisis point. And I don't know what the city and the county have done to help them. I haven't caught up on that. Um, I've been a little busy running for Congress, so I haven't caught up on that. But but, you know, I actually uh talked to someone who was from North Bend and they had moved to Portland. They were still on my call list because their registration was still in North Bend. They'd had to move to Portland because her husband required more intensive care for uh Parkinson's. And so they had to relocate up here because the hospital system in Coose Bay couldn't handle his treatment. And they couldn't drive all the way over to Eugene because the roads were too much and it was too much. They couldn't get up to Corbellis because that's a long drive.

SPEAKER_05 49:20

That's a tough drive.

SPEAKER_03 49:21

It's a tough drive. And so all throughout the district, um, there have been good things that have happened. Um, you know, particularly down in Gold Beach, they're getting some cancer treatment services, which is fantastic. But for the most part, and in Eugene, it's a disaster. Um, the most recent um information that we received out of Eugene is because of corporate buyouts. They have this whole mishmash of emergency care. There's only one place you can go now. I can't remember the exact particulars of it, but regardless, like the entire hospital system in this huge city is in chaos because they're privatizing the doctors. And so these corporate takeovers of doctors and of clinics and of services, it's devastating. It's devastating. And and as we have an aging population, right? My mom's my mom's 76. As we have this aging population, what are they supposed to do if they live in the rural parts of the district? Where are they supposed to go? And how are we engaging in preventative care to help them make sure they get their services while at the same time we are devastating Medicaid and Medicare?

SPEAKER_00 50:36

And that was the thing I just learned about this last week. Um, we were um having drinks afterwards, and he um brought up the issue. And I was like, wait a minute, Coos Bay? Um, that's where my grandparents were from. And so they were living there. I was um pregnant with my son um 24 years ago. And so my 87-year-old woman um grandmother, her organs were failing, and so her lungs were filling up with liquid. And so um at first they were treating her in Portland, but then they were like, there's nothing really we can do, so just go back. There's a hospital in Coos Bay, so you're just gonna have to go and get drained. And so I just stayed with her so that we could drive her. Um, and you know, at first it was just like every three days, then it was every two days, then it was every day. And it got up to like 1.5 liters in her lungs. She was literally drowning. And she, if the hospital had been closed, we wouldn't have been able to drive anywhere. She would have died on the way. And so, you know, Kuzbay is a microcosm for everything else. What do you think is supposed to happen when people have no health care? Do they not have a population of women? Why would you get rid of gynecologists? You know, um, do they not have an elderly population? Yes, I do. You have all these populations, people get sick. Americans are some of the sickest people and we're closing down hospitals because why?

SPEAKER_03 52:03

You can't make a lot of money over there, is you know, I think I think we have just been kicking the can down the road on this for so long. And and and I think the thing, I think it's but really bizarre that healthcare has become a partisan issue. I think it's the strength. Yo, we all need penicillin. Like we all, you know, we need cast from time to time. We all break a bone. We all have hearts, we all have lungs, we all have brains, we all have skin, like we all have organs that get cancer. All of us do. All of us are at risk for diabetes and heart disease and all of these other things because we are getting sicker. And also preventative care. The best way that you save taxpayer dollars is to invest in preventative medical care. Absolutely. It costs us so much less money. You know, I support health care for all, universal health care. I think it's like critically important that we invest in those things. And I think that the lobbyists for the insurance companies and these big corporations would actually be quite pleasantly surprised at the amount of money they can still earn, even though all of us have medical coverage. Oh, yeah. Even though all of us have, you know, this unified system where we all have the same thing. I think they would be very pleasantly surprised by how much money they can still make off of us. People would start going to the doctor. They would indeed start going to the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

So, like, there's gonna be a such a flow of money.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

And so I think again, this goes back to our do we want people in office who are gonna fight for these things, or do we want people in office who are gonna fight for the corporations and the system that got them here? And that's the question we all have to ask ourselves when we go to the ballot box. Yeah. In 10 weeks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Holy cannoli.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

I cannot believe that.

SPEAKER_01 53:59

Um well, I don't know if you caught the end of our first episode, but we we actually got into a discussion about the spotted owl, um, which was a big part of um my upbringing with the family that worked for Warehouser. So maybe you could talk a little bit about the timber issues that are going on.

SPEAKER_03 54:16

I did catch that part of your that last part of your episode. Um, we have the Fender butterfly over in Benton County. Okay. So yeah. So let's talk about timber. So one of the things that recently happened in February is that the Trump administration announced that they wanted to engage in clear-cutting of BLM land, 2.5 million acres of BLM land in Oregon. A big chunk of that BLM land that's been identified is in the 4th Congressional District. Uh, my opponent did, in fact, vote for the Fix Our Forest Act to push the Fix Our Forest Act out of the House into the Senate that um supports uh old growth logging. This is what I think is really important for people to understand. Um, hopefully this will air before the reporting period ends, but there is opportunity to make public comment um on this until the 23rd of March. But in the meantime, one of the things that I think is really important for people to understand from me from a policy perspective is yes, I support the timber industry. Like, and we cannot cut down all of our trees because they don't come back, right?

SPEAKER_05 55:29

Right.

SPEAKER_03 55:29

You can't replant the the replanting, it's never the same. And we learned this as a state. Oregon knows that clear cutting is bad for Oregon because you literally can't grow back a thousand-year-old tree.

SPEAKER_05 55:43

Right.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

It doesn't work. And um, I was actually talking to a constituent down in Roseburg who's big in the logging industry. They're like, we don't have those machines anymore to handle those logs, they don't exist anymore. Right. Because in the timber industry, because of the regrowth, the machines you put those logs through don't even exist anymore. Because the trees aren't big enough.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

Right.

SPEAKER_03 56:09

Right? Yeah. And so I I definitely support the timber industry when the timber industry engages in sustainable forestry. Right. I think it is an important industry. I think it's a critical industry. But when you have gigantic conglomerates of corporations coming into the fourth congressional district and working with the Trump administration to fell our forests in Mary's Peak and Alsea Falls, they're targeting the avenue of the giants.

unknown 56:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:42

It's scary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:43

Yeah. It's really scary. It's really scary because I want my kids, and maybe if they decide to have kids, to be able to enjoy the forest. That's what I want for them. We're a hiking family, we're a camping family. It is the reason people come to Oregon is because of our forests and because of our oceans and because of our natural wonders, not to mention the spotted owl. When you fell a forest, you are messing with watersheds, you are messing with clean drinking water for the entire fourth congressional district, you're messing with salmon, you're messing with steelhead, you're messing with deer, you're messing with the entire ecosystem of the district. Why would you want to destroy it? Why would you not be doing everything in your power to honor it, to honor the land, to and and to log in a sustainable way that actually keeps the forest regenerating upon itself so that we can enjoy this bounty for you know millennia.

unknown 57:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

And so I think we are running into so many issues, right? I've been protesting the ice facility in Newport with the people of Newport. Um, I'm really thrilled to see that um so far so good, no ice facility is happening.

SPEAKER_01 58:01

I think I saw a headline today that said they were not gonna build anything.

SPEAKER_03 58:04

Right. Well, they can't because there's a lot of rules about sewage and the coast.

SPEAKER_01 58:09

Right.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

So thank God there's a lot of rules about sewage and the coast. Uh and also it's really inhumane, and the city of Newport doesn't want it.

SPEAKER_05 58:18

Right.

SPEAKER_03 58:18

Like, we don't want that here. Not here, right? And so I've been really involved in thinking about, you know, how do we look at an immigration system that actually creates a unified pathway for people to be immigrants in this country while we are getting rid of this militia that has been a 500-year-old problem. We've been doing this to brown people here for 500 years. ICE is not a new concept, it's a very old concept that we are just putting a different mask on it. That's all we're doing with it. Different name, different name, different mask. So as I look at everything that's happening in the district, and and people are really overwhelmed. I was speaking to a group of students yesterday. You know, these young people are like, I don't know what to have hope about. And I, you know what I told those students yesterday? I said to those students, I said, listen, have hope that the democracy that we live under is showing its cracks. Because a democracy that is built on slavery and genocide is not a democracy that is representative of the people, by the people, and for all the people. So let's experience joy in the idea that we are being given the opportunity to build a democracy that actually is representative of everybody who is here now. And it's showing its cracks, and those cracks are where the light gets through. And that gives me hope.

SPEAKER_05 59:46

Right.

SPEAKER_03 59:46

What gives me hope is that we have huge opportunities to connect as community and to think about how we are going to honor all of our shared humanity as well as the planet, because we are all woven together. What happens in the fourth district is going to impact what happens in the second district. Because we're we're we're linked. You can't, you know, what happens here also ripples out to the rest of Oregon.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

We're just hoping the fourth district stays. Everybody else can go all on the fourth district.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:18

Well, and you know, I'm I'm having similar conversations with my son and my bonus daughter. She's 26. My son is 23. And there is just this, you know, like they they live happily day to day, but you really start talking to them, and there is just this depression when they're just like, what's the point? And you know, my son is in college right now, and he's like, but why? Yeah. Like, is there gonna even be something for me? Like, is my college gonna stay open? Because he's going to a community college. Um, my daughter, she's just kind of like, I'm just trying to show up every day and do my job, but what's the point? And you know, I think of the indigenous planning of like seven generations ahead, you know, and we have all of this land. And I remember being in California as a child, the the forests of Oregon, you know, and then coming up to Coos Bay to visit my grandmother and just driving through just forest upon forest. Um, and you know So you know what it used to look like. Yes. And that's why driving out to 26 gets really disappointing, like just depressing depressing because you're seeing like carcasses all over of just tree nubs. You know, and you're like, yay, they're replanting. But going back to the spotted owl, and starting in the 1970s, they were doing 70,000 acres a year between Oregon and Washington of just deforestation. And so if we're doing that years upon years, and now the land that we have left, are we're not preserving it. We're looking at data centers, we're looking at, you know, all these other things that are not taking care of the land that we're trying to leave to our children who think it's not gonna be good. The groundwater is contaminated.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:07

Well, and this goes all the way back to what we were talking about either earlier about how people who benefit from the system aren't gonna do anything to change the system. Yeah. That's why you're seeing this uprising in data centers. That's why you're seeing this new green energy push towards nuclear power. Yeah. For real? Yeah. Like, yeah, like fossil fuels are bad, consumption is bad, and also lithium mining is one of the most toxic forms of mining in the in the world. And we have the largest lithium mine in Oregon and Nevada, the McDermott Caldera. And that's what that's where the batteries go for the electric cars and the solar panels and the computers and our phones and all of these things. So, so when we have to look at conservation again, like a web, right? It's not just that one thing is gonna save us all. And I can honestly say that I think the data centers are going to be our downfall. Oh, yeah. Absolutely our downfall because of the amount of water that they take. We are gonna be in a huge world of trouble here in the state of Oregon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

And you could look at all the other states that have already been experiencing it. So it's not like we have to wait until we experience it. We could just look.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:26

Data centers are already here. Yeah, they're already here. I was just gonna do a little geeking out because part of what you're talking about and systemically is that the system that we currently live under, the capitalist system that we live under, is all based on extraction.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

And so extraction becomes the mode, and it's not just extraction of materials, it's extraction of our attention. Yes. It's that's that's how people make money now is extracting our attention. Yes. So until that is recognized by enough people to say enough, that that's gonna be the norm.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

And so pushing back against that norm is gonna be very challenging, but it has to be done. Yeah. Because that's the message that people have to hear. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:08

And I think, you know, you have this quote here um where you'd said, um, we need fighters, we need gravediggers, which I love. Um and most importantly, we need a graceful revolution.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:20

When we started talking about the campaign, um, my campaign slogan is a better life for all. Um, which we think is a nice, it's a nice, you know, idea away from Make America Great Again. Yeah. A better life for all, I think, is what we really are craving. Yeah. Uh the Graceful Revolution Um actually came about because of my teaching. So when I used to teach social justice, advocacy, and policy to social work students, one of the things that we would talk about is activism and community organizing and building revolutionary shifts with the people that my students work with and for, right? And so this idea of creating a graceful revolution where we um we really engage in policy from a space of both and uh and nuance and really thinking, you know, we we live in this place. Uh we see this with this two-party political system, even of either or. You can have either this or you can have this. And this actually goes back to what you were talking about, thinking about the land and seven generations and all of, I think all of these things we've really been talking about today. The idea of a graceful revolution is that is that we can engage in revolutionary acts that aren't all about protesting. They're actually about connection and coming together and saying, I don't agree with you, and there is something to be said for. Or your ideas. And I think that's the fascinating thing about running for office right now is people keep trying to pull me into a fight that I online especially that I am not willing to have. Like I'm like, for real? It that life is not all or nothing, either, either or this polarized thing. Um, and I think as we watch this rise of fascism, as people are being pulled more towards the left, right? Or more towards the middle, because the majority of us live in the messy middle. This idea of graceful revolution is to just have kindness for ourselves, that we're gonna screw a lot of things up. Yeah, and that's okay, and acknowledging it is revolutionary. Actually talking to people who don't agree with you is revolutionary. Not in the effort to change their mind or to get them to think like you or invite them into the echo chamber, but to listen to their ideas. Because what I learned as a lobbyist, what I learned as an activist, what I learned as someone who wrote a lot of legislation is that that legislation is never gonna start out the way I imagined it. Yeah. Right. My very first bill, I thought it was the most beautiful bill, and it was just gonna sail right through and be amazing. And I was like, what is this amendment thing? Like, what is happening right now? And and and so, you know, that bill didn't look like it did when I first wrote it. That emancipation of a minor bill did not. But what I learned from that process is that um, and this is how I legislate, like this is how I operate in the world, is that you put in the dream and then you let it distill itself down to what it's gonna be. And nothing in politics is perfect. And we have to engage in acts of graceful revolution that allow for the imperfection of our lives. Government is a mess, it's not meant to be clean. Right. But if we start electing people into it who not who aren't afraid, who want to fight, who aren't bought and sold by corporations, and who know what it's like to stand up and be a warrior in a time of war, then we are gonna change the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:13

I love it. So um I would like to offer you an opportunity to just kind of close us out here with um uh what you would like to say to your constituents in in congressional district four.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:25

Oh I love my constituents. Okay, y'all. Here's the deal. Uh you don't have to be afraid of what you don't know. And my hope is that you will take this experience of listening to me talk about my race and that you will have hope. And that you will realize that yes, we are going up against a huge machine. But I'm not afraid of it. I do not fear what is coming. And I want y'all to get behind me and I want you to ask me questions. I want you, instead of assuming who I am, I want you to send me an email. I want you to go to coffee with me. I want you to come to one of my events. I want you to know that I am actually here to listen to you. I promise. And I can say that because every time someone e-mails the campaign, I email them back. And they are just totally floored that I'm willing to talk to them. And this I think is what's so important for the constituents of Congressional District 4 to understand, y'all, I am here to talk about why I'm running, who I am. I'm an open book. And that has been the thing that people are most excited about is that every single question, if I don't know the answer to the question, I'm gonna say I don't know, but I'll find out. But in the meantime, I am having dialogues with people who have felt so just completely left behind, even though they were really involved in party politics. And for those of you who feel left behind, I get it. I felt left behind too, and that's why I'm running for Congress. Because this is the time for us to rise. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:13

I just wish I lived in District 4 so I could vote.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:17

Tell your friends and family.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:20

Um Dr. Melissa Byrd, thank you so much for joining our podcast. We really appreciate it, and we wish you the best of luck and hope for your win.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:29

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure talking with both of you.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:32

Yeah, this has been just phenomenal. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:36

Right. That's the end of another episode of Oregon Voices.