Oregon Voices Podcast: Episode 15 - Dawn Rasmussen, Democratic Candidate, Oregon's 2nd Congressional District

Dawn Rasmussen has driven nearly 9,600 miles through Oregon's 2nd Congressional District, the largest district in the state and one of the largest in the entire country, covering nearly two thirds of Oregon's landmass. She lives in The Dalles, runs a small business helping people negotiate their worth, and has spent 18 years watching what happens when the economy breaks people and no one in power is paying attention. She is not running because politics called to her. She is running because she watched people get broken by a system that was supposed to serve them and decided she was done watching.

The district she is running to represent is the most impoverished section of Oregon, where roughly 40 percent of residents rely on Medicare, Medicaid, or SNAP benefits, where 14 of 37 Oregon hospitals are suffering cutbacks, where farmers in Baker City are buying helicopter insurance because there is no trauma care, where cherry growers in The Dalles are questioning whether they can survive another season, and where six Google data centers are drawing 550 million gallons of water a year from an aquifer Dawn lives on. Her opponent, incumbent Cliff Bentz, has held no town halls and brought in no special project funding for the district while neighboring representatives have delivered tens of millions of dollars to their communities.

This conversation, recorded at Capital Community Media in Salem, Oregon, features special co-host Oregon State Representative Lesly Munoz of House District 22 and covers what it actually costs to campaign across eastern and southern Oregon, what the Greater Idaho movement is really telling us about who feels forgotten, how renewable energy projects are being swallowed by data center demand instead of going to the grid, and what Dawn means when she calls this her moment of active resistance.

Thanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcast
Instagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcast

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599

Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

From the coast to the highlight line We've been talking about the same old line. Big tooth taking up all our time while the red cloud and the kids at class. Kitchen table feels like town hall. Grandma cousin at the late night call. We don't fit in that shopping ball. So we built this show and we said it all.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome to another episode of Oregon Voices. I'm Eric McGuire. My co-host, Catherine Watkins, is at a rural organizing project retreat today. So Leslie Munoz, who serves as the state representative for Oregon House District 22, will be co-hosting with me today.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Today we are joined by Don Rasmussen, Democratic candidate for Oregon's second congressional district, the largest district in Oregon, and having just found out, one of the largest districts in the entire country, covering nearly two-thirds of the state's landmass. Don lives in the Dallas, has spent 18 years running a small business, helping over 5,000 people find work and negotiate their worth, and has been showing up in communities across this district that most candidates drive past. Don, welcome to Oregon Voices.

SPEAKER_04 1:19

Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

I'm so happy that you could make it all the way here. As we do with our guests, the first question that we have is just for you to give us a sense of your background, your story, your lived experience, and how how you show up for this congressional race.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

Well, uh, you know, I started out uh in a middle class family. My mom was a professor, and uh so education was always very important with us, but um, we never had a ton of money. And so uh when I went to college, I ended up shouldering most of my college education um financial burden by myself. I wasn't, uh I think I was about 37 years old when I finally paid off my uh student loans from Pacific University. So I know the pain of trying to find a job, and I was in the television industry and that was kind of bopping around from different um roles and trying to find permanent work, which is kind of hard in industry that goes back and forth. But then I landed in the tourism industry, and that's where I found a great love. And so I was able to live an amazing uh career, and I mean live it because I really embraced it because I got to talk to folks all across the state of Oregon and learn about the amazing things we have here, and then go tell the tourists like overseas and across the United States why come visit Oregon. So I had to have that firsthand knowledge of the state, which helped me. And then I had a little bit of a career crossroads. I ended up uh helping out with um the Oregon Restaurant Lodging Association. I was with the Education Foundation, so I helped about 13,000 students across the state and 49 high schools learn about workforce development and also get uh there was a paid scholarship that they could earn and that kind of thing. And I ran the state high school culinary championships, which was stressful, let me tell you. And then uh I started my own business. So I've been helping people for the last 18 years on resumes. And I gotta tell you, one of the things that's really been important to me is I from the time that I started my business, it was back in the when right when the whole recession happened, and people were broken. They really were. Uh, they had a sense of like that there was this career security with employers that everybody was friends and they were like family. But when it came down to business decisions, all of a sudden they got let go and they felt so betrayed. And you know, companies didn't tend to put their finances first, which is you know understandable, but uh the people part was broken. And so I I've been a resume writer and to help people with their careers and uh earning as much as they can. A lot of times people come to me and they don't really know their full value. So I'm that person that can kind of polish the mirror and hold it up to them so they can see their value and feel confident because everything you do in negotiating your salary impacts positively the way of life you live. It impacts what kind of car you can buy, what kind of house you can buy, where you want to do, what you can do, how you feed your family, and that kind of thing. So I've been seeing a lot of broken people again now in this economy that we're really in an era of scarcity and it's not a badge to be held up, and it is actually something that we keep being told it's okay to be brave and hold on, and it's it's becoming unacceptable. Uh, people are struggling from every corner. And I've talked to people all around the United States, every career level, every stripe of person, you name it. It the it's uniform. People are in pain right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

And that's why I'm running.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Awesome. Um, I I was hoping that maybe you could kind of give us some uh background about the process you went through to try to run for to run for this seat. I I only speak about this because I went I ran for a school board position a year a year ago, a little over a year ago, and it took me two months to to do that, to run for a school board position where there's like 25,000 people voting instead of so many that are in your congressional district. So what what process, what person nudged you along the way to say, I can't tolerate this any longer?

SPEAKER_04 5:15

I have always been very interested in politics, not personally for my own, you know, getting elected, but I've always stayed on top of them and I've been very active in uh elections and I've done election observing up in Wasco County. That's a volunteer election observer, but and I've been involved in campaigns and initiatives, and I see uh voting and and just getting people engaged in the process is a very, very huge part of our democracy staying engaged and alive. And I did run in 2016, 20, well, it was 2016, 2017, whenever Trump got elected. The first time I got very angry. Uh, I you know, I didn't want someone who, you know, made some very vile comments about grabbing women by a certain part. Uh, I I said, you know, I I'm gonna stand up. So I got I ran and I got elected to the um Dallas uh Northwascoe County uh school district board. So I served there. And that actually segued to building some connections with teachers. And one of the teachers, he's a robotics teacher at the high school. After my term was done, he kept saying, run, run, run. And I had a couple other friends saying, you need to run, you need to run for office. And so it was kind of in the back of my mind. And then when I saw what was going to happen and transpire with the whole Trump election part two, I started to get a little bit more serious about it. So I reached out to a friend of mine. He, I speak a lot nationally at conferences and about queer topics, and he's in that same kind of circle of speakers, but he talks on uh more government affairs and elections and engagement. And so I called him up. His name is Roger Rickard, and he is uh he was a consultant for the John McCain uh campaign for president. He's now a Democrat. And I said, you know, uh, Roger, I'm thinking about running. He says, You'd be perfect. You're so good at organizing and connecting with people, and you know how to do events, you know how to uh build partnerships and you know how to speak and all the things. And it's one of those moments where you don't see the obvious right in front of you. And I think that's what kind of pushed me off the ledge. And so I just feel very strongly that this is my moment of active resistance. I have a 99-year-old teacher from high school, Mr. Mortensen. He fought in Iojima and also Okinawa, and he's part of the greatest generation. And he just inspired me. He saw me at a point when I was in high school where I just needed someone to actually see me. And he gave me the strength to be able to uh reach out and start growing. And so for me, he's my inspiration. And kind of in retrospect, as a student, you know, student in the 80s, we kind of thought that, of course, you know, we're gonna win World War II. We were the good guys, you know, and and they didn't know that at the time. And we're kind of at that same place right now that of course the good guys are gonna win in this war uh that's being waged against democracy. But you know, there is no sure outcome. And so I believe this is my time to stand up and resist, especially when we have people who are not following the constitution and really destroying all of our beloved institutions. Were they perfect? No. But at the same time, what was there is no longer, and we have to go back and fight for them and fight like hell.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Thank you for doing that. It's really important.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Thank you. Yeah, Don, tell us what you like most about campaigning. I know it's really difficult to campaign. I've done it myself. Uh, but you know, for for me, the door knocking allowed me to meet a lot of my neighbors and find out about issues that I didn't know people were having in my community. And how has it been for you? What is the one thing that you like most about campaigning?

SPEAKER_04 8:47

Oh my gosh. Uh, you know, I've gone almost 9,600 miles in this campaign in this very large district, but you know what, it's not the miles. I call it the smiles that matter. And there's so many people, I know that sounds dorky, but that's how I am.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

I love that.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

But, you know, it's meeting people at where they're at. And and I think you gotta be fearless. And, you know, I'm one of those people where I can enter a conversation and and I exude respect and and interest and authenticity in a way that connects to people and they can tell that they sincerely care about what their thoughts and concerns are. And one of the things I I like to throw out too is that I belong to braverangels.org. It's a group that's national and they are helping uh Democrats and Republicans talk to each other again and avoid some of that polarized language. So some of those skills I've learned to avoid charged words that trigger people, it's helping me navigate some of that difference and break down those barriers and be able to have honest conversations and nobody feels defensive or feels triggered. So, and I think that's really critical. This is a very red district, and so it's gonna take someone who's not only needs to win the Democrats in the primary, but then be able to reach across the aisle and connect with voters across this district at their level. And so for me, seeing that person kind of click and have that moment like, okay, she's really, she's really who she says she is. She's authentic. And I think that goes a lot with even younger people. They've been kind of uh they're a little bit jaded now and they're kind of waiting out and just want to see is this person really who they say they are. And I get that part. So I am who I am. I'm not disingenuous. What you see is what you get.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Yeah. One of the things that has been eye-opening at the state capitol for me is understanding that we all kind of understand what the issues are. We agree on what the issues are. What we don't agree is how to go about fixing or, you know, what resolutions uh we need to seek out to to, you know, create a a different outcome for people. So um, yeah, it's gonna be really important for you to have, you know, those skills and to be able to listen um for understanding because I think that's how we improve systems.

SPEAKER_04 10:59

Absolutely. And and I kind of throw it out that right now it's been like drinking from a fire hose. And I'm sure once you get an elected office like you are, it's like drinking from a water cannon. But you know, it it is really important, I believe, that we can understand what the po the issues are and come up with policies, but it always has to go back to the people out in the field, the the voters, the constituents, the people in your district, because whatever may be a policy idea out there may have a totally different impact when it's actually practiced in real life. So part of that is really staying in touch with your constituents and understanding what their concerns and needs are and really considering what all those different impacts might be.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah. One of the things that I truly believe is that diversity and experience matters. And so although we all get to, you know, these positions when we win and we're elected, we get to them with no experience in in that particular area. All of the skills that you've gained through your life are transferable skills, and you get to speak for, you know, a specific group of people that match your experience. And I think that when we put all of those experiences together, we can do great big things. Absolutely and you were on a school board already, and so you you are going to be a champion for education. Um, and I, you know, believe in education as well. I think that our system here in Oregon needs some help. Absolutely. So I'm excited to see what you're gonna do once you win. Well, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Okay, well, let's um jump ahead a little bit here. Let's talk about your opponent in in the general election, Cliff Bent. Can you share a little bit since 2021, I believe, was when he was first uh elected, uh what he's been doing for the last five years in in the district.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

I would say the majority of the constituents in this district have the same question. Well, you know, I I I say that tongue in cheek, but the reality is um the Constitution wrote the House of Representatives role for two years for a reason because they wanted to have people elected to Congress that are out, there's a constant churn. It's two years, and then you gotta go run up, but you know, run for election again. And part of that is it's gonna force the representatives out in the district because they have to mingle and keep building those votes. But more importantly, it's about learning what the real issues and problems are. And when you have someone like Cliff Bence who is doing everything but the real hard work out there, he's he's operating on the periphery, he will not have town halls, but he's going around all of a sudden very quickly, uh, dotting himself around the state in this district and uh going through the motions, meeting people and tagging them. But it's not necessarily that they're in favor of him. He's just meeting with them, but he's trying to kind of curry or imply favor. And that's not necessarily the case. I know that on a couple points that people are pretty upset that he tagged them. So he's not showing up in this district in the form of town hall. So I know that's something I will absolutely change immediately because uh, you know, if you look at Wyden, he's had almost 1900 town halls. I think at this point, that's the pace you need to have. And he's a senator, and that's a six-year term.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Right. I think one of the things that's so interesting about what you said about representatives is that um there's a reason why the House of Representatives is the leader of the House is the third in line to the presidency. It's because they represent the people more than any other position. Right. And so if you're a representative and you're not out amongst your people, it says a lot about what you're afraid of. Right. So I and and I think Republicans are running scared now out in out in the wild. And so I think he probably is feeling that pressure.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

You know, I I have to raise a question also that um there's this thing called the franking privilege, if you are familiar with it. But it is uh it is an op opportunity for elected officials in DC to basically send out mailers to their constituents that is paid for by this people of the United States by the Treasury. And so it's publicly funded mailers. Well, Cliff Bentz just sent one out um probably about two and a half weeks ago, something like that. And it was a very glossy trifold deal that extolled all the virtues of everything he's been doing. I just found it highly coincidental that it's just a few weeks before the election that that came out. And so I would quite a question whether that's skating on some thin ethical ice there. And that would be something for a secretary of state or somebody to investigate. But uh, you know, it was all basically touting his wins, which are very thin. And I actually tore a lot of those down on my Facebook page. But yeah, so Cliff Bence is not holding town halls, he's kind of screwing around. He also held a forum out in uh Baker City. He was the moderator versus the person taking the questions. I find that highly ironic. And he was also talking to like the second and third tier gubernatorial candidates, not the front runners. So, including one January 6 or so you kind of wonder about that. And then the other thing that Cliff Bence is not doing, and this is really where we're feeling a lot of pain in this district, is the duty of the power of the purse in this role is to bring home community funding projects and uh money for those projects. And Cliff Bence, not zero. I mean, he did get a line item in the federal budget for I believe $80 million for um the airfield in uh Klamath Falls to build a new training center, but that was a line item in the federal budget. But as far as special project funding, uh Cliff Bence has not brought anything. And when we look at some of the other representatives like uh Maxine Dexter, she brought in $24 million. And that's per year. And when we have been sitting here, and this is the most uh impoverished section of the state and not getting any support for our projects, I started a whole matrix so I can hit the ground running, and I've got a list of community projects that need funding that we can actually get earmarked and put into uh, you know, those communities to help jumpstart healthcare and uh jobs, job creation, and uh move projects along. And that's desperately needed in this district because there's uh a lot of industries that have dropped off, like limber and timber and that kind of thing. So and farmers are struggling too.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Well, it sounds like you're already making um Cliff Bence a better representative just by running, because at least he sent out a mail.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

That is something Rossi's very, very scared, and he has feels like he has to try to make up for lost time. That's what I'm kind of considering. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah. Um maybe you could tell us what what's the top line on your spreadsheet? Like what what comes to mind first that you're you would love to fund something in your in your district.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

You know, it every every community has a different need. And so I uh that's part of where I would rely on a team of policy people advising me on where and part of it's also where does the funding come up? But I'm not trying to dodge it, it's just right now I'd have to get a grasp grasp of what is available at the federal level. So I think basically you have your list, and then as stuff comes down, then you can try to match things up. Uh I could I spoke to the police chief in Pendleton, and they were very desperately needing like a command vehicle because at the Pendleton Roundup and the Whiskey Festival, they need like a central command thing. Uh so and also to help people, like a medic place in case there's injuries or heat stroke or whatever. Um, so that was a specific thing. And then I've also uh spoke also in Pendleton with the uh president of the hospital there, and there are no beds for people suffering mental health crises. And so what's happening is they show up in the emergency room, and they're oftentimes many, many people in crisis are becoming very violent, and it's uh you know injuring some of the staff. And so we need more help in terms of you know, can we get some programming going and and actual uh facilities for mental health? Otherwise, they have to be sent away to other communities, and those places already have their waiting lists. So we have a lot of major challenges all across the district, absolutely.

unknown 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

So one of the highlights of my day usually is um finding out where in the world Melissa Byrd is. And so uh as I as I watch her travel up and down her her congressional district campaigning and and meeting with so many great people, I was wondering if you could share your experiences in your day-to-day in a in a part of the state that's three times larger than Congressional District and how you manage uh to move around that huge area. Hopefully you have a really reliable vehicle. You're not breaking down somewhere. Uh but maybe share with us kind of what that's what that experience has brought you in terms of um your own just feeling about your district.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

I feel so much excitement and pride of this district. I like I mentioned my background in tourism has shown me all these wonderful things that I'll honestly I will confess, the hardest thing for me to do on my travels is to remind myself you are not a tourist, you have places to go and people to meet, literally. But uh to date I've gone almost 9,600 miles, and I just, you know, Melissa is amazing what she's doing, and she inspires me. We met at the working family party of Oregon Campaign School, and we've become friends, and I just call her fierce and she's fire. That's what and she inspires me. And you know, this is a huge district, and I'm very cognizant of the fact that this race isn't just about going all out just for the primary, it's gonna be going all out for the general, and then going all out once you get an office. So this is just a precursor. And, you know, yes, would I rather be at home watching Netflix, sitting on the couch with my husband? Absolutely. But you know, sometimes the most difficult things we have to do are the ones that get us out of our comfort zone. And when I left today, I left a couple hours ago and my husband, I said, I'm sorry I have to leave so soon. I literally was gone seven days, I was home one and a half days, and now I'm out for nine days again. And he just looked at me and held my hand and said, It's okay, you're doing important work. And, you know, that really just hit me right in the gut because I I kind of see it as I have I have to do this because that's what it requires. And, you know, in uh there's a term out there called emotional labor. I don't know if either one of you know that term, but it's when particularly women, we do the work because we know it needs to be done and no one's asking us to do it. It's just the right thing to do, and we just pick it up and run with it. And so I have pretty much been throwing everything I got out on the table with this. It's going, you know. Constantly. I mean, last week I had a very grueling day. I had uh an event in the little town of Tequilma down by the California border, just south of Cave Junction. And after that, then the next day I drove from there all the way out to Joseph near Joseph and Enterprise, Oregon. That was nine hour straight driving. Then I had about two and a half hour candidate form. And after that, then I did a meet and greet at Terminal Gravity Brewing. And so was I tired by the end of that night? Yes. I pretty much face planted. But that's what it takes. And you know, I love it. I mean, I just uh I sometimes I have some really good tunes jamming to in the car, and I just feel this incredible love for the people in this district. And I know most people are just trying so hard just to make a good living for themselves and get by and make sure their needs are taken care of. And they deserve a representative who gets that and is willing to take that to the bank in Congress and make sure that we defend that and fight for them, not the opposite.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Yeah. It's so great. And actually, like once you get into relationship with your community, you start door knocking and meeting people, you know, you you have something to fight for. And the same way that relationships grow love, you grow love for your community. Absolutely. After all of this, uh, you're gonna be such a great um representative for those people. Thank you. Thank you for doing the work, for stepping up.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

It's hard work. It's also a growth opportunity too, because I'm learning so much. And I'm learning stuff about the state, I'm learning about the communities, I'm learning about people, I'm learning about different viewpoints, but I'm also learning a lot about myself.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 23:38

And this has been a huge growth opportunity. And I I've always embraced change and growth and new ideas, and it I like to learn a bunch of stuff and then kind of sit back and reflect on it, let it percolate. And and this has been a lot of percolating, especially when I have nine hours to drive.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

So I was gonna say that driving time makes you reflect on a lot.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

It does very, yeah, very much so.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yeah, and as as a former school board member, having run and won, you you did get a look behind I call it behind the curtain. Yeah, like uh at the way things are handled and all the deals that are made and whatever. But that I agree with you. That was the biggest thing for me, is like as a 57-year-old, you know, putting yourself into a position where you have to be in front of people. If you're gonna do it right, you gotta call people out.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

That is gonna make them uncomfortable and and potentially yourself uncomfortable. But when you do it for the first time, it's uplifting. It is and it tells you how much of more of a person you can be than you were. Yeah, so I think that's really commendable to have that self-reflection. Um, and that I I'm sure that keeps pushing you forward into the next meeting, into the next road trip.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

It it does. And I would say I've always been a lifelong activist. Like I'm not someone to just sit there and and I'm on very good terms with him, but my ex-husband, he was kind of an armchair person, which is fine. You know, everybody has a role to play, but I was just like, I can't do that. I gotta go out and I gotta go do this and you know, get out and get active. And, you know, I I gotta show this one little story. I was driving through Medford and I was on my way to an event in Jacksonville, and I was driving the back roads, and there was this guy outside. It was a beautiful day, it was about 80 degrees, and he's sitting there in his driveway picking weeds and throwing them in a bucket, and it was just a beautiful day. And I thought, what's that like? You know, just not being in a world where you just feel this tremendous obligation to step up and speak out. But I feel like everything's on fire, and this is the time of all times to be doing that because otherwise there's not gonna be much of a future to fight for.

unknown 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I'm so glad that you're inspired by the work that needs to be done and that you're willing to do it because that's what it takes to be a good representative. So thank you for that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Yeah, thank you. Quick question is is Gold Beach in your no. Okay, that's the that's district two or congressional district two.

SPEAKER_04 25:55

Uh I'm in congressional district. Uh, you're in two. I think that might be four. I might be Melissa Birds district. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

I live my entire life with five.

SPEAKER_04 26:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

So like the sixth one has thrown me off where all the boundaries are and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 26:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Um so I I've been to lots of parts of Oregon, but I haven't been to the eastern side of Oregon very much. The most I spent there was when I was with a friend in the Wallawas um fishing up on the Wallawa River. So looking at those mountains, when you experience that for the first time, it is something else. Um and I'm wondering if you could give us knowing that all these different communities are so vastly different and unique, but like what are some of the themes of things that people most need on Oregon's east side?

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Well, uh, I think one of the biggest things is that uh both at the state level and the federal level, they feel forgotten. And I hear that a lot. Uh and especially when you have Cliff Bence, I don't want to keep hammering on him, but in fact I have to because uh that this is the most impoverished district in the state. 40%, I believe, of people are on uh Medicare and Medicaid and also on SNAP benefits. So they need help. And when we've had the uh loss of a lot of jobs, and people are forced to, you know, not there's no no work to be found. And then we have these regulations about trying to get a job to be able to stay or at least show volunteer work or work, and then they are kept on Medicaid, and it's like a double indemnity. And so I'd say the people of Eastern Oregon, and I'm gonna say southern Oregon because that includes the whole Rogue Gumqua Valley all the way out to Idaho. So that's this is a big swath. Uh, you know, people are just really independent and they're very proud. They call it the frontier part of the state, and I think that communicates a lot of the spirit that they have. I don't think anybody wants to be on federal support. They'd rather be able to do it on their own, but when there's no opportunity, where do you go? And if you don't have the means, you can't leave. So it's a challenge, and then we have a lot of broken systems. You know, we have health care could be hours away because a lot of our uh, I think 14 out of our 37 hospitals are suffering cutbacks. And that is that's statewide, but you know, but mostly in this district that they're being restricted. I mean, I went to Baker City and I was speaking to a group of people out there, and I said, How many of you have helicopter insurance? And almost every single hand went up because they have to have life flight because there's no urgent care. I mean, there's no trauma care there. So what if you're in a car wreck or what if you have a heart attack? I mean, they have to fly them to Boise or Tri-Cities. And that says a lot. And that's that's a town. I mean, Baker City is a town. There's so many small, you know, really very, you know, like a population of 15 or 20 people in these areas. So I think a lot of people are being hurt and and um they're feeling feeling neglected and they're just not feeling like their voices are heard. And I actually, I was at the Wallawa County forum last week, and the woman sat next to me and she's with the Greater Idaho movement. Uh, the county, I believe, voted for it, but there's not a lot of traction moving forward it. But that one of the things they're trying to do, and she was trying to advocate, is to have uh twice-a year meetings to reiterate the concerns of the Greater Idaho movement. And you know, it's not so much what she's saying, but the underlying reasons of why she's saying it, because a lot of people are feeling neglected and they feel like, you know, in honestly, Portland and Salem do dominate the politics, and a lot of the money do does stay in those two communities. And when we have people in eastern Oregon, it's it's really tough. And we have farmers hanging on by a thread, and it's just it's really tough out there, and that's hard for people who are suffering.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Yeah. Uh would you what's the one thing you could you could if you could use your spreadsheet and you had unlimited money, what's the one thing you would do to improve people's lives?

SPEAKER_04 30:10

I think job creation would be number one because if you have jobs, then that can help generate money. I'll I'll share a really great um thing that came out of a conversation I had out in Pendleton. Pendleton is uh positioning itself as kind of like the top go-to place for um drones. And uh the uh the airport director Steve Christman, he's also the executive director of the economic development, he has a vision which I absolutely embraced because he's talking about how companies are coming to Pendleton to test the equipment, and it's both military and non-military, so like you know, big companies testing things. And uh he sees their facilities like the testing place and the supply chain is kind of in the middle of the state, and then the uh manufacturing as another part of the state. So he's thinking of like a tri-regional strategy, and if you can find projects like that that you can invest in, then everybody benefits. So it's like, you know, a lot of the innovators are out there. We just need to find them and find ways that we can support them. And job creation is, you know, you gotta, it's really ends with it starts and ends with that to give people opportunities. And people like farmers, they already have their jobs. And I keep going back to farmers, but that is such a huge part of this district. Um, they're struggling from the you know, the legal war impacting um fertilizer prices, and the same thing with gas prices. And I'm convinced the gas shock is not hit yet. Well, yeah, diesel too. But I mean, just overall the shock has not hit the United States. It's gonna it already hit Asia, and they're talking about you know, brownouts and restrictions and rationing, and then Africa was next, and then Europe, and then us. So it's not unbelievable or uninconceivable to look at seven to ten dollars a gallon coming up, and that's even if the whole everything got started up right now, again, like before the war. Yeah. So we have that, and then we have the tariffs that have hurt the farmers horrifically with their products and also parts for the thing, you know, things that they have, uh, you know, their equipment, and then you know, uh it's just everything. I mean, application. I talked to uh uh scientist the other day, and he was talking about with the lack of fertilizer that wheatlands they can kind of keep generating, but you do need to add something to the soil because then it becomes too acidic. And so that's a concern that if we can't get enough fertilizer in, then they're gonna have to start liming the fields because they're so acidic, and that's gonna cost even more. So it's just one problem after another. And when you take one thing away, then there's something else happens. And so that's been a real challenge for the farmers. And it's never being been a big high profit margin industry anyway. And I've talked to one cherry farmer in the Dalles, he's looking at maybe not uh operating anymore if he doesn't have a good year this year because it's just the margins too thin. And then there was a wheat grower I talked to, they took a half a million dollar loan out just to pay the bills. Uh you can't that's not that's not positive margin territory there. And so I believe we need to support our multi-generational farmers. They're parts of our community, they put food on the table. And oftentimes, you know, when we talk about fire, they're also, especially out where I live, um, there's a lot of wildland fire, and they're the first responders too. I mean, they have their little telephone trees and they get out there with their tractors and start discing the fields, and they're the ones who are getting there, you know, first before any airplane or any other fire crew gets there. So um we need to suck them.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

It's interesting because um we're always gonna need to eat. Yes. And food comes from farmers. And so I I think it's really interesting how um our state is looking at ways to be innovative and you know, to invest in tech and invest in these other things when we need to invest in our farmlands, we need to invest in our farmers, we need to make sure that we are um, you know, growing food because we will eat forever. And I don't know, technology changes investing in the same in technology um is not gonna feed us. And so I I I you know that I think there's something to be said for what you said. We do need to support our farmers.

SPEAKER_04 34:15

And it and you know, I'm very concerned about outfits like Acre Traders, which is I believe affiliated with Vice President Vance, and basically they're buying up distressed multi-generational farms for pennies on the dollar, and then they become like investments. And so I, you know, that's wrong. And we can't have big multi-corporations owning our farmlands, or even another problem is other international companies or um individuals are buying up our land. So, at what point have we given up so much that we can't support ourselves? And that terrifies me.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Yeah. I I have two questions. Okay. The first one is a long-term question. You've you've been a resident of the Dallas for 10 years. 10 years. And where did you live before that?

SPEAKER_04 35:05

I did live in Portland.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Okay. So my I guess my question is um the condition that Eastern Oregon and and much of Oregon finds itself into, to be honest with you. But Eastern Oregon, like you've just described it, these are problems that have been going on for decades. Maybe 30, 40 years since that part of our state has been had productive year after year productive crops and so forth. So that's a long-term problem that I'm not sure everybody sees as a long-term problem, right? And how to fit. Out the farmers.

SPEAKER_04 35:38

Yeah, they do every year, and they're trying to get their kids to continue with the family business, and the kids, some of the kids are not not interested.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Yeah, and so do do any of the farmers then have like ideas about like what how do you get how do you get traction on an on a problem that's been around so long and is exhibiting all of these issues that are now confronting it that are even worse? Yeah. That's my first question. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:03

So I do that one first, and then yeah, okay. After that, well, they are actually linked.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Uh I thought they might be.

SPEAKER_04 36:11

Yeah. So you know, you know, we are facing unprecedented changes in our weather. And if you're out in eastern Oregon and you say extreme weather events, and if you're in from the Met Valley, you say climate change. So we're talking the same thing, and the farmers know. We are in extended drought, uh, not just this past winter, but in general, uh, most of eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon are in extended drought, like a super drought. So that means a lot less irrigation, a lot less available water from spring flows and that kind of thing. So that is a huge problem. And so it is forcing the hand of farmers of like, what are they going to do? What are they going to grow? I mean, I've heard about orchardists pulling down their cherry trees because they just can't produce enough and making room for cows. Cows are a high-ticket item now. So they're having to change some of their practices out in Sherman County. Uh this kind of segues into the whole data center thing. But I went to a public hearing talking about a big power project that's going in in South Sherman County. And uh I heard from a group of stakeholders that were pro the power event and power farm. But what I did learn, it was really interesting that Sherman County is the only other place, to the best of my knowledge, other than Alaska, where every resident gets a rebate check. I mean, like Alaska, every resident gets an oil rebate check. Well, Sherman County's getting a green energy check. So you're resident, you live there, you get this check. So that helps there. Uh the companies using the energy, they also contribute to the tax base, and Sherman County is broke. So that money is going into the county coffers and paying for upgrades to the fire station, fire equipment, and other things, which is much needed, absolutely. And then this is the crux. Farmers are being faced with do I try to run my odds of trying to produce a crop this year, not knowing what the weather's gonna do? Or do I just opt to put a power farm on my property and it's a steady income hands-off? There you have it.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

And there's a lot of conversations I've been having about that. And so there's uh concerns on both sides, and uh, so that's some discussion. You know, a lot of people are concerned about the loss of arable farmland, and they're concerned about just the changing character of rural communities that does do something to the landscape when all of a sudden everything's built up. The native people, which uh, you know, their voices usually are marginalized and continue to be, they are seeing a loss of their uh traditional food gathering grounds. And then there are issues with um fire. Uh, we kind of go back to fire there. And so what if uh farmers out in the field and their combine catches fire out in the wheat field? And in the old days, the fire would just run over to their neighbors' uh yar, you know, land and you know, the person whose combine caught on fire would compensate the other farmer for whatever crop they lost in addition to crop insurance. Well, what if the next door neighbor now is uh a solar farm and those are expensive panels or the big wind turbines? Those are expensive. So what happens if my combine catches fire and it goes over and burns all that stuff down? You don't have enough insurance in the world to cover all those costs.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Right.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Uh, but conversely, then there's concerns about battery storage. What if the battery storage fails and it catches fire and it catches my uh wheat on fire? So it goes back and forth, honestly. And of course, there's a lot of worry about the uh the birds being impacted and the bats there being, you know, the natural life um being impacted by the wind turbines in particular. Uh so it is a very difficult conversation topic for a lot of people. And I think we really have to be as smart as we can about that and practical about it. But I will say, and this kind of goes right into the data center thing, like I said, that uh a lot of these renewables farm uh power energy projects are great, but a lot of them are dedicated energy for data centers. They're not going to the grid. And we're going to be short about nine gigawatts of power in the state of Oregon this year. And so I was very concerned when I saw an article in OPB where they talked about how Amazon outbid a local utility for some land for a power project, and that cost of that land was $85 million. You can't tell me any local utility has that kind of money. They don't. So what do we have is a wild, wild west on resource grabs and land grabs. And I'm very concerned about that.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

And you can't buy a solar panel the way you can buy the cherry. Yeah. Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

Yeah. So is that is that a situation where the state needs to step in and make those transactions not as easy or not doable at all in terms of in terms of a company like Amazon coming in and paying that much money for a chunk of land?

SPEAKER_04 41:16

I think it goes, uh I it I always am a root cause analysis kind of person. And so I think the root cause is what is generating that demand. And we have to look at AI. And it is absolutely out of control. I recognize and acknowledge the fact that the data centers being built, they bring jobs. And I was endorsed by the Building Trades, and I support their members' need to have, you know, jobs and build these facilities. It's not their fault. What I do fault are these companies that are building the data centers. They're not building those ecologically as best as they could be. They're just slapping them together. I believe there was an example of a data center in Wisconsin that they actually got accolades for their approach, that they were trying to be a good neighbor and be less resource intensive. And so, for example, uh I there's uh six data centers in the in uh the Dalles owned by Google, and they are boiling away our aquifer to the tune of 550 million gallons of water a year, according to the Columbia River Keeper. And I live on that aquifer. And personally, I have seen my well drop 15 feet in 15 years. And that was back when uh there were only three data centers. So now there's double that amount. So uh I'm very concerned in my lifetime, this is gonna be my retirement property. That what happens when there's no more water? I mean, there's only a resource, a finite amount of resources in the ground. And uh, when we don't have the snow melt or the snow or the rainfall coming off Mount Hood, that's not recharging. Yeah. So what's gonna happen? And I'm very concerned about the viability of the Dowels in 20 years. I'm concerned about my house. I mean, I am I gonna have to spend another 40 grand and try to drill drill deeper. Don't know. I've even thought about atmospheric water condensers and have them run on solar so that way I'm pulling water out of the air and then I have a reliable source of water.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

So I'm wondering if there's anything we have not asked you that you would like to discuss or talk about as we kind of come to the close of our hour.

SPEAKER_04 43:28

Well, I I would say, you know, this is a very contested race. There are six Democratic candidates and two other Republicans challenging Cliff Bence. If you look at this whole race circumstancally, Cliff Bence in his time in Congress has set an extremely low bar. He has a huge war chest of $1.3 million, um, and that's probably more than that now. But I've been raising money myself and getting it from small donors, and I've raised uh over 60. thousand dollars and I I am passionate about the fact that I am not gonna be bought or sold by any corporations or PAX or APAC or dark money. We have to start with the candidate and making pledges not to start down that dark dark path. And so I believe it's my responsibility to call out anybody who does take that money. But at the same time so it's having that integrity and bringing it back to the office. And number two, I believe as part of the oath you swear to the office of the United States House of Representatives, you are swearing an oath to protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Our enemies in the past usually have been uh foreign, but now they're on our own soil. And we have an administration that is hell bent on destroying everything. All of our institutions, whatever was there is no longer there. And one of the things I'm really focused on is realizing that there hasn't been leadership at the national democratic level of trying to figure out what are we going to do if we do have the blue tsunami that everybody's talking about. I don't believe in being elected to a status quo situation. We have to be thinking ahead and actually have a plan because if we all get elected it's all blue. I don't want to be at the point where everybody's looking at each other and saying okay we're all here now. Now what do we do? That's not acceptable. So I suggested I'm a courage candidate endorsed by the Courage for Democracy group and um we are focused on you know given any circumstances but we're gonna have uh the articles of impeachment work towards conviction and then removal of office of this president and everybody in their um administration. But on top of that I am focused on using this newfound block of uh people there's 148 candidates that are involved now assuming that some percentage of us make it plus any other Democrats that are sympathetic, I see us becoming a new block. And so I've proposed a better America and we're gonna look at every single department every single agency look at their budgets look at their mission look at the people there if there are any are they sync events are they plants are they uh you know are they uh people who just they're the last remaining standing there and you know what we had before was not necessarily a perfect um situation there's a lot of baked in misogyny bias and classism this is our opportunity to really truly make a future facing America and it's that America 250 why not this is America 2.0 that's the way I look at it. So I want to come into office with a distinct plan of how can we move this forward so we actually have a way to rebuild our country and our institutions and make sure that people are held accountable, that there's integrity and also that we're serving the people now. The government should not punish people it should serve the people and yeah there were inefficiencies before and I want to root those out but I, you know what Dodge Doge or whatever you want to say it did, it was unit was just basically someone going to town just swinging the axe you know willy-nilly without it with really political punishment in mind. And so we have to reverse this and in a lot of ways it's gonna take a lot of forensic unraveling of the damage that this administration's done. So you know I can have aspirational goals like that. The real practicality is once you get into Congress you have basically you have to be oriented. So it's gonna take about two years to really get a grasp of what you know what processes and who to work with and all that kind of stuff. But then that's when you get to work after that but I also believe in term limits too I think that we need to you know keep people within that churn level so that there just aren't career politicians because that's been kind of the problem yeah I agree.

unknown 47:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Don Raspison thank you so much for coming all the way over here to us and joining our podcast. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

Thanks for having me. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

And that's another episode of Oregon Voices we go sing it so it's that too yo mama dancing your tag