“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt quote from the “Man in the Arena”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
On October 30, 2023, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat representing Oregon Congressional District 3, announced his retirement from Congress. In December 2023, Dylan Hinson, a volunteer with the Portland Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), came to me with an idea to have a CCL Congressional Candidate District 3 Climate Forum a month before the Tuesday, May 21st Democratic Primary. The goal of this forum was to interview the leading Democratic candidates to learn their positions for the top climate issues CCL prioritizes for lobbying Congress, such as a price on carbon, healthy forests, clean energy permitting reform, and building electrification & efficiency.
Representative Earl Blumenauer was first elected to Congress to serve this Portland district in 1996. Portland CCL hoped that a good candidate forum would help establish a good rapport with the Democratic candidate that would succeed Blumenauer. Oregon Congressional District 3 is considered one of the bluest and safest Democratic seats in the U.S. Thus, a Congressional climate forum with the leading candidates before the May 21st primary election could help the undecided Democratic voters pick which candidate they would want to serve in this seat.
Earl Blumenauer was my member of Congress since my wife Tanya and I moved to Portland in February 2017. I met Rep. Blumenauer several times while he served in Congress. I experienced only one occasion where he was friendly, Sunday July 14, 2019. Congressman Blumenauer held an outdoor event in front of the Oregon Sierra Club Office, located in inner southeast Portland. His office and other local climate and environmental groups organized a rally rolling out of his Climate Emergency Resolution.
Before this Portland event, Rep. Blumenauer introduced this resolution with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders in Washington D.C on July 10, 2019. By the time of this Portland rally, It was co-sponsored by more than 50 House Members and 10 Senators. Later, this resolution reached up to 103 House co-sponsors. Thus, Blumenauer was in good spirits that Sunday July 14th rally in Portland, Oregon.
Just before this July 2019 event, the attendees and organizers stood around mingling waiting for the rally to start. At that moment, Blumenauer walked up to me. He was pleasant and lovely to have a conversation. He happily agreed to pose for a selfie photo with me.
All the other times I engaged with Blumenauer, I found him to be grumpy and acted uninterested in talking with me. Just one week earlier, on July 8, 2019, I tried to strike up a conversation with him at a campaign event for Washington Governor Jay Inslee when he ran for President for the 2020 election. I introduced myself as a climate organizer and a volunteer with (CCL). I thanked Blumenauer for all his work in Congress for climate action, including his recently introduced climate emergency resolution. He acted cold and like I was beneath his time to talk with me. I left that event feeling disappointed and discouraged meeting him for the first time.
On October 4, 2019, a group of Portland CCL constituents and I met with Rep. Blumenauer at the Portland Greek Festival. He acted condescending and prickly when we asked him at that time to support the primarily bill that CCL was lobbying for at that time, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. He became irritated when we mentioned that bill and acted uninterested in supporting it. In nearly all my interactions with him over the years, he gave me the impression that he was burned out working in Congress and interacting with constituents like me. Frankly, with his negative attitude, I wanted him to retire from Congress for years.
By February 2024, it was apparent that Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal, Oregon Representative Maxine Dexter, and Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales were the leading contenders for this Congressional seat.
I first lobbied Dr. Maxine Dexter in December 2020 when she was elected to serve in the Oregon Legislature one month before. In my Zoom meeting with her, successfully lobbied her to endorse CCL’s federal bill Energy Innovation Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA), H.R.5744. In addition, I persuaded her sponsor a resolution in the Oregon Legislature later known as SJM 5 that urged Congress to pass bipartisan climate bill to price cardon such as the EICDA. I found her to be very helpful and supportive working on climate issues while she served in the Legislature.
Eddy Morales and I knew each other for a couple of years. In 2022, I worked as a field organizer for the organization he founded in 2018, East County Rising. I found Eddy to be very friendly, caring, with a sincere interest to improve the lives of people around him.
I enjoyed attending Eddy Morales’ Campaign Kick Off Event in southeast Portland at the Mexican restaurant Mi Cava & Cocina on November 12, 2013. The restaurant event room was packed full of friends, family, and supporters from around the Portland area. It was an impressive start to his campaign. At that point, I was undecided who I would support for this Congressional campaign. I wanted to see who else would enter this race. At the same time, I was amazed by the turnout and the show of support for Eddy that day. At that time, he looked liked a viable candidate and a serious contender for this Congressional seat.
I only knew about Susheela Jayapal from newspaper and media reports. She seemed to be a good County Commissioner. I don’t remember having any issues against her. She quickly positioned herself as the most progressive Democratic candidate running for this office. At that time, I thought she might win since Oregon District 3 is a very progressive district. She seemed to be well known as a County Commissioner. Plus, she was the sister of Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who represented neighboring state Washington’s 7th Congressional District. At that time, U.S. Rep. Jayapal was the leader of the Progressive Caucus in Congress.
In the planning meetings for the Congressional Forum in February 2024, the Portland CCL planning team struggled with coming up with a date, event location, and which candidates to invite. After the filing deadline of March 12, 2024, seven candidates filed to run for this seat. We had much discussion if we should invite all the candidates. I highly encouraged the team to just invite the three leading candidates that would most likely win this race: Maxine Dexter, Susheela Jayapal, and Eddy Morales. Some of the group worried about offending the other candidates by not inviting them. The committee decided to invite all the candidates, but the candidates’ campaigns must demonstrate that they had received a total of at least $50,000 by March 8th 2024.
The planning group struggled to find a location for the Candidate Climate Forum. They endlessly discussed different school auditoriums that would be ideal, but none of the options seemed good. I suggested the Sanctuary Room at Taborspace, a community event gathering space in southeast Portland. I helped organize a Climate Reality Portland Chapter event there in June 2019. The Sanctuary Room easily held 250 people. Some of the committee members were tepid if we could fill that space. My response was, “We are going to fill that space!”
The team had uncertainty about what date to pick. I pushed to choose a date quickly so we could invite the candidates soon before their campaign scheduled was booked. Members of the committee reached out to the candidates in early February. Thursday, April 18th was the best date available for them. A committee member put down a deposit for the Tabor Space. Now was my favorite part: making sure that we get out the word to pack the room for the event.
As the calendar turned to March, I volunteered to be the Marketing Coordinator for the event. Dylan sent out an email among the committee members that role that was available and needed to be filled. After I claimed that role, Dylan informed me that they had three people helping with marketing, but no one leading or coordinating the efforts. I reached out to the three volunteers to see if any of them had created a graphic image for the event. They had not. I asked them if they could create something soon since we about a month away from the event. Their response was very slow, so I decided I would create a marketing image for the event.
We received confirmations from the campaigns of Maxine Dexter and Susheela Jayapal that they could attend the event. However, we could not get a commitment from Eddy Morales’ campaign. The message we received from his campaign on February 16th was “Unfortunately we’re unable to commit to this event as we’re only scheduling events 2-3 weeks out at this time. We will, however, keep this on our radar and touch base as the date gets closer.”
Several weeks went and we had not heard further from the Morales campaign. This was making it tough for me to create a graphic image for the event. Should I include Eddy or not? On March 11th, we received this email from his campaign, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to attend at the moment. If our calendar frees up, we will let you know.”
The uncertainty if Eddy would attend created a lot of division among the committee members whether we should use his image or not. I created two separate images, one that included Susheela, Maxine, and Eddy and one that had Susheela and Maxine without Eddy. We determined in mid-March that he would probably be a no show. On March 15th, I then sent out over 65 emails and texts to friends and people I knew in the Portland area to invite them to attend this event. I included a graphic image of the event that photos of only Maxine and Susheela. I aimed to get a big crowd for this event.
We finally heard back from Eddy’s campaign on March 28th that he would not be able to attend our forum. A few days later, I learned he could not attend because he was committed to a campaign fundraising event in Washington D.C.
On March 12th, few days before I sent all those emails to friends inviting them to the candidate climate event, I sent an email to the campaigns of Susheela, Maxine, and Eddy. I wrote that I was an undecided voter alarmed about climate change. I stated that I was a CCL volunteer, and I looked forward to seeing them at the April 18th CCL Candidate Climate forum. I directly asked them this question: “Will you be willing to do the heavy lifting that many climate scientists and economists say that is required to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel fossils, such as a carbon fee & dividend, permitting reform, a carbon border adjustment, and other tools that are needed to truly reduce the threat of climate change?”
I never heard back from Eddy Morales or his campaign about this email.
Maxine personally wrote to me and gave a long-detailed response. She shared how she was “As the only scientist and person who has passed large-scale environmental legislation in this race, I am uniquely qualified to tackle the climate crisis in Congress. As a physician, my job requires me to learn from data and distill complex science to patients. In Salem, I leveraged that strength to work with my colleagues and pass major environmental wins.”
She wrote her environmental accomplishments while working in the Oregon Legislature. I included the full email from Maxine to me from March 21, 2024 at the end of this blog.
A campaign staff person for Susheela’s campaign named Andrea emailed me back a few days later after I sent my email to them.
from: Susheela Jayapal campaign@susheelaforcongress.com
to: Brian Ettling
date: Mar 19, 2024, 4:42 PM
“Hey Brian, this is Andrea, a campaign staffer, responding here on behalf of the campaign! Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your deep concerns about climate change, a cause very close to Susheela’s heart. I truly appreciate your long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship.
Not sure if you saw the news but the Sierra Club and every other environmental organization (Climate Hawks, Food & Water Action, Friends of Earth, Sunrise PDX, more on our website), In Congress she will fight for a green new deal, phasing out fossil fuels (she’s also pledged not to take corporate PAC money or fossil fuel money), implementing a carbon fee & dividend, permitting reform, and a carbon border adjustment.
That said – she really likes working with people who have a deeper and broader level of expertise on these issues to co-create policy – and I hope that is something you would be interested in?
We are actually hosting our office opening this Saturday and we would love to have you come by and talk more about this if you’re interested”
I signed up to attend and I went to Susheela’s gathering on March 23, 2024. I arrived just as the campaign took a group photo with everyone at their event. I stood in the far corner of the photo since I was still an uncommitted voter and unsure who I was voting for then.
I enjoyed mingling with her supporters and campaign staff. As the event started to wind down and some folks started to leave, I had an opportunity to talk with Susheela Jayapal. I thanked her for committing to attend the April 18th CCL climate forum. She acknowledged that she knew about the event and look forward to attending.
Susheela confided to me that she was under a lot of pressure to make fundraising phone calls. Thus, she was eager to attend our forum for a chance to engage with voters. I informed her that many of these voters are still undecided like me, so this would be a great opportunity for her to connect with voters. I found her to be very gracious, personable, calm, and a great listener. I left the event still open minded who I would vote for. However, I thought she was an engaging conversationist and a caring individual that I would be proud to have as my member of Congress.
April 2024 started amazing with a week-long trip back to St. Louis, Missouri for my wife Tanya and me to see family. This vacation centered around a day long road trip to southern Illinois to see the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Seeing the eclipse was one of the highlights of my life. In January 2025, I blogged about it: 2024 Solar Eclipse Renewed me to take Climate Action.
As our St. Louis trip reached its final days, our CCL Portland planning team received an email from Michael Jonas on Friday, April 12th. Michael was a community advocate, businessman, and attorney who was a Democratic candidate for the Oregon 3rd Congressional District. He stated one of his supporters brought the forum to his attention. He wondered why he was not invited. He wrote he was available on April 18th. He asked us to remedy the situation and invite him. A member of our team emailed him back on Saturday, April 13th to say we were sorry at that time it was not be possible to include another candidate at our forum. He explained to Michael that our group created objective qualification criteria that candidates must prove they could meet to qualify for the forum. One of those criteria was for a response to our inquiry by March 8th.
Michael then provided an email from this campaign manager dated on Thursday, February 29th that they wanted to participate in the forum, and they put it on their calendar. In the email, they admitted that they would probably not reach a key criterion to attend. The stipulation was that received a total of at least $50,000 by March 8, 2024, as documented in the Campaign Finance Database of the Federal Elections Commission or by demonstrating through other documentation the financial viability of the campaign. They admitted that they only had over $12,000 in donations and would probably not reach the $50,000 limit by March 8th.
Michael thought the donation threshold to attend was arbitrary. He believed he should still be allowed to participate in the forum. In fact, the idea of accumulating large donations as a top consideration as a serious candidate was something he was fighting against in his campaign for Congress. In a further email on Saturday, April 13th, Michael threatened with counter programming if we did not invite him. He relayed he had several supporters ask him why he was not included. He even offered to bring his own podium of reclaimed wood to attend.
I thought it was the best decision to not include him the forum. My experience with political canvassing is that many voters are swayed by ads they see on TV. Raising donations for TV and media exposure does make a difference. Sadly, many voters are very busy living their lives and they do base their decisions on who they liked on TV, the 30 second ads, and who the people around them are voting for. Yes, money does matter in politics to run TV ads, pay people to get the message out, and recruit to hire canvassers. The fact he had not raised a lot of donations was a key factor for me. I did not see him getting an endorsement from the Oregonian, Tribune, or other prominent media sources. Even more, he has no legislative or government experience, unlike Maxine Dexter, Susheela Jayapal, or Eddy Morales.
On Tuesday, April 16th, our planning committee had our final planning meeting before the Thursday event. We decided that Michael’s campaign did not meet our fundraising criteria that we set back in February. Our decision was final and our primary contact with Michael sent him an email conveying our decision. Michael sent a very terse response rebuking our decision.
At this point, I decided to act to send an email to Michael Jonas the day before the forum. His angry response showed me that he didn’t have the temperament for me to be my member of Congress. However, I worried how Michael and his supporters would see the Citizens’ Climate Lobby brand. CCL prides itself on empowering their supporters to build positive relationships with elected officials, the media and their local community to achieve effective climate change solutions. Thus, I reached out to him offering to meet to chat.
In the email, I introduced myself to Michael as a climate organizer in Portland and I am part of the CCL planning committee that is putting together the April 18th Congressional 03 Candidate Climate Forum. I thanked him for running for office and shared how much I admired his dedication and effort to do that. I shared that Michael’s email was forwarded to me about his frustration having been left off the final selection process for the forum. While other committee members made the final decision, I agreed with their decision. On the other hand, I wanted to meet with him sometime to hear what he had to say.
I emphasized in the email that All of us live in the Portland area. We love our community. We are very worried about climate change and want to be part of the solution. If we are going to make progress on issues that we all care about, we do need to find ways to communicate, listen, partner when we find common ground, and maintain an ongoing positive relationship. I offered to meet up with him for lunch or coffee sometime. He sent an immediate reply that he appreciated my email, and he was getting over his disappointment not being included in the forum. He was open to getting together with me in the coming weeks over coffee to chat.
Michael Jonas, two Portland CCL volunteers, and I met for coffee on May 2, 2024, and had a productive conversation. He still felt frustrated that he was shut out of our event and some similar events like ours. He felt like only candidates with deep campaign donations and experience in government were getting the attention, while his candidacy was not taken seriously. My friend Walt who was in the meeting and involved in Democratic politics for years tried to advise Michael how to overcome his frustration. He encouraged him to follow the process of the Multnomah County Democrats to get involved in school boards and local politics to make more of a name for himself before jumping straight into a Congressional race like this. I thought it was excellent advice. Michael seemed unable to hear that message at that moment. The meeting ended well. Michael and I decided to stay in touch. We got a group photo from our meeting.
As far as the April 18th event, it turned out to be a success. We had around 115 people attend this event. I thought that Susheela Jayapal and Maxine Dexter did a good job of answering the prepared questions how they would address various climate policies if they were elected to Congress. Most of my friends and I gave the edge to Dr. Dexter for providing more substantive answers to the questions.
One friend Lea texted me the day after the event to tell me that she preferred Susheela’s answers Maxine’s. She thought that Susheela had a better of how the financial impact of climate change cannot be pushed onto “the masses” or onto the most disenfranchised. Lea thought that Maxine came across as elitest. Lea hoped Susheela would keep putting poor people at the forefront. Another friend of mine Katherine thought Susheela was out of touch and Maxine gave better answers. Katherine was swayed by the Oregonian’s endorsement of Maxine Dexter. The Oregonian is Oregon’s largest newspaper by circulation, and it is based in Portland. Katherine thought the endorsement aligned with how she perceived the candidates at the forum.
The event was recorded for YouTube so anyone can still make their own judgements. Matt Zaffino, Chief Meteorologist for KGW TV – the NBC affiliate TV station for Portland OR, was the moderator for the forum. Because he moderated the event, it was featured on the 11 pm news.
I enjoyed chatting with Maxine Dexter after the event and getting my photo with her. I thanked her for her time answering my March 12th email about what she would do about climate change if she was elected to Congress. She responded that she took personal time late at night to respond to emails from voters like me. I was dumbstruck that she was answering so many emails personally late at night to engage with voters. I told her I was worried hoping she was getting enough sleep. She remarked that she will get more sleep and rest after the May 21st election primary. I shared her sentiments that I hoped she would get more sleep after the election. I appreciated her time to chat with me after the climate forum.
Three days later, Tanya and I attended a Multnomah County Democratic Party Candidate-A-Palooza on April 21, 2024. This event had tables with many Democratic candidates running for statewide office and for Congress. The leading candidate for Attorney General Dan Rayfield recognized me and we had a friendly chat. I asked him how he knew who I was. He replied, “Brian you are all over social media!”
I found him to be friendly and gregarious. I was amused that he knew me. I asked to get a selfie with him. He responded, “Are you kidding me? A selfie Brian Ettling! Absolutely!”
At Candidate-A-Palooza, I chatted with all the major candidates running for OR Congressional District 3 seat. I met Michael Jonas for the first time. We promised to meet soon for coffee, which we did on May 2nd. Eddy Morales and I chatted about his campaign’s hectic schedule. Tanya and I next talked with Susheela Jayapal. I found her to be a kind, caring person, and an excellent listener. She seemed open to supporting carbon pricing. I was impressed with her as a person and as a candidate. I liked all three of the main candidates Eddy, Susheela, and Maxine. It was a choice between three great people where I had to carefully weigh how I would vote.
I spoke with Maxine Dexter last. She asked me directly if I was voting for her. She shared after the event that a CCL friend of mine KB Mercer told Maxine that she was “all in” for voting for her. I told Maxine that I was leaning towards voting for her and probably would if the election was happening that day. It felt like we were the closest aligned politically. I really appreciated her sponsoring the SJM 5 climate change resolution that I organized in 2021. Plus, she was one of the 30 Oregon legislators who endorsed CCL’s Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. She said yes in December 2020 after a CCL volunteer and constituent of hers had a Zoom lobby meeting with her on October 29, 2020. I was impressed how she always responded positive to any of my lobbying requests. I thanked her for that during this conversation.
I was candid with her that the thing that held me back was that I felt ignored when I engaged with then Congressman Earl Blumenauer about climate change. She was sad to hear that and expressed empathy. I wanted to vote for a candidate that would be accessible to lobbying them on climate policies. Maxine responded that her kids are very scared about climate change. They would not let her ignore the issue or disregard climate organizers such as me. Her answers, plus the endorsement from the Oregonian, sealed the deal that I would vote for Maxine.
Maxine Dexter won the May 21st Oregon Democratic primary by a wide margin. She received over 51% of the vote, compared to 29% for former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal and 14% for Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales. A majority of the voters agreed with me that Maxine was the strongest candidate to represent Oregon Congressional District 03.
In the November 5, 2024 general election, Maxine Dexter easily won the Oregon Congressional 3rd District race with 67% of the vote. She was officially sworn in as a U.S. Representative in Washington D.C. on January 3, 2025. At the end of the month, on January 27th, I thought she was off to a good start. Congresswoman Dexter held a joint town hall with U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley at a high school gymnasium in east Portland that had a huge crowd in attendance.
In early February, Walt Mintkeski offered me to take his spot to attend a Portland in district swearing in ceremony for Maxine Dexter to become my member of Congress on February 20th. I chatted with her after the ceremony to congratulate her. I mentioned that I was the CCL Liaison for Oregon Congressional District 03. I then shared that CCL would have a lobby day on Capitol Hill in July. We hoped to meet with her then. She made no promises that she could meet with us then, but she indicated that she would make every effort if her schedule allowed.
My wife Tanya and I were impressed how much she made herself accessible in the district. She held an average of around one in person town hall each month. She had a massive crowd of people for her town hall at a high school gymnasium in Gresham, Oregon on March 1, 2025.
One month later, on April 6, 2025, Representative Dexter held a town hall at the gymnasium at Parkrose Middle School. This school is located only 2.5 miles east of where Tanya and I live in outer northeast Portland. I arrived an hour early to get a good seat. I also wanted to network with Rep. Dexter’s Congressional staff, fellow climate and community organizers, and other people in attendance. When I walked inside the lobby of the school, Congresswoman Dexter was personally greeting the earliest arrivals. She was happy to see me. When I asked if I could get a selfie with her, she laughed and responded, ‘Of course! Brian, you are known for your selfies and photos of you out in the community on social media.’
The best part was that someone on Rep. Dexter’s staff snapped a photo of us when I took the selfie with her. They later posted it on social media. I learned a trick that day that if I arrived an hour early to her town halls that she talked with the first attendees. On September 6, 2025, she held a town hall at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. I repeated my trick to arrive early. Sure enough, Maxine was in the lobby engaging with the early bird attendees like me.
On July 22, 2025, I led the CCL lobby team that met in her Washington D.C. office. I expected a meeting with her staff. I did not think she was available to meet with us. I lobbied in Washington D.C. in CCL Lobby days 10 previous times. I never had a member of Congress join us for a meeting. The good news was Rep. Dexter’s schedule changed and she could join us. The bad news was we had a CCL volunteer who was not a constituent that argued with her about one of the bills we supported. Even worse, at the beginning of the lobby meeting, I asked how much time she had to meet with us. She stated 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, some of my fellow CCL lobbyists were still asking questions while Congresswoman Dexter’s staff were pointing at their watches. Furthermore, Rep. Dexter and her staff shifted in their chairs, indicating with their body language that the meeting must end to get to their next scheduled event. I felt disappointed and irritated with my fellow CCL lobbyists.
On September 6th, it was a relief that I could share my frustration about the other lobbyists with Rep. Dexter. I apologized that one of the CCL team members became argumentative and we ran over time. I was relieved she did not recall any of that. She thought the July CCL lobby meeting when great. She shared it was common for constituents and citizens expressing strong emotions to her. She put me at ease I had nothing to worry about. She must have been a terrific pulmonologist (medical doctor specializing in the respiratory system) and critical car doctor with excellent bedside manners because she left me feeling happier after our interaction.
With her monthly in-person town halls, monthly telephone town halls, and her active presence on social media, Tanya and I, as well as other friends, in the east Portland area are proud and thrilled that Dr. Maxine Dexter is our member of Congress. She has worked hard to bring home immigrants wrongly detained by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), defending our democracy, protecting our veterans, fighting for access to affordable healthcare, demanding accountability for survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, and reducing the climate change threat.
Rep. Dexter currently serves as Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which is responsible for overseeing federal agencies within the Natural Resources jurisdiction. In CCL lobby meetings with her and her staff, she conveyed that she intends to work closely with us and other climate/environmental groups. She wants to keep a conversation going if Congress flips to Democratic control in 2027. She aims to be ready with climate and environmental protection bills since she will be the committee chair.
I am glad that Dr. Dexter represents me and my east Portland and east Multnomah County community in Congress. I feel that the April 18, 2024 CCL Oregon Congressional District 03 Climate Forum that she participated in and I helped organize may have played an important role in getting her elected to Congress. Thank you to Dylan Hinson and other Portland CCL volunteers for allowing me to get involved that Climate Candidate Forum.
From left to right: Matt Zaffino, Susheela Jayapal, Maxine Dexter, Dylan Hinson, and Jana Gastellum at the Portland Citizens’ Climate Lobby Oregon Congressional Candidates District 03 Climate Forum on April 18, 2025.
from: Info Maxine for Oregon info@maxinefororegon.com
to: Brian Ettling
date: Mar 21, 2024, 8:23 AM
Brian,
Thank you so much for reaching out and I hope you’ve been well, I am very much looking forward to your upcoming climate forum. Climate change is the existential threat facing our planet and a huge reason I first ran for office in 2020. I saw the anxiety my children were having over climate change, the lack of hope they had that “the adults” cared enough to make hard decisions and knew I needed to take action. I don’t just talk about it – I live it. I have been a vegetarian for climate reasons for 15 years, we stopped drinking cow milk over 10 years ago, I was the first person I knew to have a Chevy Bolt in 2017, we drive our electric car rather than fly whenever possible, I don’t use plastic to the greatest extent possible and we as a family don’t buy new things unless absolutely necessary. We have lived a thoughtful life and I believe others would as well if they knew the impacts of their actions and policymakers made it as easy as possible to make more climate-informed decisions.
As the only scientist and person who has passed large-scale environmental legislation in this race, I am uniquely qualified to tackle the climate crisis in Congress. As a physician, my job requires me to learn from data and distill complex science to patients. In Salem, I leveraged that strength to work with my colleagues and pass major environmental wins. I played a critical role in reviving the Environmental Caucus and ensuring it was staffed for the 2023 legislative session. This initiative was vital for forging strategic alliances and addressing the nexus between environmental justice and broad policy areas. Environmental policy is not an insular policy niche but deeply embedded in everything from health and labor policy to education funding and housing policy.
As the Chair of the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness, I worked intimately with Republicans and more moderate members to pass an unprecedented $200 million investment in 2023 and $376M in 2024, directly tackling our pressing housing crisis. As a part of the 2023 package, I was the chief negotiator for the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (OHNA) policy which was an iteration of our landmark land use policy, SB100 from 50 years ago. The OHNA policy fundamentally shifts how Oregon cities plan and meet their housing goals for the decades to come. I brought environmental leaders, land use advocates, developers, cities, counties and state agency experts together, facilitating a groundbreaking compromise to meet the moment we’re in to prioritize housing production while protecting sustainable and responsible development and strategic land use policies. The basic premise of these negotiations was we must build up and build in before we expand the UGB, create walkable, resilient communities and once it was clear we needed to expand the UGB, that we made it data-driven and efficient.
As someone committed to living as sustainably as possible and ensuring Oregonians have access to sustainable living, one of the first bills I introduced in the legislature after winning election was a ban on single-use take out containers in 2021. Typical of initial bill introductions, refining the details with stakeholders to ensure equitable policy making took years, but in 2023 with the partnership of Senator Sollman and countless environmental organizations and advocates, we passed a ban on single-use styrofoam food containers and toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.
Another win I am particularly proud of was legislation passed in 2021 to set Oregon on the path to reach 100% renewable energy by 2040. The bill holds electric companies accountable, increases our renewable portfolio standard, establishes new powers for Oregon’s Public Utility Commission and Public Purpose Fund Administrator, and requires the state to launch a thorough stakeholder engagement process with our tribal communities to expand tribal adoption of renewable energy.
My philosophy for working in Congress will be the same I use in the exam room and in Salem: I show up, listen, engage, and then act, grounded in science and data. As your next Congresswoman, hearing from and engaging with you and other constituents will be my top priority. I am courageous and this seat demands someone courageous is in it. I have repeatedly taken hard votes, sometimes being the only no in the chamber and I know that there will undoubtedly be hard votes in Congress. I will stand up for my values and the values of our district and I am clear that taking action demands that we don’t wait for others to lead, I need to make a clear path strategically and effectively on day one. My promise is to clearly articulate my position and also engage thoughtfully with you and other partners to learn and iterate my perspectives as more data and insight is shared and then incorporate it into future legislation.
Thank you, Brian, for reaching out, I look forward to the April forum and I hope I can earn your support for the May primary.
Best,
MaxineMaxine Dexter, M.D. (she/her)Candidate for Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District