I’m Jonathan Chenjeri, and I’m running for the Oregon House of Representatives in the new District 56. I’m a teacher, organizer and proud resident of Klamath Falls.

This campaign is about reclaiming rural Oregon and rural America; together defining a New Deal for our region. We want to start conversations that rethink and reimagine what is possible for rural economies, education, environment sustainability, equity, and our upcoming generation.

Oregonians can see the long-discredited policies of current district leadership are hurting the very communities they represent. We deserve better. This campaign is about community organizing, knocking on every door, canvassing every street corner, and mobilizing Oregonians in D56 around a progressive agenda that shapes the sustainable, inclusive future we need. The changes we seek with regard to economic development, a living wage, educational access, climate change mitigation, and improving our quality of life are all possible. We have the potential, now we need the political will in our representative office.

In the 21st century, we must organize for those policies and values that lift up rural Oregon.We need policy principles that are grounded in love and child-centeredness, that prioritize sustainability, that are worker-oriented, and enable resource access to reach our full potential. Rural Americans are good at many things, including adapting to challenging times. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must work together to build and establish new norms and institutions for the 21st century. We need:

– A Rural New Deal: Instead of relying on private investment, we must have a significant public investment into our communities, educational, artistic, and ecological working groups.

– A New Deal for Climate Change adaptation and prevention: Grants and loans must be made more accessible for farmers to transition to sustainable practices. We should pay farmers to transition to sustainable and water-conserving practices.

– A New Deal for Rural Labor: Strong unions make a thriving working-class. All workers — including migrant, ‘gig’ workers, and sex workers, should have the opportunity to unionize. The state must have the resources to support and enforce this. Further, we need to move toward a dignified statewide minimum wage.

– Rethink and reimagine economic growth and development through the support of worker-cooperatives and public works. We can do that through grants, unemployment benefit alternatives and tax policy. We must reevaluate the efficacy of privatized timber and natural resources; and consider how to bring those profits back to communities, spurring growth.

– A New Deal for Rural-Urban Transportation: Investment in public transit, medical transport, electric vehicles, train, rail and access ‘over the hill’ can encourage economic development, resource access and tourism.

– End homelessness in Oregon through an amendment affirming basic housing, a job guarantee, and universal, comprehensive healthcare. We must take the complex personal, social, political and economic effects of poverty seriously.

– Expand medicare and medicaid through OHP, moving toward comprehensive healthcare for all.

– We can have high speed internet for all, with a public-municipal option for all; and net neutrality required of Oregon providers.

– We must move toward free, publicly funded PreK-16 and job training in a 21st century world, updating the K-12 funding model. We must advocate for a reevaluation of federal to state funding of public education, lightening the burden of property owners. We should have a public discussion about what a K-12 education should look like in a post-industrial age.

– We must engage in crime prevention by providing housing options for all, education and workforce training, mental wellness facilities for the public, alternatives to prison, and jobs with dignity.

– We must acknowledge how class, race and gender impact our lives; recognize and empower our Tribal treaties, and confront generational poverty. In measuring economic development, we can include ‘quality of life,’ unpaid housework and ‘happiness.’ We can do this together through ‘child-centered’ policies and a lens of equity in legislation and planning.

In this campaign, I am running to win this nomination and election, we are running to reclaim rural Oregon and enrich our democracy.

We have no illusions about the challenges we face. We are campaigning and organizing for the long-haul — for 2022 and beyond. We will knock on every door, organize at every street corner, mobilizing rural Oregonians around a positive, progressive agenda that lifts people up, not tears people down. We can do this together.

Let’s vote for our own futures, let’s vote for each other. Join our campaign and share your vision for Oregon.