In my last article, I wrote about the Republicans I have known throughout my life and the qualities I have admired in them: hard work, personal responsibility, honesty, community pride, showing up, helping your neighbor, a can-do spirit and character.
That raises a pretty reasonable question about me.
Why am I a Democrat?
For me, the answer starts much closer to home than Washington, D.C., Salem, a president or a governor.
I was raised by a single mother who worked as a union nurse. I watched her work hard to support our family, and I learned early that a good job, fair treatment and protection for working people can make a real difference in a family’s life. Those experiences shaped my belief that people who work hard deserve a voice and a fair opportunity to build a good life.
My career working with children, families, educators, healthcare providers, businesses and community organizations reinforced those values. I have seen the importance of investing in children early, supporting working families and bringing people together to solve problems before they become crises.
Those experiences are a big part of why I am a Democrat. I believe in protecting working people, supporting local businesses, investing in children, responsibly caring for our natural resources and making sure people affected by decisions have a voice in them.
Those values align most closely with the Democratic Party for me. But being a Democrat has never meant agreeing with every Democrat or surrendering my own judgment to a political party.
When a Party Label Becomes the Whole Person
One of the strange things about modern politics is how quickly a single word can become a substitute for actually knowing someone.
Say that someone is a Republican and people immediately make assumptions about what that person believes. Say someone is a Democrat and another set of assumptions appears. National politics, cable television and social media have created caricatures of one another, and sometimes we forget that actual people are more complicated than that.
I am a Democrat. I am also a wife, a mother, a small-business owner and someone who has spent much of her professional life working with children and families. I have built my life here. I’m raising my family here. My friends are here. My work has been here.
Josephine County is home.
There are Democrats I disagree with, Republicans whose judgment I respect and plenty of people who don’t fit neatly into either political camp. Being a Democrat does not mean I have to defend every decision made by Democratic leaders in Salem or every position taken by someone with the same letter next to their name.
I haven’t built this campaign around national politics or defending political leaders somewhere else. I am running to represent Josephine County, and I believe the people who live here should be able to judge me by what I believe, how I approach decisions and what I will do for this community. That is also why this campaign is funded entirely by individual donors, with no money from state or national PACs.
We Have Seen This Kind of Leadership Before
There is a long history in Josephine County that reminds us political identity doesn’t have to be so simple.
Eugene “Debbs” Potts was a Grants Pass businessman who worked in Southern Oregon’s timber and sawmill economy, served in the Navy during World War II and later became mayor of Grants Pass. In 1960, voters elected him to the Oregon Senate, where he would represent Southern Oregon for the next twenty-four years.
Debbs Potts was also a Democrat.
What interests me most about Potts is the kind of reputation he built. He developed relationships across political lines and eventually became president of the Oregon Senate. During his time as Senate president, he also served a combined 196 days as acting governor when Governor Tom McCall was outside Oregon. The Oregon Legislature later remembered Potts as “the man who would get things done.”
I doubt Debbs Potts and I would agree on every issue, and I am not trying to recreate another era of politics. But his story is part of our history. Josephine County once sent a Democrat to Salem for nearly a quarter-century, and his reputation was built around his Southern Oregon roots, his independence, his relationships with people across political lines and his ability to get things done.
There is something worth remembering in that.
Representation Starts Here
The challenges I hear about every day don’t fit neatly into partisan categories. Housing, jobs, childcare, schools, wildfire, natural resources and the future of our local economy are Josephine County problems, and they belong to all of us.
Solving them requires something politics doesn’t always encourage anymore: working with people who don’t agree about everything.
That has been true throughout my career. You don’t solve complicated community problems by inviting only people who already agree with you into the room. You listen to different experiences and ideas. You make your case. Sometimes someone else makes a better argument. You look for common ground and then you get to work.
That is also why I don’t want national political fights consuming all our attention. There will always be another controversy demanding that everyone immediately choose a side. Meanwhile, a parent here still needs childcare. A business is still looking for workers. A family is trying to find a home they can afford. A rural school is trying to serve its students. A community is preparing for wildfire season.
Those problems can’t wait for the national political argument to end.
If I am elected, I will not suddenly become the representative only for Democrats or only for the people who voted for me. I will represent Republicans, Democrats, independents, nonaffiliated voters and people who may never vote at all.
That is what representative government asks of us.
So, Why Am I a Democrat?
For me, being a Democrat comes down to the values that have shaped my life and the way I approach public service: respect for work, opportunity for families, strong communities, responsible stewardship of our natural resources and making sure people have a voice in the decisions that affect them.
But I also believe good representation requires independence and common sense. It requires being honest when something isn’t working, including when the people responsible are on your own side. It means listening before deciding and staying focused on whether a policy makes life better for the people you represent.
I don’t expect everyone in Josephine County to share my approach to policy making, and I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with me on every issue. What I hope people will do is judge me by how I show up, how carefully I listen, whether I use my own judgment and whether I am willing to work with others to solve problems.
Because ultimately, the letter next to someone’s name should never be more important than the way they represent the people who sent them there.
If I earn the opportunity to represent this district, Josephine County will be the community I answer to.
In my final article in this series, I will turn to what I think is the most important question of all: What are we going to do together?
Continue the Conversation
I believe good representation starts with listening. If something I’ve written raises a question, if there is an issue you think I should address, or if you simply want to understand where I stand, I hope you’ll ask me.
As part of my Community Questions series, I invite people throughout House District 3 to submit questions directly to me. It’s an opportunity to move beyond party labels and have a real conversation about the issues that matter to our community.
You can find me on Instagram at @susanforjosephine, contact me on Facebook, follow the campaign and stay up to date on my website at SusanForJosephine.com, or reach out directly using one of the contact options available there.