Christine Drazan: I’m running for governor to put Oregon back on the right track

I am an Oregonian and my life is an Oregon story. Born in Klamath Falls to high school sweethearts who married and raised three kids during tough times, I have been shaped by the opportunities, joys and challenges that come with growing up in the rural parts of this great state. One of those joys was that extended family was always nearby—and conversations often overflowed from the living room at grandma’s house, into the lawn chairs outside to talk about rising prices, the cost of gas, and those good-for-nothing politicians who couldn’t seem to fix anything and didn’t care about the people they were elected to serve.

They knew what we know all too well today. Too often, politicians who are elected to serve the common good, to solve problems and make things better, instead just grow government, raise taxes, limit opportunity—and make things worse.

That’s never been more obvious than today in Oregon. Crime is up, yet we continue to hear calls for defunding our police. Taxes have increased, but government continues to fail Oregonians. Our schools are finally open again, but with competing values and muddied agendas that create division and distract from the true mission of education. The cost of living keeps rising, but incomes are not keeping pace. To top it all off, Oregonians continue to face some of the strictest COVID mandates in the country with no end in sight.

But every election is the dawning of a new day. We have an opportunity this year to get our state back on the right track. That’s why I’m running for governor.

As someone who grew up in a natural resource dependent rural community, I’ve seen how poor policy decisions in Salem can lead to lost jobs and broken homes. As a mother and someone who has spent countless hours volunteering in schools, I’ve watched as our state’s failed approach to educating our kids during the pandemic has harmed our students and how, despite record funding levels, class sizes continue to grow. And as a state representative, I’ve fought back against Portland politicians and their radical policies that continue to put our state in the national headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In Salem, I’ve stood up to Governor Kate Brown and the entrenched special interests in the Capitol. In 2020, that meant demanding that voters had a say on an unconstitutional cap-and-trade bill and, when Democrats refused that request, leading a boycott of the legislative session that ultimately killed the bill. More recently, that has meant pushing back on the mandates that kept our kids out of the classroom and shuttered our small businesses. Nobody will fight harder for you, your family, and your business.

As your governor, I will confront our state’s challenges head on. I will keep our schools open full-time and get back to basics in the classroom, give parents a forum to be heard, and leave the politics at home where it belongs. I will stop treating police like criminals and criminals like victims, and if officials in Portland refuse to act to quell nightly riots and bring peace to the streets, I will. I will tackle Oregon’s affordability crisis and the skyrocketing cost of living that is squeezing middle-class families and stifling economic growth. And I will finally put an end to the top-down mandates that have isolated Oregonians and shuttered our small businesses.

Oregon is my home, I love this state, and I’m ready to stand with you and fight for its future.

Join me.

For more information please visit: christinefororegon.com