The Independent Governor

Hello, I hope the summer is going great. The January 6th hearings are highlighting for the country how deep our challenges are.

I spent a couple days in Oregon last week. The people in the state are struggling with many of the same issues as the rest of the country: affordability, public safety concerns, underperforming schools, homelessness, a shifting economy and polarization. Oregon is a blue state – Biden won it by 16 points – but most of the state’s counties are rural and right-leaning.

Betsy Johnson was a state representative for 4 years and state senator for 16 years representing Columbia County in Northwest Oregon. She is an aviator by training, operating a helicopter business and participating in international competitions; she has dropped fire retardant on a burning mountain in real life. She was a Democrat but, representing a rural area, found herself in position to be the swing vote on many issues. She became concerned that the Democratic Party was constantly beholden to certain groups, like teachers unions. She left the Democratic Party at the end of last year to run for Governor as an Independent who can work across both parties to deliver what the people of Oregon want.

And she can win.

We all know that politics today is driven in large part by money and resources. Remarkably, Betsy has raised over $6 million - enough money to be competitive by people who believe her to be the best choice for the state. And her longtime record of service has led to endorsements from former Democratic governor Ted Kulongoski and former Republican U.S. Senator Gordon Smith. People who know Betsy regard her as the common sense leader that most Oregonians – and Americans – want.

I met with Betsy while I was in Oregon and she is exactly what you’d hope for – a no-nonsense spirited problem-solver who just wants to get things done. Stories of her going above and beyond to come through for constituents are consistent and legendary.

We can sense instinctively that our current system is not delivering the kind of leadership that we need. People are fed up but don’t feel they have a choice.

With Betsy’s election, we can establish that yes, we do have a choice, and that a different approach to politics is possible.

Says Betsy: “Democracy needs to stop being so contentious. We need the parties to bring people together to get stuff done instead of running through our partisan tribal corners and just poking at each other. We need an independent governor to make the parties work together for the common good and move Oregon forward.”

I’m pleased to endorse Betsy, and – like Evan McMullin in Utah – believe her to be a potentially powerful emblem that Americans can choose leaders who will operate for the people free of the entrenched political interests and knee-jerk ideologies that have come to dominate both major parties. An Independent Governor is just what Oregon – and the country – needs. Her victory will help establish that politics-as-usual isn’t cutting it, and that if given a real choice, people will take it.

Can an Independent win in Oregon? We will find out in 5 months. I’ll be helping Betsy and hope you will too. And if it can happen in Oregon, it can happen anywhere.