Portland State Magazine

FALL 2020 // 25 ALUMNI ON THE OREGON BALLOT CANDIDATE PARTY RUNNING FOR... CAMPAIGN WEBSITE REFLECTIONS by Jennifer Ladwig Nolan Bylenga ‘20 D House of Representatives, District 58 nolanbylenga.com During his senior year, Bylenga “realized that no Democrats had much motive to run in my rural hometown of Pendleton, Oregon, so I decided that I would.” Patrick Castles MA ‘75 R House of Representatives, District 38 patfororegon.com On running for ofice: “Do it if you are committed. There is much behind the scenes that you don’t see,” Castles says. “Get involved with a campaign and ask questions.” Melissa (Wilcut) Cribbins ‘94 D State Senate, District 5 melissacribbins.com “My time at PSU taught me that you don’t have to just be an urban or rural Oregonian,” Cribbens says. “Oregon is one place, and we need to work together to make our state work for all of us.” Chris Gorsek PhD ‘04 D State Senate, District 25* chrisgorsek.com “I had been a Portland police oficer before returning to school,” Gorsek says. “Not only did PSU provide me the knowledge to go on and be an efective leader in local and state politics, it reinforced the importance of evidence-based information and critical thinking.” Sarah Iannarone ‘05 N Mayor of Portland sarah2020.com “I think Oregonians and Portlanders who value our future need to think about PSU as the center of the future, not as an afterthought,” says Iannarone. Teresa Alonso León MPA ‘13 D House of Representatives, District 22 † teresafororegon.com Professors and mentors encouraged León to work for change. But, she says, “Higher education is still out of reach for so many Oregonians. One of the main reasons I ran for ofice was to work toward a future where the choice to continue an education is not limited by socio- economic status.” Khanh Pham MUS ‘18 D House of Representatives, District 46 khanhphamfororegon.com “When you run for ofice as part of a community or movement, you’ll never be alone as a leader,” says Pham. “This is a challenging time, but we need courageous leaders who are deeply rooted in community.” Kim Thatcher (former student) R Secretary of State ‡ kimthatcher.com Knowing a state representative “got me interested in government issues at a young age, but scoring a PSU political science class with Marko Haggard—someone I watched nightly on television—was also pretty influential on my interest in the political process.” D = Democrat R = Republican N = Nonpartisan *Current state representative † Incumbent ‡ Current state senator