U.S. Government: Elected Officials

  • U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Troutdale)

    Representative Maxine Dexter grew up in Bothell, WA. When Maxine was in 5th grade, her teacher asked her where she wanted to go to college, and she didn’t know what that was. No one in her family had ever gone to college. At that moment, she decided she was going to be a doctor one day, and never looked back.
    When she was 16, she got a union job at an Albertsons grocery store where she earned a good wage and full benefits. This allowed her to leave home and work her way through the rest of high school, college, and into medical school with that same job. Her community, along with government support, gave her the opportunity to succeed in life.

  • U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas (OR)

    Congresswoman Andrea Salinas is the proud daughter of a Mexican immigrant, a first-generation American, and dedicated public servant working for the people of Oregon’s sixth district. Her father immigrated to the United States as a child and picked cotton and tomatoes in the fields of the Rio Grande Valley before eventually going on to serve as a police officer. Her family’s story is an American story – one where hard work can provide a path to a better life.

    Andrea was born in San Mateo, California and grew up in Pleasant Hill, California. She was the first person in her family to attend a four-year university and earned her degree from University of California, Berkeley. Upon graduation, Andrea wanted to serve her community and country so she chose a path of public service. She served as a US congressional aide and policy advisor to Senator Harry Reid and Congressman Pete Stark. Later, Andrea moved to Oregon where she served as a district aide for Congresswoman Darlene Hooley and fell in love with the communities of the Willamette Valley.

    After her work with Congresswoman Hooley concluded, Andrea stayed in Oregon and went on to serve as an advocate for labor unions, environmental groups, and reproductive rights organizations. In 2017, she was appointed to the Oregon House of Representatives and served through the end of her term in 2022. In the Oregon House of Representatives, she served as House Majority Whip and was the Chair of the House Health Care Committee.

    Andrea and her husband, Chris, live in Oregon with their daughter, Amelia.

  • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.)

    Oregonians know Ron as a senator who listens and innovates. For example, Ron has secured landmark health care and economic wins for our workers and retirees. Always citing the need to “throw open the doors of government for Oregonians,” he holds an open-to-all town hall meeting in each of Oregon’s 36 counties each year. Thus far he has held more than 970 meetings, as well as several virtual town hall meetings sponsored by the nonpartisan Town Hall Project. Wyden’s dedication to hearing all sides of an issue and looking for common sense, nonpartisan solutions has won him trust on both sides of the aisle and put him at the heart of so many of the Senate’s most important debates. In 2011, the Almanac of American Politics described Wyden as having “displayed a genius for coming up with sensible-sounding ideas no one else had thought of and making the counter-intuitive political alliances that prove helpful in passing bills.” The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein wrote: “The country has problems. And Ron Wyden has comprehensive, bipartisan proposals for fixing them.”

  • U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Irvington Community Association)

    A lifelong resident of Portland, Oregon, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) was raised in SE Portland and attended Centennial High School.

    While still a student at Lewis and Clark College, Earl spearheaded the effort to lower the voting age both in Oregon and at the national level. He was elected to the Oregon Legislature in 1972, where he served three terms and Chaired the House Education and Revenue Committee in 1977-78. In 1978, he was elected to the Multnomah County Commission, where he served for eight years before being elected to the Portland City Council in 1986. There, his 10-year tenure as the Commissioner of Public Works demonstrated his leadership with innovative accomplishments in transportation, planning, environmental programs and public participation that helped Portland earn an international reputation as one of America’s most livable cities.

    Elected to the US House of Representatives in 1996, Earl created a unique role as Congress’ chief spokesperson for Livable Communities: places where people are safe, healthy and economically secure. From 1996 to 2007, he served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he was a strong advocate for federal policies that address transportation alternatives, provide housing choices, support sustainable economies and improve the environment. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee from 2001 to 2007, and vice-chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming from 2007 to 2010. He is currently a member of the Ways and Means Committee, Chairman of the subcommittee on Trade and is a member of the subcommittee on Health.

    His priorities also include healthcare reform, honest trade, financing critical infrastructure, building livable communities in a global economy, economic security for working families, protection of public lands, stopping gun violence, ending the prohibition of marijuana and criminal justice reform.

  • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oreg.)

    Senator Jeff Merkley comes from a family of fighters. According to family lore, his grandmother lived for a time in a boxcar during the Great Depression. Jeff’s mother stretched a dollar as far as anyone possibly could, and his father overcame a serious illness and went on to work in a lumber mill and become a union machinist. Life wasn’t glamorous, but together, Jeff’s parents saved enough to buy a modest home, take their children on annual camping vacations, and retire comfortably after a lifetime of contributing to their community.

    Jeff learned to take that same determination his father took with him to the lumber mill into the classroom—and with the help of his public school teachers, Jeff went on to be the first in his family to graduate from college. He returned to the same blue collar community in Oregon where he grew up, and led non-profits to help Oregonians put roofs over their heads. When he was elected to the Oregon House, he hit the ground running for working families, creating the state’s first-ever rainy day fund, expanding access to affordable prescription drugs, protecting LGBTQ Oregonians from discrimination, and throwing predatory payday lenders out of the state for good.

    And now, as a U.S. Senator for Oregon, Jeff has continued to be a champion for everyday people—at a time when the people need a champion more than ever.