Oregon Voices Podcast - Elevating Oregonians' Lived Experiences

Send us Fan MailTeresa Alonso Leon was four years old when she was separated from her family at the border, placed in an orphanage until her father found her, and lost her voice completely in the silence between those two moments. She has spent the rest of her life finding it again, first as the oldest of six children interpreting for her parents through a home purchase at eleven, then as a farm worker's daughter navigating a country with no systems built for families like hers, and finally as the first immigrant Indigenous Latina elected to the Oregon legislature, where she passed the driver's license law, strengthened sanctuary protections, and raised nearly a million dollars from a community that had never seen itself on the ballot before.She left in 2022 to run for Congress, watched the seat flip Republican, and came back because her community knocked on her door and asked her to. Now she is running for Oregon Senate District 11, carrying thirty years of lived experience into a political moment that is asking the same questions her childhood asked, just louder and with more at stake. In this conversation, Teresa talks about what it means to legislate from a body that remembers, why affordability and safety mean something completely different depending on which side of the system you grew up on, and what gets lost when the people making the laws have never had to be the child who holds everything together.This is what the table is missing when people like Teresa are not at it.Thanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailGeovanny Tolentino grew up between Salem and LA, ditched a political science degree because his mentors told him the real organizing happens in the working class, and became a teacher in the Hillsboro School District. He leads the Salem chapter of the DSA and he came into the studio ready to tell you exactly what that means and what it doesn't.This conversation goes places most people won't take it. What DSA actually is versus what people think it is. Why the word democratic is an artifact of history and not a brand. Why Oregon's progressive reputation is a lie the numbers don't support. Why Intel and Nike are sitting in your school district's backyard while teachers beg for a cost of living adjustment. Why young people at the doors say they're not registered to vote and why Geovanny doesn't blame them.He also talks about what it actually takes to interrupt power when the institution won't move. And what it would look like if the labor movement ever got militant enough to make legislators feel it.Thanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailTammy Carpenter has lived the American myth from the inside and came out the other side knowing exactly what it costs. She grew up poor, folding paper lunch bags to reuse them, moving every year and a half as a military kid, never knowing a single doctor. She became one anyway, not because of bootstraps, but because of teachers who whispered in her ear, government programs that caught her family when they fell, and a stubbornness that never quit.Now she is running for Oregon House District 27 as a Democratic Socialist, backed by the DSA, with 50 volunteers, 10,000 doors knocked, and a clear-eyed vision for what Oregon could actually be if its leaders had the courage to go get the money that already exists.In this conversation, Tammy breaks down what universal healthcare in Oregon could look like and why means-testing it is the fastest way to eventually lose it. She talks about what it means to pit worker against worker, why the bootstrap myth is a political tool dressed up as wisdom, and what it feels like to watch a generation of young people stop believing their vote can change anything.She is not asking anyone to trust her. She is asking for the chance to go do the work.Thanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailIn Part 1, Robert Roosevelt Parker Jr. laid the foundation. In Part 2, the bottom falls out completely.Bob walks us through Senate Bill 664, a bill championed by Oregon's mom-and-pop gas station operators against the stranglehold of Major Oil. Two hundred private jets descended on Salem Municipal Airport. People crowded outside the Capitol. The bill passed out of committee, and the very next morning, two Oregon State Police officers were waiting for Bob at work.What followed was not justice. It was a machinery built on rumors of unknown origin, a press conference invoking a sham investigation, news footage of a handcuffed man incorrectly labeled with Bob's name while Bob sat at home with his wife, and a report that formally described him as a Black Muslim man in an interracial relationship, a descriptor that didn't reflect reality, implied infidelity, and weaponized every racial dog whistle available, because apparently that was relevant to a rumor about a gas bill. A grand jury refused to indict him three times. The DA charged him anyway, under a statute that didn't apply, and Bob deposed that DA into his own contradiction on the witness stand.Barbara Roberts' deposition would later make clear who lit the match: the lobbyist for the oil companies started it all. That is what Oregon's own Secretary of State said under oath. That is the smoking gun that circled the wagons and shut Bob down for thirty-something years.Bob also shares the dream that was two weeks from becoming real: First Insurance, a Black-owned commercial property and casualty insurer with $50 million in venture capital already on the table, a Cigna insider ready to run the company, and a niche in the market that had never existed before. They crushed him before the ink dried.In 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 22, issuing a formal apology. In 2026, a bipartisan pair of lawmakers introduced an amendment to House Bill 4172 to begin the process of compensating him. Bob puts the number at $50 to $75 million. They have the apology. But without action, what is the contrition really?At 70, with bad knees, Robert Roosevelt Parker Jr. is still standing.Read more about Bob's story and the current legislative effort for compensation:Portland Tribune: https://portlandtribune.com/2026/03/05/oregon-bipartisan-duo-push-for-compensating-committee-aide-wrongfully-accused-of-misconduct/OregonLive: https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2026/03/lawmakers-of-both-parties-push-to-compensate-aide-wrongfully-accused-of-misconduct.htmlKGW: httThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailBob Parker Jr., an African American Muslim attorney, passed the Oregon State bar exam in 1990, but Oregon didn't let him practice until December 2021. Thirty-one years. The Department of Justice, Marion County, and the Oregon Government Ethics Commission all investigated him. Three separate grand juries declined to indict him. The legislature apologized in 2021, acknowledging 31 years of wrongful damage done. Compensation still hasn't come.Growing up in Flint, Michigan, Bob read himself into consciousness throughout school. He became the youngest student minister in the Nation of Islam at fifteen. He got into law school without a bachelor's degree because someone believed in him, which later led to him working with Jesse Jackson. He came out here to meet his future mother in law.Instead, the state came for him. For 31 years, Bob watched institutions try to erase him while he kept building. He never resorted to crime, nor did he ever surrender. Today, at an age when most retire, he's still practicing law. Still fighting for the justice owed to him. This is part one of his story.Guest: Bob Parker Jr., Attorney & Civil Rights AdvocateHosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsLearn More:Portland Tribune: https://portlandtribune.com/2026/03/05/oregon-bipartisan-duo-push-for-compensating-committee-aide-wrongfully-accused-of-misconduct/OregonLive: https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2026/03/lawmakers-of-both-parties-push-to-compensate-aide-wrongfully-accused-of-misconduct.htmlKGW: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/oregon-legislative-aide-robert-parker-wrongly-accused-lawsuit-settlement/283-0be41933-8fd4-45fd-89b2-2051e92145a8Thanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailLauren McCartney teaches at Meadow Park and Tumwater Middle Schools and chaired BEA's Racial and Social Justice Committee. Adam Oyster-Sands is a language arts teacher at Westview High School, a published poet, and the treasurer of the Beaverton Education Association. Together they ran as the BEA United Slate, challenging their own union's leadership from the inside.For years, the Beaverton Education Association operated like a service model. Teachers brought problems to leadership who closed the door and tried to fix things in private. Sometimes it worked, while other times it didn't. Either way, the energy died. Members who showed up fired up for contract negotiations just disappeared once the contract settled. No one tapped into that power.Watching that cycle repeat, Lauren and Adam realized something had to shift. Their union failed to show up for teachers who needed help. Equity work started after 2020's racial reckoning, then just vanished. The same white people kept landing leadership positions without being asked what they stood for. Transparency disappeared.Rather than accept it, they organized. Jane McAlevy's writing shifted how they understood power. A statewide reform caucus connected them with allies, and other teachers showed up, ready to work. The plan they built actually worked.Now listen to what they're building.Guests: Lauren McCartney and Adam Oyster-Sands, BEA United LeadershipHosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailClaire Reneau is a French teacher at Westview High School in Beaverton. She's also one of the co-founders of BEAU (Beaverton Education Association United), a reform caucus that in its first year swept elections for union president, vice president, and executive board, but her story doesn't start there.She grew up in a home with an alcoholic father and an abusive grandfather. As a child, she named what was wrong in her own family, even when it made everyone uncomfortable. She learned early that you can't accept that's just how it is. Later, she taught in New Orleans where she witnessed systems that abandoned kids. Then she moved to Beaverton and saw the same inequality playing out here, with schools north of Highway 26 thriving while schools south were starved of resources.When Eric ran for school board, Claire was there, but the union that should have had his back didn't. That's when she realized something was broken. She connected with organizers, read Jane McAlevy, and started asking questions. Why did the union operate like a service model when members had so much collective power? Why were decisions made in secret? Why couldn't people demand transparency?She didn't just complain. She organized. She and others built a movement that changed how the Beaverton Education Association runs. They demanded answers and voted down appointments. They stripped away the invisibility and continue to fight to make their union actually serve the teachers in it.Listen to what happens when teachers stop accepting the way things have always been done.Guest: Claire Reneau: French Teacher & Co-Founder, BEAU (Beaverton Education Association United)Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailLesly Munoz is the State Representative for House District 22, representing Woodburn, Gervais, Brooks, and North Salem in Marion County. She won her seat by 161 votes in November 2024, the single margin that gave Oregon Democrats the super majority in the House. One woman. One neighborhood. Everything changed.She grew up in LA County where she learned what it meant to work your hands to the bone and still not have enough. Her father landscaped for people who wouldn't pay him. Her mother cleaned houses and worked at the library. She grew up poor and bilingual and she learned early on that the system wasn't designed to protect people like her family.She was studying to be a teacher when someone came into her social justice class talking about unions. About contracts. About workers having a say over their wages and their lives. She saw it as a dream. She applied for an internship and never looked back. For fourteen years she fought for workers. Then she fell in love with an undocumented man and learned the immigration system from the inside out. That's what made her a fighter in her bones.Now her district is the epicenter of ICE enforcement in Oregon. And she passed the Protect Your Door Act during the recent short session, allowing Oregonians to sue federal agents for Fourth Amendment violations. Listen to what one woman can do. Listen to what she's building.Guest: Lesly Munoz, Oregon State Representative, House District 22 Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailBlayne Soleymani-Pearson is running for Washington County Commissioner in District 2. He's a domestic violence prosecutor and a father to kids who deserve to grow up in a county that fights for people who look like them.When he was three or four years old, he watched his mother get attacked. He shielded his little brother. He chased the man away. He couldn't save her, but that moment moved through his whole life. It's why he became a lawyer. It's why he's spent years prosecuting domestic violence cases, connecting that childhood wound to helping the next person, the next family.When the federal government threatened to strip funding for DEI, other counties sued. Washington County said we won't rock the boat. And Blayne watched the most diverse county in the state abandon its own people. He watched Nafisa Fai stand alone.He's running to stand with her. Because people who look like his wife and his kids deserve a commissioner who will fight. Not compromise. Fight.Listen to why he's in this race.Guest:Blayne Soleymani-Pearson, Candidate for Washington County Commissioner, District 2Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailMyrna Munoz is running for State Senate District 15. She's an educator, a UC Berkeley graduate, and the daughter of farm workers and warriors.Her grandfathers came through the Bracero program to work the crops while American men fought in World War II. Her grandmother lived in a time when women weren't allowed to be educated. So she spied on a teacher, made a deal to do her laundry, and learned to read. That's the lineage Myrna comes from. That's who she is.Now she's stepping away from her work as an educator to fight for all of us. Listen to why she's running, where her power comes from, and why the next State Senator from District 15 is already here.Guest: Myrna Munoz, State Senate Candidate, District 15 Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailDr. Melissa Bird is a congressional candidate challenging the incumbent in Oregon's 4th Congressional District Democratic primary. She holds a PhD in social work and brings years of experience writing and killing legislation at both state and federal levels as an advocate and lobbyist.A descendant of the Shivwitz band of Southern Paiutes, a bisexual woman, and someone who has lived through poverty, Dr. Bird speaks to the lived experience that informs her policy work. She discusses why new voices are essential to democracy, what she's learned fighting for communities left behind, and why we need people in Congress who understand what it's like to struggle to afford groceries.As fascism rises and the social safety net crumbles, Dr. Bird argues we need fighters in Congress who aren't bought by corporations. Tune in to hear from the candidate the Oregon Education Association did not want you to hear from.Guest: Dr. Melissa Bird, Congressional Candidate, Oregon's 4th Congressional DistrictHosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailJohn Wasilewski, affectionately known as Waz, is a middle school teacher and primary challenger in House District 38, running against incumbent Daniel Nguyen in one of Oregon's few competitive Democratic primary races. In this episode, Waz walks us through what drove a civics educator from the classroom to the campaign trail, why 2026 is a pivotal election, and what he's witnessing in schools that state legislators are getting wrong.From the Lake Oswego School Board forums where the current representative didn't show up, to the mental health crisis facing students, to the real cost of housing on a teacher's salary, Waz breaks down the infrastructure of advocacy and representation that politicians often overlook. He shares what meaningful advocacy actually looks like and why grassroots organizing around education, community safety, and the cost of living is the only path forward.He also opens up about running as the first openly gay candidate for this seat, the difference between corporate PAC money and grassroots donations, and why building schools and communities that work for everyone requires engagement from the ground up. This is the story of someone who believes democracy requires showing up, doing the work, and refusing to play the games politicians play behind closed doors.Guest: John Wasilewski (Waz), primary challenger, House District 38Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine WatkinsThanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/

Send us Fan MailThis inaugural episode of Oregon Voices confronts the state's celebrated "blue state" identity, revealing the complex realities beneath its progressive facade. Co-hosts Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins, seasoned Oregon educators, share their radically different lived experiences, from rural white upbringing to navigating mixed-race identity on a reservation, to expose how Oregon's exclusionary history and contemporary policies perpetuate systemic inequities in education, politics, and social justice. This episode serves anyone seeking an authentic, critical examination of Oregon's past and present, offering unheard perspectives and challenging listeners to engage with difficult truths about their state.Thanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcastInstagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcastBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/