The current Oregon labor commissioner is giving up that post in order to replace a retiring incumbent. Her opposition helped to stop a terrorist attack in progress, meaning he has an excellent biography. Val Hoyle is in the spotlight today, as the Majority Savers series heads out to Oregon’s 4th district to take a closer look at the race!
If you want to find my previous entries in this series, I recommend following me or searching for #MajoritySavers as a tag! Majority Savers is also a group now, thanks to 2thanks!
Val Hoyle for Oregon-4
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Candidate Background
I used the Red to Blue site, her campaign website, and her Wikipedia page to synthesize her background. Val Hoyle is a rare non-incumbent on which I could find plenty of information on.
- She was born into a military family, and graduated from Emmanuel College in Boston with a degree in political science. Her earliest political activism involved being a legislative aide and policy analyst to a local state senator once she moved to Oregon in 1999.
- She also held down positions as a waitress, retail, and in international trade. This was before she was elected to the Oregon State House in 2010, and eventually became Majority Leader. She stepped down to run for Secretary of State, which is the only race she has lost.
- Hoyle ran for State Labor Commissioner in 2018, and she won the primary this time around. She has focused on making sure that labor rules have been followed during the pandemic, which is a unique challenge given the rise of remote work and other issues.
Signature Issues
Val Hoyle will hopefully fit right into the mold of Rep. Peter DeFazio, who was left of center, especially on labor issues. So far, her record indicates that she will be a strong progressive on most every issue, and that she would support the agenda of Joe Biden nearly 100% of the time.
Labor and Working Families: Hoyle will push for the minimum wage to be increased to $15/hr, as well as paid medical leave for all workers. She is a huge advocate of the PRO Act, which would make it easier to unionize and generally would help unions regain a foothold in a pro- big business nation.
Health Care and Abortion: Hoyle supports some form of universal health care legislation, as well as the ability of Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate prescription drug prices. She is adamant about protecting Medicare and Social Security from the Rick Scott plan to terminate them in 5 years. Finally, she is 100% pro-choice, and he state legislative record supports this claim.
Climate Change and the Environment: In a beautiful state such as Oregon with a high amount of tourist dollars, these positions are critical. She advocates moving to 100% clean energy as soon as possible. She wants to halt new leasing for fossil fuels on federal lands, and she knows the 21st century manufacturing jobs are in renewable energy production of solar panels and wind turbines.
Elections History
Recent Elections —
2020 President: Joe Biden (D) 54.7%, TFG (R-inc) 42.0%
2020 House: Peter DeFazio (D-inc) 51.5%, Alek Skarlatos (R) 46.2%
2022 Race Rating: Likely Democratic
2022 PVI: D+4
This district has many different parts to it, but the common theme is that it has supported Democratic candidates for Congress since 1974. Most of that tenure has been filled by Rep. Peter DeFazio, who is finally choosing to retire this year. It is that choice of retirement that puts this race on the ones to watch, in spite of the improved map that Oregon legislators passed.
This district can act as a swing seat at times, starting with the fact that GW Bush actually won the district in 2000 after Clinton won it two times in his runs for President. DeFazio didn’t have any close races during this period of time, in spite of the district only narrowly supporting Kerry in 2004 in a flip to supporting the Democratic candidates of President.
There were no issues during the Obama era, as DeFazio even skated by without a serious challenge during the bad years of 2010 and 2014. Things started to change when TFG rose to power, as the district reverted back to a swing seat that Clinton and Biden barely won. DeFazio had a real race in 2020 against Skarlatos, which undoubtedly influenced his decision to retire. Val Hoyle is now taking up the mantle against Skarlatos, and she needs some help in doing so.
Political Tour of the District
The district has been improved from last decade, with more problematic areas being jettisoned to the 2nd district as Oregon gained a district in 2020 redistricting. The anchors of Eugene and Corvallis remain in the district, and for population purposes some of southwestern Oregon remains.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 4th district.
- Eugene Metro Area: This is one of two Democratic anchors found in the district. These voters are what saved DeFazio’s bacon in 2020, and they will continue to support Val Hoyle in 2022. The University of Oregon is found here, so turning out the professors and students is key.
- Corvallis: This is the other Democratic anchor in the district, and it is home to Oregon State University. Needless to say, Hoyle will have to turnout the college students and university professors if she is wanting to come to Congress for her first term.
- Lincoln County: This County has stayed with the blue team in spite of similar counties defecting to team red. This is due to a booming tourist industry in the area. Hoyle will have to maintain the Biden margins in this area to ensure success in November.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Southwestern Oregon: These working class areas of Oregon are hurting, and their response has been to defect to the Republican Party, much like other working class areas in the country. Once you get out of Lane County and head south in the district, there are few Democratic voters to be found. Hoyle is best off concentrating on the university towns and acknowledging reality in Southwestern Oregon — that many of the citizens will not support her.
Activism — Help How You Can!
This is a race where the challenger has outraised the party holding the seat, which is always a warning sign. Val Hoyle raised $529k in Quarter 2, which against the high profile challenge she is facing is frankly not enough. Alek Skarlatos raised a much better $711k during the quarter, and that is before dark money could be factored in. Hoyle needs to up her fundraising game soon.
Part of the problem is that Hoyle still had a primary to win in spite of being the frontrunner, which drained her coffers. Hoyle has $318k in cash on hand as of July, while Skarlatos has a much healthier $660k cash on hand. Thankfully, Hoyle is part of the Red to Blue program, which means her fundraising should pick up. This is a race that needs donations fast — otherwise Skarlatos will drown out Hoyle in advertisements and Hoyle will not have the funds for GOTV.
DONATE TO VAL HOYLE HERE
Those university towns are critical to the success of Hoyle, and there needs to be volunteers ready to register the students as voters. Volunteering is probably more critical in a district like this that relies on colleges for our margins more than the average district. If you are in Oregon, you can sign up at this link for her campaign.
Hoyle has a middling 4838 followers on Twitter, likely due to her holding a statewide office. She will need a lot more followers to get her message across, because Skarlatos has nearly 36k followers. She needs to up her social media game. She mainly retweets other accounts and has little unique messaging, which is a problem that I hope her campaign addresses.
Hoyle is also active on Facebook at HoyleforOregon. She suffers much the same deficit on that platform as on Twitter — a lack of unique message and fewer followers.
Thank you for continuing to read these articles. It is your participation and your comments that keep me going, even in the midst of a challenging work schedule that shifts weekly. I still find time to write these articles because I feel like they make a difference, and that people read them. Val Hoyle is another Majority Saver that needs some attention, which is why I chose to write about her today!
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Val Hoyle for Oregon-4
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