Trust is the foundation for democracy; without it, people don't willingly engage with government policy. Our guest today is Jennifer McGuirk who keeps government agencies accountable. Jennifer is Multnomah County’s Auditor which means that she examines data to determine if there's been, abuse or mismanagement of government programs. Since being sworn into office in 2019 the auditor's office, under Jennifer’s oversight, has released multiple reports touching on topics including services ...

Kathleen Saadat has been called the conscience of Portland, Oregon. Here, Saadat talks about organizing Portland’s first gay pride parade, as well as the campaign to beat Measure 9 in 1992, a homophobic amendment to the Oregon Constitution. Kathleen also discussed coalition building and intersectional organizing as well as her work with the Portland Police Bureau and her thoughts on Black Lives Matter. Cliff Jones, a Portland activist calls Kathleen a " ‘connector.’ No matter the issue,...

Women makeup 51% of the US population and yet account for only 24% of the Senate and 27% of the House of Representatives. How can women start to change that landscape? Jillian Schoene, Emerge Oregon’s departing Executive Director, joins us to discuss how her organization trains and empowers Democratic women to run for public office. Highlights and soundbites from the interview No one runs and wins alone. 4:26-What I love about our program is…the cohort model because these women get to know ea...

While the 2020 Presidential Election saw an unprecedented voter turnout, the fight to end voter suppression and discrimination rages on. We’re joined by Leigh Chapman, Senior Director of the Voting Rights Program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, to discuss today’s barriers to the ballot box, legislative efforts combating them such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act(HR4), and the For People Act Act (HR1). Chapman and our host (Janice Hebert) disc...

Attorney Molly Washington discusses the Native American vote with Amanda WhiteEagle and journalist, Anna V. Smith who covers indigenous affairs for High Country News. In 2020 WhiteEagle ran to represent District 92 in the Wisconsin State Assembly, in this interview she discusses the hurdles she faced and the lessons she learned. The three of them discuss the role the Native American vote played in the 2020 election and the significance of President Biden appointing Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N...

Mary Beatty should be a well-known figure in women's history: she was one of the first Black women (west of the Mississippi) to publicly advocate for woman suffrage. Decades before women won the right to vote, Mary Beatty and 3 other white women attempted to vote. When asked why they voted, each responded: “I am an American citizen, and have the right to vote.” The next year, she participated in the first convention of the Oregon State Woman Suffrage Association. These are just a few of the a...

Despite significant obstacles, the US had the highest voter turnout since 1908. How did it happen? Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, joined us to discuss what we accomplished in the 2020 election, what we learned, and what comes next.

Is there even such a thing as the Latinx vote? It’s not the monolith some may think. So says Jessica Vega Pederson, Commissioner for Multnomah County, Oregon and the state’s first Latina House Representative. In this episode, Jessica touches on why Latinx voters should be appreciated for their diversity, the importance of Latinx representation at the local and national level, how to dismantle barriers that prevent women and people of color from flourishing, and much more.

Vote-by-mail, elections, and voting in general have been on everyone’s mind these days, which is why we spoke to an expert, Dr. Peter Miller. Miller is a social scientist at The Brennan Center for Justice, which is a non-partisan law and policy institute. We discussed the systems that affect voter turnout and equitable representation in our electorate. We asked if voter security is an issue in a vote-by-mail system.

Albert Lee was born in South Korea to an African-American soldier father and a Korean mother. When he was five years old; he moved to the states. He grew up working-class. His background drove him to public service: In 2020 he ran for Congress; before his bid for election he graduated from law school and was the academic Dean at Portland Oregon’s Community College. “My background is that of folks who are often not heard or seen and not included. And that was part of the call to serve th...