Emerson Levy, candidate for Oregon House 53rd District

• Party:
  • Democrat and Cross-Nominated by the Independent Party 
• Occupation:
  • State Representative, Lawyer, and Adjunct Professor 
• Relevant Experience:
  • Current State Representative for House District 53 (Bend, Redmond, Tumalo, Sisters, Eagle Crest and Black Butte) 
  • Vice Chair of Climate, Energy and Environment, Committee Member for Housing and Homelessness and Ways and Means Committee for Natural Resources
• Personal Information:
  • Born: November 8
  • Age: 39
  • Family: My husband, Sean, works at St. Charles Health System and my nine-year-old daughter. We have a brand-new puppy, Violet, who is 11 weeks old. 
• Website: emersonvotes.com
• Facebook: emerson4or
• Twitter: emerson4or
• Instagram: emerson4or 

What qualifications and/or experience do you believe make you the best candidate to fill this position?

I am honored to serve as your State Representative in House District 53. Living in Central Oregon, it’s easy to understand that there’s a lot more that unites us than divides us. Most issues aren’t Republican problems or Democratic problems, they’re Oregon problems, and we need to work together if they’re going to get solved. That’s why I am proud of the work we’ve done, but I also know there’s so much more we need to do.

I was part of the bipartisan effort to pass the largest housing investment in Oregon history and I delivered $5 million for new affordable homes in Redmond and brought more than a million dollars to Central Oregon to fight youth homelessness.

Working with Republicans and Democrats, we addressed Oregon’s drug addiction crisis head-on to fix Measure 110 and give law enforcement the tools they need to get people off the streets and into recovery.

And as a mom, I know that accessible, affordable early childhood education is crucial to helping children develop, helping parents financially, and helping our economy grow, which is why I secured funding to increase the number of slots for children in Central Oregon's Head Start.

What are the top two issues you see facing those in this role, and how do you plan to address them?

We have a lot of work left to do, from tackling cost of living, housing, and the increasing intensity of wildfires in our community. 

We need to continue to invest in middle income and workforce housing. I am proud to serve on the Housing and Homelessness Committee where we have directed resources to build more housing, so that our teachers, nurses, and police officers can afford to live here. We need to make life better for everyday Oregonians. 

Everyone in our community deserves to feel safe. In the Oregon Legislature last session, we reformed Measure 110, and law enforcement will now have the tools they need to address hard drugs coming into our community. We additionally opened new paths to treatment and recovery. There’s more work to do, and we will continue to work with our officers and behavioral health specialists to make sure they have what they need to be successful. 

We need to continue to address these important issues, which is why I am advocating for a youth mental health pilot program in central Oregon, right now we do not have the services that we need to help our youth in crisis. 

Lastly, we need local, state, and federal investments to address wildfires. This fire season, we have already burned 1.4 million acres.  We need to fire harden neighborhoods, not individual houses. We also have to restructure how we have funds to fight fires, this will take bipartisan, industry and government collaboration. 

We face big challenges right now. We need legislatures that know how to work together and work for the people of Oregon.