Democrats running for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District: Val Hoyle, Doyle Canning and Andrew Kalloch

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio announced last year he would not seek re-election. This means for the first time in more than 30 years, Oregon’s 4th Congressional District will not have an incumbent candidate. We hear from three Democratic candidates vying for the seat: Doyle Canning, Andrew Kalloch and Val Hoyle. The Democratic primary winner will face off against Republican candidate Alek Skarlatos.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Democrat Peter DeFazio was elected to Oregon’s 4th Congressional District in 1986 and was reelected 17 times. But this past December, he announced he was done. So, for the first time in 36 years, there is an open seat in the district that includes the southern half of Oregon’s coast and parts of Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. There is only one Republican in the primary but the Democratic primary is competitive and we’re going to talk to the three most prominent candidates today. Doyle Canning is an environmental attorney, community activist and organizer. Andrew Kalloch is an attorney and a public policy executive for Airbnb. Val Hoyle is Oregon’s Labor Commissioner. She’s a former state lawmaker and House Majority Leader. Welcome to all three of you. I want to start by giving each of you about a minute to tell our audience why you’re running for Congress. We chose randomly before the show, and Val Hoyle, you can go first.

Val Hoyle: Great! Thank you so much for having me. I am Val Hoyle. I’m Oregon’s Labor Commissioner. As you mentioned, I was a state legislator representing West Eugene and Junction City, which is a blue collar and rural district, much like the 4th Congressional District. I’ve spent my life standing up for working families and working to get Democrats elected here in the 4th Congressional District, to make sure that we can protect our environment [and] protect reproductive health laws. That’s why I have earned the support over the last 22 years of Peter DeFazio, Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, League of Conservation Voters, and so many people in every single county in the district.

Miller: Doyle Canning.

Doyle Canning: Hi, good afternoon. I’m Doyle Canning, Democrat running for Congress. I’m a mom, an environmental attorney, and a progressive policy strategist. I’ve been working for 20 years to advance progressive priorities like Medicare for All, bold climate action, investments in affordable housing, and to take on the fundamental inequalities in our society that have now grown greater than at any time since the Gilded Age – in fact, greater than the Gilded Age today.

I’m running for Congress to protect our climate. After a 20-year career in environmental politics, I’ve seen at every level – from the United Nations, to the U.S. Congress, to the City Council of Coos Bay Oregon – how the fossil fuel industry is there, bending the ear of policymakers with big campaign contributions, lobbyists, and an army of lawyers. That’s why I’m running for Congress. We are facing a climate emergency and we need new leadership that is unbought by the fossil fuel industry. That’s the real difference in this race. I’m the strong progressive with the backing of the progressive movement and dozens of climate change organizations and activists. I don’t have the support of billionaire dark money super PACs. I’m running for Congress to represent Southwest Oregon.

Miller: Andrew Kalloch.

Andrew Kalloch: Thanks so much. I am Andrew, I’m the son of public school teachers. Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to those of you celebrating out there. I’m a father of three kids under five. I’m a former civil rights attorney at the ACLU. I’m running for Congress because I’m trying to bring an independent mind and a new generation of leadership to D.C.

I am a millennial, and as a millennial, I’ve faced many of the challenges of younger Americans. I graduated from law school with six figure student debt, had to pay that off while trying to save for a home and pay about $2500 a month for child care. And we are among the luckiest millennials you’ll find – we were able to pay those bills, but, obviously so many can’t. Yet, we don’t have the perspective of my generation in Congress very much and I’d love to bring that. In addition, as a millennial, I have grown up in an era of increasingly polarized, partisan, and poisonous politics that are torn at the fabric of our community and our country. We need to rebuild our democracy one conversation at a time and I’m doing that in cities big and small throughout this congressional district. I’d be honored to earn your vote. Thanks so much.

Miller: Doyle Canning, based on Politico’s leak last night, it now seems very likely that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade in the coming weeks or months. Last fall, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to enshrine national abortion protections in law, but there was not a bare majority to do so in the Senate, let alone a filibuster-proof majority. How would you approach abortion rights as a member of Congress?

Canning: I’m so glad you asked. I woke up this morning feeling a sense of outrage, but not surprise. We’ve seen this coming. We all knew this day was coming. The fragile precedent of Roe v. Wade that made the right to abortion care the law of our land since 1973 has been in the sight lines of the fundamentalist Federalist Society and the GOP for decades.

There have been many moments in the last 49 years that Congress could have taken action to make Roe the law, to codify Roe with an act of Congress, but they didn’t. That was a choice. In my view, the establishment of our party has been too timid when it comes to defending our fundamental rights, which are now under threat by an extremist Supreme Court that has been stacked before our very eyes. I will always be a champion for our right to reproductive healthcare. Reproductive justice is for everybody. As your member of Congress, I will do everything in my power to defend those rights – majority or not – including keeping the doors of our district office open, working closely with providers in Oregon to make sure that our rights are protected.

Miller: Andrew Kalloch. How would you approach abortion rights as a member of Congress?

Kalloch: I think it’s important to approach this as a basic healthcare right. When I was escorting women into Planned Parenthood clinics as a volunteer, they were seeking basic healthcare – getting shouted down for it – but they were seeking basic healthcare. Same with the women who unknowingly walked into crisis pregnancy centers that we fought to hold accountable at the ACLU. I think the basic healthcare frame is incredibly important, in addition to the framing of privacy, equality, liberty – these are American values. The polling on abortion is fairly consistent – as controversial and as challenging an issue as it is, the vast majority of Americans believe that Roe should be in law.

It’s not only important to think about this from a federal perspective, it’s also important to think about all the different levers that can be pulled as a member of Congress – whether it’s writing a law, introducing a constitutional amendment, working with state partners, and working on the ground to make sure that [the] public pressure that’s so important in America remains in order to make sure that this is a right that lasts for another half century and more.

Miller: Val Hoyle, same question to you.

Hoyle: I was eight, going on nine, when Roe v. Wade happened. I went to rallies and worked with my mother, as she was part of the National Organization of Women trying to help make abortion legal and also birth control – because, understand that this is not going to stop with just making abortion illegal. It is about making access to most forms of birth control illegal. I’m very proud to receive the endorsement from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund as a former board member and as a legislator who voted and moved legislation across the floor to expand access to birth control. In Oregon, we made it part of our constitution that abortion would be legal, abortion care would be legal.

This morning, I got a text from my son saying, “This isn’t going to stop with Roe. They’re going to overturn Obergefell and I’m not going to be able to be married.” So this is about gay marriage, this is about accessing birth control. This is about many other rights that are going to be overturned, whether it’s the right to organize or anything else. We must keep the House and the Senate in Democratic control. It is absolutely critical, and as the only person that has won a race in this district – in fact, this will be my sixth competitive race – I am the strongest candidate to ensure that we don’t have an anti-choice Republican representing us in the 4th [Congressional District].

Miller: Andrew Kalloch and Doyle Canning, you both have public policy or advocacy experience, but neither of you have prior experience as a lawmaker. So, Andrew Kalloch first: What qualifies you for this job?

Kalloch: Well, I think you just said it, Dave. I think there are lots of different qualifications for a member of Congress. Certainly, I’m proud of the fact that I’ve put together experience in the nonprofit sector at the ACLU, in government, and in business. Because I think if you’re going to be a member of Congress who knows how to build a coalition that can deliver sustainable, progressive change, you need to understand how to pull the levers of all the institutions of American power – and that includes corporate America. Val [Hoyle] mentions how she’s run for office several times and run for many different offices during that time period. There’s a very open question – this year and this environment, whether that is a positive or negative. I am proud to have the experience I have. I think it’s the experience that will not only deliver results but will deliver a political victory for the democrats in the fall.

Miller: I’d like you to, instead of just saying it’s an open question, can you be more specific? Are you saying that being an elected official for decades is a negative right now?

Kalloch: Dave, I think your polling that you released just recently along with a polling firm from up there in Portland speaks to this. Oregonian voters are very frustrated with the status quo. They are very frustrated with the direction of the state and when asked point-blank whether they want a political “outsider” or someone with elected experience, far more Oregonians say that they want a political outsider. Now, I’m not an anti-institutionalist. I believe in service, and I honor people who have served in government. But, in this political environment, it may very well be more of a liability than it is an asset. I’m trying to tell people across this district that what we need is a new generation of leadership committed to solving problems.

Miller: Doyle Canning, what qualifies you for the job of being a lawmaker?

Canning: My political experience is working to fight for solutions for real people. During the darkest days of the pandemic, I was working for the labor rights organization United for Respect, preparing essential workers who were on the front lines for a meeting with the incoming Labor Advisor for the Biden White House. Annmarie Reinhart Smith was our spokesperson there. She had spent a career working low-wage retail jobs. I said, “What is the most important thing you want to tell the President?” And she said, “The $15 minimum wage. It can’t wait.” Those are the words that drive my candidacy for Congress. Six weeks later, Annmarie died of COVID. That is what our country is going through, has gone through.

That is the experience that I bring: advocating for essential workers, for our climate, for universal health care at the highest levels of our government in Washington. That is the experience I will bring to bear, fighting on the side of Oregonians and that’s the choice in this race. I haven’t spent 20 years climbing the ladder of the party establishment. I’ve spent 20 years in the trenches. I’ve spent 20 years taking on the toughest fights against the fossil fuel industry, the big health insurance companies, Walmart, Amazon – that’s who I am, and that’s who I’ll be when I represent this district in Congress.

Miller: Val Hoyle, I want to give you a chance to respond. You do have lawmaking experience, but your two competitors here are saying that is a liability, not an advantage. What’s your response?

Hoyle: As the only person that’s lived here in this district for any significant length of time, what I can say is that I started my political activism actually working in the labor movement and labor organizing over 40 years ago. In the 20 years that I lived here, I got active in politics by fighting for school bond measures, because we moved here on the basis of the reputation of the school district and the quality of life. I worked in the bike industry and I got a job at Burley Design, which was a worker-owned cooperative that makes bicycle trailers. I found out about Measure 5, and I started fighting for better funding for our schools, and then getting elected officials, people elected that would fight for our schools and for working families.

The bottom line is that for 20 years I’ve worked in this community, which is why I’ve helped get other Democrats elected. It is why I’ve earned the endorsements I have. I have an army of volunteers, people I have stood side by side with, in delivering for. So, I mean, we’ve contacted just in the last couple of weeks over 25,000 voters individually. When I ran for election as Labor Commissioner, I won this district by 23 points in a contested election. I won districts like Curry County, Coos County, as well as the progressive parts of the district. The bottom line is I represented swing districts and people voted for me because they knew that I could deliver and I delivered for both the conservative areas in my district and the progressive areas in my district.

But the bottom line is I’ve been active in the community. I believe that you step up when you’re asked and that is why I ran for office. I knew that I could deliver for my community better than the other people that were there, and that’s still the same today. Again, [it’s] why I have the endorsements I have.

Miller: Val Hoyle, I want to stick with you and turn to climate change now. In earlier debates, you’ve said that you supported the Jordan Cove Project – which would have been the largest single emitter of carbon pollution in Oregon – because of the construction jobs that it would have created. You’ve also said that going forward, you will not support any new fossil fuel infrastructure. But very simply, do you regret your support for that project? Do you think you made a mistake?

Hoyle: At the time, I made the decision with the best information that I have. This debate was six years ago and I come from the labor movement. Before either of my opponents could find Coos Bay on a map, I was working with that community to bring back jobs. So, working with the people in that community, I supported Jordan Cove because it would have brought 6000 good-paying jobs. And, at the time, I believed that natural gas was better than coal and this would help Asia move off of coal. So, again, we make the decisions we make with the information we have.

What I can say is myself, like so many other people…we need to bring along not just the dyed-in-the-wool environmentalists, but lots of other people if we’re going to address the climate crisis with the urgency that it needs. I’m the right person to do that, because I’m trusted by both people in the building trades and labor and people in the environmental movement. It is why I earned the endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters.

The bottom line, if you look at my legislative record…And again, I would say, Dave, there is a fundamental difference between being an advocate and working in government and governing. When you look at how I’ve governed, I have governed by passing protections for our environment. I have committed not to support new fossil fuel infrastructure, which is why, again, I’ve gotten the endorsement of Jeff Merkley. He is looking to partner with me to make sure that we bring labor along, protect our environment, and also lift up working people with really strong labor standards.

Miller: Doyle Canning, what was the decision you came to with access to the same information with regards to Jordan Cove?

Canning: I’ve been working in the environmental movement for 20 years and I listened to the scientists and not the fossil fuel lobbyists. In [Hoyle’s] response, I didn’t hear any regret. It’s easy to say now in hindsight what could have been, but what matters is your actions when everything was on the line. The evidence was overwhelmingly clear that the Jordan Cove Project would be a disaster for Southern Oregon. That’s why I have the support of the communities on the ground in Southern Oregon – because I was there building a coalition of Republicans, of Democrats, tribal communities, fishermen, urban communities in Portland and Eugene – more progressive on climate perhaps – working with Republicans in Josephine County to stop this project. You know what? We stopped it. We stood up to the Trump Administration. We stood up to a 15-billion-dollar fossil fuel company.

And Val [Hoyle] was working for them. Let’s be clear. She took over $10,000 from the Jordan Cove Company and the CEO and stumped for the project in 2016, outspoken in support of bringing this project to Oregon. [Hoyle] called those of us who opposed it unreasonable people, the people who were standing in the way of this project, having Jordan Cove’s lawyers come to their house and threaten to take their property. So that’s why the community trusts me to be on Oregon’s side in Congress and that’s the choice in this race.

Miller: Andrew Kalloch, looking forward, what are the broad outlines of climate change legislation that you would support in Congress?

Kalloch: I think there’s climate specific legislation, Dave, and I support a carbon tax and dividend program that I think leads us to a just transition away from fossil fuels. I think the important thing to recognize is that every bill is a climate bill – the farm bill, the defense bill, the annual transportation authorization. All of these are opportunities to advance climate projects. That’s what you need to understand as a member of Congress: What are those must-pass bills that you can leverage to advance interests such as climate that are so critical to the future of this planet. That’s going to be my perspective. That’s the way I’ll advance the ball on things. By the way, I don’t think it should be so hard for leaders to say, “You know what, I made a mistake. I’m sorry.” George Washington did it in his farewell address. I’ve talked a lot about how leading with humility, leading with respectful difference, leading with the knowledge that you will make mistakes is important. It shows people that you’re credible, it shows people that you’re thoughtful, and I just don’t see why we can’t have leaders who are open and willing to doing that.

Miller: What’s a significant mistake that you’ve made in terms of public policy position?

Kalloch: I used to think that any form of rent control was inappropriate, in part because economists across the political spectrum say it’s a poor way to ensure affordability of housing. I still think that it’s most important to build housing, increase the supply. But, when you’re talking about people living paycheck to paycheck who have to afford their rent, you can’t just tell them, “Well, we’re gonna have supply in a couple of years.” You have to have some sort of certainty. I think what the legislature did a few years ago with rent stabilization is a good idea and I’m happy to say that I was wrong in thinking that it wasn’t.

Miller: Doyle Canning, I want to go back to you. In Oregon, lawmakers were not able to pass greenhouse gas emissions as legislation, so the governor had to rely on executive orders. Meaningful legislation in Congress has been even more out of reach – and not just because of Republican opposition, but because of Senate Democrats like Joe Manchin. Briefly, what’s your theory of change? How do you imagine significant legislation could get to a president’s desk?

Canning: Well, you are correct. In this past Congress, I was advising Greenpeace as part of a broad based coalition to push forward President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda and the bold climate investments we need to stabilize our global climate emergency before it’s too late. The bill was drafted by Democrats and contained major subsidies and giveaways to the fossil fuel industry. We had to fight very hard to get those out and get the clean energy investments in. We’ve fought for every inch across the finish line in the House of Representatives. And now, as you say, the bill is floundering, all but dead, in the Senate because of the capture of several Democrats – members of my own party – who are more loyal to the fossil fuel industry and the coal industry, in particular, than to delivering for the country and for the climate before it’s too late.

My theory of change is weak. We must, as Democrats, stand strong in our values. That’s how we win. Especially in a tough year like 2022. We need to put our money where our mouth is, walk the talk, and deliver. And that means that we can’t take funds from the fossil fuel industry and do their bidding as my opponent in this race has historically done. That is why I’m running for Congress. I’ve spent a 20-year career asking politicians to do the right thing when it comes to climate. And I’ve seen the ways that fossil fuel money corrupts. That is why I am ready to serve this district in Congress, eschewing any contributions from the fossil fuel industry, and standing strong as a champion for our climate. That’s where it starts, but it’s certainly not where it ends. We need to build a broad based coalition to push bold investments in renewable energy across the finish line, and that’s what I’ll do in 2023.

Miller: Val Hoyle, I’m going to give you the last 30 seconds to respond to what was clearly a reference to you.

Hoyle: I appreciate the passion and progressive ideas of my opponents, but I’ll just go back to the fact that I am literally the only one who has passed legislation to address the climate crisis, whether it was getting Oregon off of coal, or for electricity, or passing the Clean Fuels Bill. The bottom line, whether it’s protecting workers – which is why I have the support of every single union and the Working Families Party – protecting the environment – which is why I have the endorsement of Senator Merkley and the League of Conservation Voters – protecting access to reproductive healthcare, and winning elections – which is why I have the endorsement of Planned Parenthood Action Fund – and I’m the only one that has won.

Miller: Val Hoyle, Doyle Canning, and Andrew Kalloch, thanks very much. Val Hoyle is Oregon Labor Commissioner; Doyle Canning, an environmental attorney, community activist and organizer; and Andrew Kalloch is a public policy executive for Airbnb.

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