Jessica Salas
Candidate for:
US Representative - OR District 3
What drives me to seek an elected position
I didn’t wake up one day and decide I wanted to be a politician. I woke up angry.
When ICE started terrorizing communities in Oregon, I couldn’t just sit with that feeling. So I built Oregon ICE Watch. Then I mobilized 80 breweries nationwide to raise funds for immigrant detention reform. I looked at what one person had built and then looked at Congress and asked, “Is there anyone in there who thinks like this? Who comes from where I come from?”
I couldn’t find that person. So I decided to be her.
What drives me isn’t ambition. It’s the families being torn apart by a broken immigration system. It’s the workers pulling double shifts who still can’t make rent. It’s watching my community struggle while the people sent to represent them take millions from the corporations causing the harm. This gave me something most people in Congress don’t have: a reason that has nothing to do with power and everything to do with people.
Policy is not paperwork. It is people’s lives. And as long as decisions that affect my community are being made in Washington by people who’ve never lived them, I’ll keep showing up.
The first three priorities or issues I want to tackle
1. Introduce articles of impeachment on day one and fight fascism: Democracy in the United States is under coordinated internal attack, not by accident, but by strategy. Powerful actors are concentrating power, restricting rights and undermining the institutions that uphold freedom. These tactics follow a global authoritarian playbook, unchecked, democracy erodes slowly, then suddenly.
2. Tax the billionaires, fund the public. Billionaire wealth grew through tax codes that let the ultra-wealthy contribute proportionally less than workers, and loopholes that protect offshore havens. I will push to raise marginal rates on extreme wealth and redirect that revenue into universal healthcare, childcare and housing, all critical needs in crushing working families.
3. Working-class protections. Millions work multiple jobs and still can’t afford basics while CEO pay soars. I’ll fight to raise the federal minimum wage with automatic inflation adjustments, pass the PRO Act to protect organizing rights and guarantee paid leave and healthcare not tied to employment.
The experiences and insights I will bring to the office
There is no “right way” to get here. Congress is full of people who did everything the “right way,” and look where we are. I grew up in a family that lost everything, our business, our home all to my father’s gambling addiction. I started working at 17 and didn’t stop. Cold Stone, Disneyland, then 12 years in the beer industry. Customer service teaches you more about humanity than any degree can.
I cut my friend down from the ceiling and gave him CPR. I watched him become an organ donor. I’ve faced my own demons and got help. These experiences didn’t break me, they built me. They gave me empathy you cannot manufacture or fake.
I bring 19 years of listening, solving problems under pressure and showing up for people on their worst days. I bring lived experience with eviction, a broken mental health system and rebuilding from rock bottom. What I don’t have is experience in the political machine. Right now, that’s a feature, not a bug.
If the people of Oregon’s 3rd District are going through hell, they won’t be doing it without me.
What being a Democrat in Multnomah County means to me
Being a Democrat in Multnomah County means showing up for the people everyone else writes off. It means believing that healthcare, housing and dignity aren’t privileges, they’re the floor, not the ceiling. It means standing with workers, immigrants and families who are working hard and still falling behind through no fault of their own.
But it also means being honest about where the party has fallen short. Multnomah County voters are not naive. They know the difference between when someone talks about working people and one who takes dark money from the same corporations squeezing them. They’ve seen progressive labels slapped on records that don’t match.
To me, being a Democrat here means rejecting that. No AIPAC money. No billionaire PACs. No rehearsed lines. Just a neighbor who refuses to stay quiet while her community struggles.
The people here don’t want to be managed, they want to be represented. They want someone in Washington who actually knows what it’s like to live the life they are living.
That’s who I am. That’s what I’m bringing to Congress.