A Salem city councilor recently announced her campaign for the Oregon Senate seat that represents Keizer.
Virginia Stapleton, a Democrat, has served on the Salem City Council since 2021.
"The longer I served as a Salem city councilor," Stapleton said, "the more I realized that...if I wanted to make really big impacts on many of the things I care about, I needed to set my sights on the state capitol."
Stapleton ran for the House District 21 seat last year, but narrowly lost to Republican Kevin Mannix. The current Senate seat is held by Kim Thatcher, who is barred from reelection. Tracy Cramer, a Republican and small business owner from Gervais, has also made a bid for the seat.
Stapleton's political career "started with sidewalks." At a neighborhood event, she met then-Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett and showed him a damaged sidewalk in the neighborhood.
"That started our relationship together," she said. "There were several other sidewalks that were on our walk to school where my stroller would get high centered, so we worked with the city on those."
Eventually, a city councilor convinced Stapleton to run for a council seat in 2021.
"She just saw that passion in me to create positive change, and that's how I got started," Stapleton said.
As city councilor, she promoted a $300 million city safety and livability bond. Salem voters approved the measure for improving streets, replacing old fire engines and equipment, buying land for affordable housing, and building two new fire stations and branch libraries.
Stapleton also created a street painting program, encouraging residents to paint murals on multiple streetways.
"I have a gift of being able to very quickly identify the issues, and the root causes of those issues, and then to formulate a plan to get out of whatever troubling track we're on," she said. "Being on council really refined that, but also expanded it to include things like our wastewater treatment and our transportation."
As senator, she said health care would be a main area of focus. Stapleton wants to protect people's access to affordable care, despite federal cuts.
She will also focus on affordability. Families, she said, are living paycheck-to-paycheck despite their best efforts.
Stapleton wants to "protect public schools, health care, things that are the bread and butter of government. Protecting folks here in Oregon in Senate District 11."
With an unconventional background in education, Stapleton said she offers a unique perspective.
She said her childhood was troubled and made school arduous. Stapleton dropped out of South Salem High School as a sophomore and worked in the service industry.
After rising the ranks in multiple companies, she got her GED at 30. She still wants to go back to college.
"There are a lot of people who have dropped out," she said." I hope to take that lived experience and bring it into a room full of people who are making policy, and make policy that's better for everybody. This democracy is not supposed to be just held by elites. It's supposed to be held by all of us."
News tip? Contact reporter Riley Ellis: [email protected]
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