Incumbent Val Hoyle will face Monique DeSpain in the general election for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District which includes Lane, Benton, Lincoln, Coos and Curry counties and parts of Douglas and Linn counties.
Hoyle served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 2009 to 2016 and as Oregon Labor Commissioner from 2019 to 2022 before being elected in 2022 to represent Oregon in the congressional district long held by Peter DeFazio.
DeSpain is a 30-year Air Force veteran and an attorney who is new to running for office but volunteered for prior Republican congressional candidate Alek Skarlatos and worked for a think tank run by State Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Keizer.
The Register-Guard asked the candidates the same questions about issues important to the district. The following is what they had to say.
Priorities for Oregon and the country
Hoyle listed three top priorities: lowering the cost of housing, addressing climate change and increasing access to good-paying jobs.
Hoyle said she has worked toward lowering housing costs by securing millions in federal funding to build more workforce housing and by cosponsoring legislation with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to provide tax credits to homebuilders and expand the Section 8 housing voucher system.
On the other points, Hoyle said she is fighting to transition to a green economy and expand apprenticeship and job training programs. She said she supports expanding the Coos Bay port , which she said would bring 8,000 jobs to the area.
DeSpain said her top priorities are to deliver policies and laws that reduce crime, tackle the homeless crisis, stop the flow of drugs into Oregon from the U.S.-Mexico border, bring back a prosperous economy with low inflation and require a fully transparent and accountable federal budget, bureaucracy and public policies.
She encouraged voters to read the priority list on her website, which outlines plans to reduce crime by increasing support for law enforcement, address homelessness by criminalizing hard drug use and trafficking, and secure the border using physical barriers, sensors, cybersecurity, drones, and additional border patrol agents.
Expanding access to affordable housing
Both candidates agreet that high housing costs stem from a lack of supply, but proposed different solutions.
DeSpain attributed high housing costs to "extreme policies coming from Salem and Washington, D.C." and advocated for deregulation to increase housing supply.
"Excessive permitting costs, building regulations, city and county codes, bureaucratic red tape and outdated land use restrictions. … These government-imposed restrictions on buildable land, coupled with runaway inflation and interest rates, are pricing most working people out of the American Dream of home ownership," DeSpain said.
Hoyle said she wants to "(work) with local communities on the solutions that work best for them" and promoted financial incentives for housing development.
Hoyle said in her first term she secured $4 million in federal funding to build workforce housing in North Bend and cosponsored the DASH Act , which proposes expanding the Low-income Housing Tax Credit and creating tax credits for renters, middle-income housing, home builders developing in low-income neighborhoods and first-time homebuyers.
Homelessness
When asked about homelessness, Hoyle again promoted the DASH Act. She said that, in addition to reducing homelessness by increasing housing supply, the act proposes providing housing vouchers for at-risk families and expanding healthcare, childcare, and nutritional assistance, which would help more people afford housing. Hoyle also said she supports providing law enforcement officers with the resources needed to keep communities safe.
DeSpain criticized the "Housing First" approach to homelessness. She argued that the focus should be on "healing drug addiction and mental illness that lead to homelessness" by criminalizing drugs, empowering law enforcement, and reforming nonprofits.
DeSpain said "all programs in the homelessness, addiction, and mental health space must make (drug) recovery their mission" and said programs that don't are "enablement programs that merely trap people in addiction."
Climate change
DeSpain said she supports "energy choice" and "an 'all of the above' energy strategy that strives for scientifically based clean energy choices that are affordable and end reliance on other nations."
She outlined several factors to balance when considering energy policy. DeSpain emphasized that "we should be responsible stewards of all our natural resources" while "developing new, clean, affordable energy options." At the same time, she cautioned against "abandoning science, common sense, economic realities, and the well-being of entire communities in pursuit of political agendas."
Hoyle, on the other hand, expressed support for "halting new fossil fuel leasing" and transitioning the U.S. to "100% clean electricity," arguing that "Oregon can and should be a leader in building a green economy."
Hoyle added that workers should be included in that transition, and said expanding the Port of Coos Bay is a positive example that "would help lower carbon emissions from the transportation sector while improving our broken supply chain and bringing thousands of jobs to Oregon’s South Coast."
Changing reproductive health care laws
Both candidates oppose national bans on abortion, contraceptives and in vitro fertilization.
Hoyle's stance is based on women's rights. She expressed a desire to restore the protections that existed under Roe v. Wade, stating, "State-by-state laws regulating a woman’s body are unacceptable."
DeSpain's stance is rooted in states' rights. She said, "Oregon voters have made their voices heard on this issue," adding, "I will never support a national abortion ban, and I will defend Oregon’s laws from Congress."
Addressing the U.S.-Mexico border
Both candidates support increasing resources for Border Patrol agents and have endorsed competing bills to do so.
DeSpain endorsed the the Secure the Border Act , which proposes resuming border wall construction, restricting asylum access and ending the program that expedites migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua. The bill passed the House with opposition from all Democrats, including Hoyle, and didn't get a Senate vote.
DeSpain called this bill "the only border security bill in the House of Representatives that would have secured our border and ended this dangerous and costly 'catch-and-release criminals' policy."
She criticized Hoyle for 10 votes she described as anti-border security including votes against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas , the Laken Riley act and symbolically condemning Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for their handling of the border . And she criticized the major border bill the Senate considered "because it didn’t end the emergency levels of illegal entries into the USA."
More generally, DeSpain said she supports reinstating a “Remain in Mexico” Policy, physical barriers, sensors, cybersecurity, drones, increasing the number of border patrol agents, "using all federal law enforcement capacity, intelligence, and defense assets" against cartels and for immigration reform "to include commonsense asylum laws and efficient processes."
DeSpain said "it is disingenuous to conflate" border control and immigration reform, a point Hoyle disagreed with.
"It is critical that we give our border agents the resources they need to detect and stop drugs coming through the border, which are predominantly being brought in through legal border entrances," Hoyle said. "At the same time, it has been decades since we have updated our immigration laws so we can efficiently process those who want to come here legally."
Hoyle supports the DIGNIDAD Act , which proposes a new legal residency program for undocumented immigrants already in the country which they would pay into and could lead to citizenship after 15 years and an expedited process for asylum seekers. She also supports an increased number of border patrol agents, upgrades to their technology and physical barriers.
The DIGNIDAD Act has formal support from nine House Republicans and 29 House Democrats, including Hoyle. It "would both give border patrol agents the badly needed resources they deserve to do their jobs and reform our broken immigration system," Hoyle said. "Despite Republicans in the House playing politics on this important issue, I will work to pass the bipartisan bill into law next Congress."
Wildfire prevention
Both candidates highlighted dueling bills aimed at wildfire prevention.
Hoyle promoted the Wildfire Resilient Communities Act she introduced, which proposes federal funding for fuels reduction, increasing funding to the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program , restoring the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program and paying county governments stewardship contract receipts from federal forests.
Hoyle said the money that would be spent on this is small compared with the cost of wildfire recovery. "It is critical that we spend resources up front as opposed to nickel-and-diming prevention efforts and then writing massive checks once wildfires get out of control," she said, also promoting an increase in wildland firefighter pay, "so we don’t lose up to half our wildland firefighters just before fire season starts next year."
DeSpain endorsed the Fix Our Forests Act , which proposes scaling back environmental regulations to enable increased cutting and logging in federal forests. The bill passed the House last month with universal Republican support and the backing of some Democrats.
"It’s a desperately needed, transformative, bipartisan bill to restore the health and resilience of our forests, prevent future wildfires, and vastly improve how we work with key stakeholders," DeSpain said.
More broadly, DeSpain said she "will be a staunch advocate for responsible forest management" by supporting "sustainable" timber harvesting, removing fuel loads and requiring the Bureau of Land Management to "rapidly extinguish fires or provide authorization to state, local, and private entities" to do so.
Gun control
DeSpain said she supports measures "to separate the mentally ill from weapons" and close background check loopholes but said much of gun violence comes from illegally purchased guns and "we can do more to enforce existing law." DeSpain also said she will "defend our individual right to self-protection under the 2nd Amendment."
Hoyle said she is a gun owner and supports "common sense gun laws" including keeping "military-style weapons off our streets," closing loopholes that allow gun purchases without background checks and banning bump stocks, "which make it easier to kill as many people as possible and were used in the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting."
Public Safety
Hoyle said she's "fought for $12 million in public safety projects , including $2 million for the Corvallis Backup 9-1-1 Center and $1.5 million for Police Emergency Response Equipment in Springfield." She added that she "cosponsored legislation to help recruit and retain more officers in our rural communities and oppose budget cuts that would slash funding for domestic violence programs."
Hoyle highlighted endorsements from the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs and the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council .
ORCOPS endorses a mixture of Democrats and Republicans. A few other endorsees include Republican congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer and state legislature candidate David Brown and Democratic state Rep. Paul Evans . OSFFC also endorses candidates from both parties but leans Democratic. Other candidates it supported this year include Democratic State Rep. candidates Lisa Fragala and Julie Fahey and Republican State Rep. candidate Charlie Conrad.
DeSpain painted a grim picture of the state of public safety in Oregon. "Deadly fentanyl, drug addiction, rampant homelessness, and rising crime are plaguing our neighborhoods. The collapse of Oregon’s public safety is in large part fueled by the unsecured southern border," and reiterated her support for stricter border control, as well as her position that funding to address homelessness must go to addiction recovery.
She also said in congress she would aim to withhold federal funding from cities that defund police or are "soft-on-crime." "It is my goal to ensure they have the necessary authority, rules of engagement, and resources to do their job effectively," DeSpain said.
DeSpain promoted her own list of law-enforcement endorsements , and described ORCOPS as "the Portland Police Association lobbying organization." "I have the support of our 4th district's sheriffs and the rank-and-file law enforcement," she said.
Expanding access to quality, affordable health care
When asked how to expand access to quality, affordable health care, DeSpain said she would work to lower inflation to combat high health care costs. She added that "reducing stifling government regulations," on health care providers would make it easier for them to "respond to the ever-growing demand for healthcare services and medications."
DeSpain also said she supports Right to Try policies "so that advanced, life-saving treatments will be available to those facing serious health crises."
Hoyle promoted her Affordable Pricing for Taxpayer-Funded Prescription Drugs Act which would require federal agencies to secure affordable pricing agreements from drug manufacturers before granting exclusive rights to develop prescription drugs or other healthcare products. She also highlighted $1 million in federal funding to expand the Monroe Health Center .
"I will continue fighting against Republican efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act, and am committed to protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions and expanding funding for enrollment assistance," she added.
Campaign fundraising
According to Federal Election Commissiondata, Hoyle raised $2.4 million through Sept. 30. She had $821,721 cash in hand as of the last quarterly report.
Her top donor was the political action committee for the Transport Workers Union of America with individual contributions totaling $11,000 followed by many groups that each gave $10,000 in contributions including Weyerhauser Company , the International Union of Operating Engineers , the International Association of Firefighters and the American Optometric Association .
DeSpain had raised $751,272, as of Sept. 30, according to FEC data. She had $107,050 cash on hand.
Her top donors include E-PAC Majority Makers, which contributed $31,554; DeSpain's own loan of $12,000; and $10,000 each from the Value in Electing Women PAC , and the leadership PACs associated with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Chair of the House Republican Conference Elise Stefanik, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached over email at atorres@registerguard.com or on X @alanfryetorres .
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: 2024 election: A look at Hoyle and DeSpain's stances on key issues
Local News
