Meet Sam

Our region faces unprecedented growth. We must act now to protect our community’s quality of life — for us and for future generations. The next generation is really why I’m running. My wife Meredith and I have two young daughters, Zoe and Tatum, who attend Portland Public Schools. Ultimately, it is their future I am fighting for.

I want to make sure they live in a community where there’s clean air and water, where a good-paying job is available to anyone who works hard, where housing and medical care is affordable to all, and where open spaces are never hard to find.

Here are a few accomplishments I’m most proud of:

• When I met Ruben Vital and his family of 8 at a homeless shelter, his family faced discrimination and was homeless living in a van only weeks earlier. I led an effort for Ruben to secure good credit and built him a home. Ruben went on to secure a long-term job in welding. Yet there were thousands more families just like Ruben's throughout the region. I championed affordable housing in several successful campaigns — including reforming our urban renewal laws and helping pass legislation resulting in millions of dollars and hundreds of homes for families like Ruben, as well as seniors and other vulnerable populations.
  

• I organized a grassroots effort that helped secure more than $197 million to repair our schools and pay for computers.
  

• I fought to protect our streams and preserve natural areas through my work on the Coalition for a Livable Future. My advocacy helped create the Nature in Neighborhoods program restoring natural areas throughout the Portland area.
  

• I fight for healthcare for the uninsured, underinsured, and homeless in my current role as executive director of the Coalition of Community Health Clinics. Our coalition serves more than 50,000 people a year with life saving healthcare and medications.
  

• Perhaps most importantly, through my experience, I have gained a unique understanding about the need for poverty alleviating jobs. Ultimately, good paying jobs will reduce our need for social services and other programs to catch those who are left behind. That is why I have worked to promote legislation that promotes good paying private sector jobs and have developed a jobs plan for Metro to build our global economy.

Promoting affordable housing and healthcare. Protecting our environment. Creating living-wage jobs. These are values I believe in and values that I’ve fought for my entire adult life.

I welcome your support — and your emails and phone calls to discuss the issues important to you. I also invite you to explore this website to learn more and to get involved.

Sincerely,

Sam’s Community Service Includes:
Executive Director of the Coalition of Community Health Clinics
Chief of Staff to Commissioner Nick Fish;
Executive Director of the Oregon Opportunity Network;
Director of the Clackamas Community Land Trust;
Housing Policy Advisor for City of Portland Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury;
Yes! On Portland School Bonds Campaign;
Kitzhaber for Governor;
Substitute Teacher in Chicago’s Cabrini Green Projects.

Past Board Memberships: Northwest District Association, Portland Community Land Trust, the Housing Development Center, and co-founder of X-Pac, a group committed to getting young people involved in community service.

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