2026 County Platform

2026 Linn County Democratic Central Committee
Platform and Legislative Action Items

We believe the role of government is to achieve together what we cannot achieve alone. We strive to build thriving communities where every person can live with dignity, safety, freedom, and economic security. We are committed to equity, justice, compassion, opportunity, and responsible stewardship of our natural resources. We believe strong communities are built through empathy and shared responsibility. We uphold the best of American values: kindness, fairness, integrity, openness, affordability, and a can-do spirit that leaves no one behind. We reject corruption, extremism, and division, and believe our future should be rooted in community, opportunity, and hope.
Article 1. Democracy and Election Integrity and Human Rights
Preamble: We believe that a healthy democracy is the foundation of a free, just and thriving society. We hold that the right to vote is fundamental to our democracy. No law, regulation, or administrative action should limit the ability of all eligible citizens to exercise the right to vote and to have those votes accurately counted.

All people—native-born and immigrant alike—have the constitutional right to peacefully protest, speak freely, and criticize governments, countries, groups, or ideologies without fear of intimidation, harassment, over-policing, censorship, or retaliation. Protecting free expression and dissent is essential to democracy, civil liberties, and equal justice under the law.
Make voting accessible and convenient for all eligible voters. Bullying and intimidation must not be allowed to interfere with or influence election processes. None should be denied the right to vote because of barriers to polling places, limited hours, restrictive laws, or lack of access to secure voting methods, including vote-by-mail.
We must protect Oregon’s vote-by-mail system from federal interference and voter suppression efforts. We support Oregon’s universal, secure, and verifiable vote-by-mail elections and commit to protecting it from repeal.
Money is not speech and corporations are not people. Financial influence must be regulated to ensure fair elections. We support campaign financing reform and public financing of elections. People, not money, should determine election outcomes.
Voting requires an informed electorate. We believe every county and state elections division should produce a voters’ pamphlet for every election, open to all candidates and ballot measures, to be provided.
We will promote Ranked Choice Voting as a method that prevents vote splitting and results in elections that truly reflect what voters want.
The Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act is appalling. People in every part of the United States and its voting territories have the right to proper and full representation in Congress.
Redistricting should be done fairly, equitably, and equally to reflect population changes within districts and not for use as a tool for disenfranchisement.
Public officials should be accessible, transparent, and accountable to the people they serve. Elected leaders should regularly engage constituents through open, public, and in-person meetings, listen to community concerns, and communicate honestly about their decisions and actions. Democracy works best when the government remains responsive and connected to the people.
Democratic organizations and political parties must operate with transparency, accountability, and adherence to publicly available rules and bylaws. Party officers and staff should be held to the same ethical standards expected of the government and held accountable when they manipulate processes, violate democratic principles, or betray public trust.
Public policy and public institutions must remain free from religious control or favoritism, ensuring freedom of religion—and freedom from religion—for all people. We oppose efforts to impose religious beliefs through law, government action, public education, or the erosion of constitutional rights.
We will confront and reject the growing threat of fascism in our country. We support protecting democratic institutions, civil liberties, the rule of law, free and fair elections, and equal rights for all people. We oppose efforts to undermine democracy through fear, division, disinformation, and abuse of power. 
Public records should be made available with minimal charge and in a timely manner. Excessive fees, unnecessary delays, and unjustified withholding of records undermine public trust and accountability. Government transparency is essential to a healthy democracy and an informed public.
We believe that the separation of governmental powers is crucial to the long-term success of our republic. We support protecting the judicial branch, legislative branch, and independent agencies from executive interference. Repealing qualified immunity for the executive is paramount.

Article 2. Climate Change, Science and the Environment and Our Public Lands
Preamble: All Oregonians, hold an interest in protecting our Ecosystem. Climate change is an accelerating existential threat to humanity and all living things. We must continue to lead the way toward effective solutions arising from industrial society, including resource extraction and pollution; and the disparate impact on our forests, family farms, the poor, people of color, and Indigenous people. We support a green new deal with government action that prioritizes full de-carbonization of our economy, creating millions of well-paying union jobs, investments in green infrastructure and industry, while securing clean air and water, community resilience, healthy food, and access to nature.

We trust and will use science-based evidence and facts to develop policy and law.
All people including future generations have the right to a healthy environment: clean air and water, well-managed sewage treatment, recycling, and solid waste disposal. 
We will strive for accessible open and recreational spaces, functional habitats, ecosystem, and sustainable watersheds.
We support protecting clean air, scenic views, soil, water, and cultural resources. We believe in the sustainable management of Oregon’s renewable agricultural, water, forest, range, wildlife, and fisheries resources.
Climate change is principally caused by human activities. Robust action to reduce carbon dioxide production and emissions is urgently needed to avoid catastrophic changes. Supporting carbon sequestration will be pivotal in long-term solutions.
We oppose converting public lands to private ownership and support protecting and expanding federal, state, and local parks, wilderness areas, recreation areas, beaches, and other public resource lands.
We support community-based land use and transportation planning within a framework of statewide environmental and beneficial use protection standards that prioritize climate and equity goals and address current and historic discrimination. Public and alternative transportation must be prioritized to meet these criteria.
We support the “polluter pays” principle, with compounding penalties for major polluters, making pollution unacceptably expensive for industries, and not just a cost of doing business.
We believe in implementing Green transportation and energy technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels. Including geothermal, wind, solar power alternatives should be funded and implemented.
We support broad efforts to reduce human waste through societal improvements in refuse management and the widespread deployment of recycling technologies. We believe in full accounting of life cycle costs.
We support strong energy efficiency incentives to reduce energy usage in existing structures. We intend to expand solar access and implementation standards in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings.
Our public lands (national parks, national monuments, national forests, BLM, wild life refuges, etc.) belong to all people and must not be privatized. Land swaps must go through the NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) hearings and then be voted on by Congress.
There should be no legal immunity for the harm pesticides and other chemicals cause us.
We support government funded scientific research selected on merit and absence of political bias.

Article 3. Healthcare
Preamble: Universal, high-quality, easily accessible healthcare is a right, and should not be for profit.

1. Reproductive-care, including gender-affirming care, must be included in basic healthcare.
Medicare/Medicaid must not be privatized.
Healthcare must include reproductive and gender-affirming, general, preventive, emergency, vision, dental, hearing, and mental health care.
Treatment should be determined by doctors, physician assistants, or nurse practitioners, with the best interests in the patients’ well-being and without spousal/partner or parental interference.
Patients have the freedom to choose alternative care.

Article 4. Housing and Land Use
Preamble: Housing is a human right, and lack of affordable housing is an emergency. Addressing the housing crisis requires an immediate increase in available housing and keeping low-income renters from becoming unhoused. The typical tenant is rent-burdened, and the lack of tenant protections perpetuates housing instability. Everyone deserves safe, stable, and affordable housing. At the same time, we must ensure that land use and growth are community-centered and done in a way that meets our climate objectives.

1. Keep All Oregonians Housed: Federal, state, and local government agencies must work to ensure that all are housed by facilitating the development of permanent, supportive, affordable housing and mitigating rent increases. We support evidence-based housing policies to reduce human suffering and maintain stability. 
Build Up Not Out: We encourage higher-density, walkable community planning.
Sustainable Building Practices: We must encourage and incentivize the use of construction materials that help us meet our climate goals.
Private equity: We oppose private equity ownership of residential properties.
Subsidies: Tax subsidies and incentives should be rare and granted only to corporations that meet climate, labor, and housing objectives.
Increasing Housing Stock: We support increasing housing stock within urban growth boundaries, including high-density, medium-density, and mixed-use developments to fight sprawl. We recognize the need for a range of housing types to accommodate diverse living situations.
Land Use: We support Oregon’s current land use laws and regulations. They allow for thoughtful, careful development of Oregon’s land base.

Article 5. Economy, Fiscal Policy and Social Safety Net
Preamble: The success of our economy should not be measured by the performance of the markets, but in the health and prosperity of those in our communities. A budget is a moral document: ever increasing disparity of wealth has left inadequate money and resources available to our governments and communities, which increasingly exacerbates our legacy of exclusion and discrimination.  We need to secure basic human needs from corporate greed, through measures including a reworked tax code, and strengthened regulations. Social safety-net and other services must be culturally relevant.

Children are our future. Resources devoted to our children today will be exponentially repaid in our country’s economic and social prosperity.  
A functional economy requires high quality, affordable, and accessible childcare. 
Social Security must be protected.
Our federal and state tax codes must require profitable corporations to pay their fair share. Our economy must no longer be dominated by corporate monopolies that put profits over people and use their market power to engage in anticompetitive behavior.
Corruption is a cost that should not be paid by the taxpayer. There must be accountability beyond fines, and including incarceration, for corporations which break the law, and for those who run them.  
Essential government services — like Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, and Paid Family Leave — must be accessible, efficient, and timely. Agencies must have the resources they need to provide a necessary level of service for those in need.
Veterans and active-duty personnel who serve our country honorably should receive high quality, accessible, and timely assistance to address and rectify physical, mental, and socioeconomic hardships incurred due to their service.
Consumer protections must include the right to safe products, the right to repair, protection from non-transparent / junk fees and surprise billing, and the right to privacy for our data and financial information.
Benefits provided though our social safety net must be tied to the cost-of-living and raised proportionately as the cost-of-living increases.
Public state banks should be made universally available to all, allowing us to save and access our money without being subject to discriminatory practices.

Article 6. Labor and Work
Preamble: Working people are the foundation of our economy and deserve a family-wage, equal pay for equal work, and the right to organize free from intimidation and coercion. Worker protections are about fairness, safety, and respect for the people who keep our economy running. Everyone deserves to be paid fairly, treated with dignity, and able to come home safe at the end of the day. We support safe working conditions, clear rules, and a real voice for workers in resolving disputes. When working people are organized and empowered, families thrive, and our economy works better for everyone.

Minimum Wage: The minimum wage should be a family wage, tied to the cost of living, and raised in proportion to rising costs.
Calculating Cost-of-Living: The cost-of-living should be calculated by using the necessities of basic life: rent and mortgage, food, prescription drugs, vitamins, electricity, natural gas, water, sewer, toilet paper, childcare, diapers, baby formula, internet, phone, car payments, service and repairs, gas, mass transit, healthcare, property, and car insurance. 
Non-compete and Non-disclosure Agreements: Workers should not be required to sign non-compete agreements as a condition of employment, and non-disclosure agreements should be limited to classified and proprietary information only.
Subsidization of Low-Wage-Paying Corporations: Until family wages are mandated for all employees, the government should not subsidize large, for-profit corporations by compensating for their low wages through government assistance. Such corporations shall be ineligible for government subsidies, including tax credits, incentives, grants, and loans.
Childcare: Access to safe, affordable childcare is essential to working families. We support publicly funded childcare because childcare is essential economic infrastructure. All workers and students must have access to safe, publicly funded, high-quality childcare and early childhood education for all infants and children. 
Healthcare for All: We believe healthcare is a human right and that both employers and employees benefit from universal healthcare.
Worker Protections: We believe workers are the backbone of our economy. Workers have the right to organize free from intimidation and coercion and have the right to the enforcement of good-faith contract negotiations.

Article 7. Safety and Justice
Preamble: Everyone is entitled to a life free from abuse, neglect, violence, coercion, police harassment and state-sanctioned violence. Everyone must have access to an unbiased and fair justice system without regard to economic status or identity.

Lawmakers and government officials must be held accountable to the same laws and ethical standards as the rest of us.
Courts, especially the Supreme Court, must adopt and abide by a code of ethics.
White-collar crimes are under-charged, are not penalized enough to deter those crimes, and the fines are regarded as a cost of doing business. We believe penalties must be substantial enough to deter those crimes and include jail time, as appropriate.
Gun violence is an epidemic. We, along with the majority of Americans, support common sense actions to reduce gun violence.

Article 8. Foreign Policy and Immigration
Preamble: The cost of war is terrible. We can decrease the inevitability of armed conflict by investing in preventive strategies including: economic security, democracy, climate friendly policies, coalition building, and skilled diplomacy. People already in the United States should be secure to seek legal status, people immigrating should be treated with compassion and according to international law and the US Constitution.

Shifting the balance of investment from armed defense/aggression to democracy-building strategies in all countries can lead to a more peaceful world.
We support our defensive treaties with allies, such as NATO, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, including the defense of Ukraine and other countries against outside aggression.
Private contractors and other mercenary combatants, whose motivation is profit, should not be used in warfare.
Those seeking asylum in the US should always have their claim considered, be represented by an attorney, and be granted safe entry to the U.S. while their case is in process as mandated by international law. 
Congress must pass comprehensive immigration law that provides security for people seeking and advancing their legal status. Immigration is not a criminal offense. 
The slaughter, systematic removal, or forced emigration of distinct cultural groups, known as genocide, is a stain on the global conscience. We have a moral and strategic responsibility to intervene. National and international policy should never enable, fund, provide diplomatic cover to, or ignore crimes against humanity.
We recognize the enormous economic, cultural, and other contributions made by immigrants living in our community, and support the creation of pathways to their legal residency and citizenship without which our communities cannot achieve our full potential.
Maintain the Workers Relief Fund, and enforce policies that protect workers from wage, employment, physical, and other work-related abuse.

Article 9. Education, Media, Technology and Speech
Preamble: We believe that an educated, informed citizenry is essential for democracy
and for our economy to thrive. Every person has a basic right to high-quality public education beyond high school.

We know that education does not stop at graduation, but should continue through robust access to continuing education, library resources, media, and the internet.

2. Public funds must not be used to fund private schools.
3. Teachers must be well-educated, well-prepared, and well-trained for their important role in our society. Teachers must be treated with respect and compensated accordingly.
4. Schools should not expect teachers to provide classroom supplies.
5. State curricula must include historically under-represented groups including but not limited to: Black/African American people, indigenous people, other people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community, women, labor, the poor, and other marginalized people. A similar focus on inclusion and objectivity should be applied to all history lessons.
6. Civics and Current Events should be included in the required curriculum for graduation from high school.
7. The right to create and access literature, film, works of art, and any other forms of media are integral to citizens’ right of speech and education. They should not be banned.
8. Every person should have access to affordable high-speed internet.
9 The corporate consolidation of media has harmed our democracy, and it must be addressed through regulation.
10. Access to free higher education should be made available to all who qualify.
11. All public-school buildings should be kept in good repair and enlarged as needed to accommodate student populations.
12. There should be a moratorium on building new Artificial Intelligence data centers.

Federal Legislative Action Items
Democracy, Election Integrity, and Human Rights

Introduce and Pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Pass a law banning Congress, the Cabinet, and the President from trading in stocks.
Amend the Constitution to read “the rights enumerated on this document are the rights of natural human persons only.”
Pass a law banning Congress, the Cabinet, and the President from trading in speculative markets.
Pass the Transgender Bill of Rights.

Climate Change Science and the Environment

Our Public Lands (National Parks, National Monuments, National Forests, Bureau of Land Management etc.) belong to all of us and must not be sold or given away.

Healthcare

Pass the Women’s Health Protection Act
Stop the REACH program, which wastes Medicare funds, denies patients needed care, and enrolls traditional Medicare enrollees into private insurance plans without their full understanding or consent.
Pass the Medicare for All Act.

Housing and Land Use

Ban Corporations from buying single family homes.

Economy, Fiscal Policy, and Social Safety Net

Use anti-trust law to breakup conglomerates.
Pass the Ban Presidential Plunder Act introduced by Elizabeth Warren.

Labor and Work

Pass HR 20 The Pro Act (Protecting the right to organize)

Safety and Justice

Congress must enact the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act (SCERT) requiring the Supreme Court to Conform to the federal courts code of ethics.
Ban private for-profit prisons.
Pass HR 3115 the Assault Weapons Ban
Increase funding for public defenders.

Foreign Policy and Immigration

Pass the renewing Immigration Act of 1929 moving the cutoff date in the Federal Registry from 1972 to a current date, with an automatic update function thus opening a path to residency and citizenship including those in DACA.
Reaffirm U.S. treaty commitments to NATO and support democratic allies. Strengthen cooperation with Canada and Mexico and uphold global alliances that promote peace and self-determination. Direct the Department of Defense to reduce its carbon footprint, transition to renewable energy, and formally recognize climate change as a national security threat.
Restore and fully fund USAID. Support foreign aid that promotes public health, education, sustainable development, and global stability. Strengthen alliances across the globe by ensuring we don’t provide weapons to nations that willfully engage inhuman rights violations. Prevent US dollars from killing or oppressing marginalized or oppressed communities.

State Legislative Action Items
Democracy, Election Integrity, and Human Rights

Enshrine vote-by-mail as an Oregon constitutional amendment.
Oppose HB 2772, which created a domestic terrorism label for protesting.