The four candidates vying to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District sparred over key issues at a Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 debate in Eugene. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Every chair in Eugene’s WOW Hall was filled Friday afternoon for lively forum between four candidates vying to represent the 4th District in Congress.
Many of the more than 100 attendees at the event hosted by the Eugene City Club appeared to have made up their minds about the candidates. Many sported campaign shirts, hats and pins and held signs supporting the frontrunners: incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle and her opponent Monique DeSpain, a Republican. Two other candidates, Justin Filip of the Pacific Green Party and Dan Bahlen, a Libertarian, who are also running attended the forum.
All are competing to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, which spans seven counties mostly along the southwest coast from the Oregon-California border to Lincoln City. Republicans hope to flip the seat to maintain their slight majority in the House. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, 32% to 25%, in the district but the largest share of registered voters – 35% – are unaffiliated, and Republicans consider Hoyle a weak first-term congressional member over questions about her prior leadership as labor commissioner.
The frontrunners – and minority candidates – discussed a range of questions during the 80-minute-long debate. Moderator Rebecca Hansen-White, a reporter at the local public radio station KLCC, asked the candidates about combatting homelessness, addressing climate change and tackling the fentanyl and drug addiction crisis. They also discussed education, health care and the war in the Middle East as the audience yelled and jeered, prompting Hansen-White to stop and call for quiet several times.
Frontrunners spar
Hoyle, who appeared to have the most support in the crowd judging from the clapping and jeers, was often on the defensive, responding to attacks about her voting record and the top issues plaguing Oregon.
“Voters are frustrated and disheartened by what they see in our communities and the fact that nothing is true, and nothing is getting done, and in Congress representing our district now we have a career politician under federal investigation,” DeSpain said.
Monique DeSpain, a Republican vying to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, takes the mic at a forum in Eugene on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Hoyle responded by touting her record of getting a handful of bills passed in her first term, calling the current Congress “one of the least productive.”
She blamed Republicans for that, saying they wasted three weeks on choosing a speaker.
“I’ve managed to pass five bills into law, each and every one bipartisan. I’ve been able to bring $86 million back to this district on things that matter, on infrastructure, on communications,” Hoyle said.
DeSpain, a retired military colonel who has not held elected office but has worked as a lawyer for Salem area state Rep. Kevin Mannix, a prominent state Republican, hammered Hoyle on the addiction crisis, linking it to homelessness and border security issues.
“The drug addiction problem is a big part of the homelessness and mental health problems,” DeSpain said. “You don’t build a house and give the keys to a fentanyl addict courtesy of our tax dollars. That’s ridiculous.”
She said the fentanyl crisis is a border security issue.
“Fentanyl is not sprouting along the sides of I-5,” DeSpain said. “It’s coming in over our unsecured borders, and it’s causing addiction, desperation, depression and death, and these things are costing money.”
They also discussed climate change, with Hoyle saying she anticipates natural disasters will get worse and proposing to make the Federal Emergency Management Agency a cabinet level office so that it has robust full-time staff and funding.
Hansen-White also asked the candidates about abortion, an issue that Democrats are focusing on this year following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. DeSpain said it should be left to states to decide. She also said she supports protecting access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, saying she used it to have her two sons.
Heated reactions
Questions related to Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon – with more than 44,000 civilians killed – spurred a heated response. Hoyle said the war is troubling, but said Israel has a right to defend itself and that Palestine has a right to independent statehood, safety and security.
Filip, the Green Party candidate, who repeatedly mentioned the war, said he’d vote for a permanent ceasefire and vote to prohibit exporting more weapons to Israel.
In the last year, the U.S. has sent Israel nearly $18 billion in military aid.
An audience member holds a sign at the 4th Congressional District debate in Eugene on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The crowd jeered the loudest when candidates discussed the Middle East war. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
DeSpain said she’d support Israel as an ally of the U.S., adding, “I don’t believe in blank checks.”
The audience yelled and booed during that part of the debate and later expressed frustrations with the candidates. Some in the audience chanted “genocide is not a defense.”
Sydney Tucker-Vivian, 68, said she is frustrated with TV ads saying DeSpain is against abortion and that she believes Hoyle is lying about her relationship with the co-founder of a cannabis company that’s under federal investigation. Hoyle has denied news reports of her having a cozy relationship with the co-founder of the company La Mota. While Hoyle was labor commissioner, the agency granted La Mota millions of dollars for an apprenticeship program.
“I think the politicians are very foolish to think they can get away with lying,” Tucker-Vivian said.
A retiree who used to work as a cook at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, Tucker-Vivian she doesn’t vote for parties, but for candidates, and previously voted for Hoyle’s predecessor, Peter DeFazio, a Democrat who served in Congress for 36 years.
Others accused DeSpain of lying, expressing disgruntlement with politicians.
“I’m from the Netherlands. I don’t lie. This blatant lying is abhorrent to me,” said Monique Nickelson, a retired business owner and former realtor.
She said she’s concerned with TV attack ads against Hoyle, calling them disingenuous. Nickelson recently became a naturalized citizen after 40 years in the U.S. and will vote for the first time in the Nov. 5 election. She said she will vote for Hoyle, hoping Democrats can retake the House of Representatives. She fears that if Republicans keep the House and if Trump wins, her right to vote could be compromised.
“I can’t let this idiot Trump take over the country and have this be my first and last election,” she said.
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