John,

My family has called Oregon home for more than 20 years. When we moved here, I was working in the bicycle industry and I had three job offers at the time. We could have moved to Pennsylvania, to Colorado or to Oregon.

The offer from Burley Design in Eugene won out because it checked all the boxes we were looking for: A chance to join a worker-owned cooperative, which was important to me. Easy access to the outdoors, which was important to both me and my husband. And the biggest selling point was that the 4J school district had the strongest reputation among the three options. We chose Eugene and it's the best decision we ever made.

I've been involved in politics and organizing most of my life. My dad was the president of his local firefighters union, so I spent plenty of time at union halls, on picket lines and at political rallies. Getting involved to create positive change is in my blood.

When we got to Oregon, I found out about the challenges with school funding firsthand. My daughter was going into 1st grade and I quickly realized that she didn't have access to the same level of services she had been able to receive in Wisconsin, where we had been living. Class sizes were big, and getting bigger. We discovered a whole family of nutria living in one of the portable classrooms at the school. You can't make this stuff up.

John, when I see a problem that needs to be solved, I do what I was raised to do: I step up to be part of the solution.

I got involved in the PTO, and started volunteering with the local chapter of the education advocacy group Stand for Children. I went up to the state capitol and lobbied my legislators for more school funding. I knocked on doors to help elect pro-education candidates. And, eventually, I was appointed to the legislature and helped secure the largest increases in public education funding in state history.

It's been a tremendous honor to be elected by my community to serve them in the legislature, and now as Labor Commissioner. I get to fight for working families - families like my own - every day. And now, I want to take that fight to Congress. Chip in now and help me get there.

Let's be honest, John: Congress has too many multi-millionaires – in both parties – who can't relate to the struggles that our communities are facing right now because, quite frankly, it's not a part of their own experience. They can't understand it because they haven't lived it themselves.

When I'm in Congress, Oregon's working families will always be top of mind and first in line for me.

Count on it.

Can I count on you to help power our campaign to victory in these closing weeks?

Val