John,

It was a tremendous honor to give my victory speech on election night in Springfield with Congressman Peter DeFazio at my side.

Peter has been a principled, independent leader for our district. He served with distinction in Congress for the last 36 years, and as a Lane County Commissioner before that. He took on presidents (of both parties), corporate greed, Wall Street billionaires, and MAGA extremists. His steadfast advocacy made him some powerful enemies and he was the first Congressman to be attacked by a superPAC.

It didn't faze him. Nothing did.

He set a high bar for what our district expects from our representative in Congress.

That's why I'm so humbled by the chance to build on the work that Peter has done.

When I decided to run for Congress, I vowed to continue the same style of leadership that has been Peter's hallmark. No nonsense, no grandstanding. Like Peter, I've always been focused on getting the job done, not on who gets the credit. And we've got a lot of work to do.

John, as a leader, my number one job is to be transparent. You can trust that when things are going well, I'll gladly share the good news.

And when things aren't going well, you'll hear that from me as well, I'll be honest with you about the threats we face. Just last week, Congress was held hostage by the most extreme wing of the Republican caucus. Our country froze to a standstill.

While the Republicans in Congress eventually got their act together (for now), this remains a perilous time for our nation.

We need to be honest about the threat that MAGA Republicans continue to pose to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms.

We need to be honest about the urgency of the climate crisis, as we see the impacts right in front of us every day.

We need to protect programs like Social Security and Medicare that Americans have paid into their whole lives.

And we have to be honest that our economy works very well for the people at the top, at the expense of the rest of us.

That's why when it comes to tackling the largest challenges we're facing, you can trust that I'll be transparent, hardworking and never forget where I come from.

After all, I learned from the best.

Val