2023 School Board Endorsements
March 23, 2023
We are thrilled to announce our slate of candidates who have earned Next Up Action Fund’s endorsement for Oregon’s May 16, 2023 local elections.
We want to elect leaders that come from our communities, share our values, and will fight for young people in Oregon. These elections are crucial: school boards have the power to create and pass budgets and policies that directly affect students’ lives. They influence what curriculum (and whose history) is being taught, whether schools take on restorative practices and work to abolish the School-to-Prison pipeline, if queer and trans students are affirmed in policy decisions, and so much more.
Your vote matters to ensure we are electing local leaders who will fight for us in office.
Multnomah County
Ana del Rocío – County Commissioner, District 3
Katrina Doughty – MESD, Position 7 Zone 3
Danny Cage – MESD, Position 6 At Large
Michelle DePass – Portland Public Schools, Position 6
Gabriela Saldana-Lopez – David Douglas, Position 4
Heather Franklin – David Douglas, Position 6
Dana Stroud, Mt. Hood Community College, Position 5
Washington County
Crystal Weston – Tigard-Tualatin, Position 5
Maham Ahmed – Beaverton, Position 3
Justice Rajee – Beaverton, Zone 6
Tammy Carpenter – Beaverton, Zone 7
Clackamas County
Jena Benaloga – North Clackamas, Position 2
Glenn Wachter – North Clackamas, Position 3
Maegan Vidal – West Linn-Wilsonville, Position 2
Dan Schumaker – West Linn-Wilsonville, Position 4
Lane County
Jenny Jonak – Eugene School District 4J
Linn County
Miriam Cummins – Linn-Benton-Lincoln, Zone 6
Update your voter registration
Take some time to update your voter registration to make sure you are ready to vote in this upcoming election! Oregonians (that are 16 years old or older and U.S. citizens) can register to vote online here. The deadline to register or update your registration for the May primary is April 25, 2023.
About our endorsement process
In each election, we convene an endorsement committee usually made up of youth cohort members, staff, and board members – with a focus on Black and brown youth – who have decision-making power. For this election, our endorsement committee was a paid committee of 6 high school aged students from Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties. It is crucial that the people most impacted by school boards are the ones that get to make these decisions. After a thoughtful process, the Endorsement Committee made recommendations to Next Up Action Fund’s board, who voted to approve their recommendations.
