About

State Representative Lamar Wise is running for re-election to House District 48, which includes communities in East Portland, Happy Valley, SW Gresham, Damascus, Barton, and Boring.

Lamar knows what it's like to rely on food assistance and worry about keeping a roof over your head. Raised by a pastor and a small business owner, he has spent his career fighting for working people. As an education and labor advocate, he expanded mental health resources and pushed to make college more affordable. In the legislature, Lamar has voted to lower taxes for hundreds of thousands of Oregonians and to make sure big corporations pay their fair share.

Lowering Costs and Improving Economic Opportunity

Oregonians work hard, but for too many of us, our paychecks get eaten by rising costs of gas, food, utilities and healthcare, driven by corporate price-gouging. Lamar will:

• Prioritize investments and tax relief for working families, not tax cuts for wealthy corporations. He secured expanded tax credits for more than 200,000 low-income families in his first term.

• Working with local governments to bring home community and small business revitalization grants so that local businesses and working-class families have the opportunity to thrive.

• Fight for labor rights and worker protections so that Oregonians can see their hard work pay off and lead to prosperity.

Improving Education Outcomes

The late Representative Hòa Nguyễn was a fearless advocate for quality education. Having led the Oregon Student Association and helped pass major education reforms like the Student Success Act, Lamar is ready to pick up the torch and continue Rep. Nguyễn's work to ensure every child in Oregon gets the quality education they deserve, even in times of reduced federal funding. His priorities include:

• Addressing chronic absenteeism and making sure students are in class, learning.

• Advocating for smaller class sizes so our students receive the support and attention they deserve.

• Prioritizing full funding of special education programs and mental health supports and setting every student up to succeed.

• Expand access to affordable higher education while investing in apprenticeships and workforce training programs to help people find good-paying jobs.

• Expanding access to affordable childcare so that working families with young children can thrive.

Better Access to Addiction and Mental Health Services Healthcare

We need to improve addiction treatment and mental health access and availability to meet the needs of Oregonians. Lamar has years of experience increasing funding and support for behavioral health. Lamar will:

• Fight to protect mental health and addiction treatment from disproportionate cuts during federal funding reductions and find new investments to keep the system stable.

• Increase our behavioral health workforce to meet the needs of communities across the state, including supporting the development of the Clackamas County Recovery Campus.

• Protect access to critical care so people can get the help they need, when they need it.

Increasing Our Housing Supply

Every Oregonian deserves the opportunity to rent safe, stable housing or to buy their first home. That's why Lamar will fight to increase Oregon's housing stock and protect renters. Lamar will:

• Fight for the rights of first-time home buyers and renters.

• Cut red tape to speed up Oregon's progress towards our housing goals.

• Use all the tools at our disposal to build more homes at every price point.