Denise Krause is going door to door looking for last minute voters.
It is too late to mail the ballot. Now Oregon voters need to bring their ballots to a dropbox.
A Report from the Campaign Trail by Denise Krause
Phoenix. Talent. Medford. Ashland. Jacksonville. A swing through Ruch and the Applegate.
Here is some of what I found.
In Phoenix, a woman in her late seventies walked me out to the spot where her original house had stood before the Almeda Fire came through. She lives in a manufactured home on the same lot now. The insurance fight alone took eighteen months. She told me she still doesn’t sleep well in August and September. Then she pivoted, without losing a beat, and asked me what I planned to do about pharmacy benefit managers. She had the acronym right. She knew her grandson’s insulin had gone from $30 to $140.
She wasn’t venting. She was interviewing me.
In Talent, a nurse who had worked at Ashland Community Hospital told me the birth center closure hadn’t surprised her, but the inpatient closure had. She wanted to know how many of the legislators who voted on the last health budget had ever spent a Saturday night on a med-surg floor.
I told her I didn’t know.
She said, “That’s the problem.”
In Medford, a man in his sixties opened the door, looked at my literature, and said, “Krause. You ran for commissioner. I voted for you.” We talked for 15 minutes about Jackson County’s charter reform. He invited me back to meet his neighbors.
I’ve spent 25 years working as a population health scientist. When I told people that most of them said "good." Then they moved straight to the next question: What do I think about Asante? About Southern Oregon University’s financial situation? About drought and wildfire preparedness?
The conversations were never really about me. They were about the work that still needs to be done.
One idea I shared resonated: partnering SOU with Oregon Health and Science University to build a medical program alongside the existing nursing program, and repositioning Ashland’s hospital as a teaching hospital. It would anchor institutional investment in a region that has been watching its healthcare infrastructure quietly disappear. The full proposal is on my website. www.denisekrause.com
I keep coming back to the woman in Phoenix, standing on the lot where her house used to be, asking me about insulin pricing, not sleeping well in late summer.
[Note: If any other candidates want to send me a brief field report or observation about their campaign, send it to me at peter.w.sage@gmail.com. I may publish it if it is interesting and short.]
For local readers: Drop box locations in Rogue River, Eagle Point, Phoenix, Ashland, and two in Medford:
https://www.jacksoncountyor.gov/departments/elections/ballot_box_locations.php
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