Oregon Senate District 3: A candidate responds

Five Democratic candidates.

Cristian Mendoza Ruvalcaba was the only candidate I did not know. 

He isn't new to Southern Oregon. He is new to the local political scene. 

From his campaign website

I invited the five Senate District Three candidates I profiled on Thursday to respond to that description of their campaign finances. Ruvalcaba's wrote the letter below.

Ruvalcaba wants us to know who he is. His website begins the same way, with a description of his immigrant roots, his education, and the hustle it took to get his doctorate in nursing practice. His ambition, brains, and credentialing are exceptional, but he doesn't emphasize exceptionalism. He emphasizes that he sees the problems of the country from lived experience as someone authentically from and in the world of working Americans struggling to get by. 

His website shows he has positions on issues that one expects from liberal Democrats: universal healthcare, access to reproductive and gender-affirming care, more money for K-12 education and higher education, "immigration justice" by blocking ICE enforcement within hospitals, a general goal of protecting forests and farmland, opposition to the sale of public lands, and support for unions. They are policy goals I see in the websites of the four other Democratic candidates.

Democratic voters face a choice among five personalities and biographies. It is like a high school student body election, only instead of choosing between the jock and the extravert honor student, all the candidates are extravert honor students. How to choose?

From his campaign website

Ruvalcaba puts immigration front and center. Ruvalcaba was born in the U.S. to a Spanish-speaking family. It will test the proposition: Is our current discord over immigration really about illegitimate immigration, or is this really about something darker, a tribal ethnocentric discomfort with diverse people living among us? Ruvalcaba is a strong case for the value immigration brings Americans, a hugely productive citizen. He is an appealing candidate: a nurse and nurse educator, young, idealistic, dedicated to helping others. He is a fresh political face of a new generation at a moment when voters are witnessing profound cronyism associated with the GOP brand. He comes with a severe disadvantage in name familiarity and established network of supporters compared to this primary opponents and Republican opponent, Brad Hicks, if Ruvalcaba wins the primary. Hicks is the long-serving CEO of a strongly Republican-coded Chamber of Commerce and its tight network of establishment politics, political donations, and business deals with government entities.

But every strength embeds a weakness. Hicks is burdened by the aura of cronyism at a time when Trump has put cronyism on unapologetic display. The energy that fueled the populist right during Trump's early "drain the swamp" days still exists. Local voters chose almost two-to-one to cut county commissioner salaries in half, notwithstanding a giant campaign to maintain the status quo. Ruvalcaba could be the fresh face candidate, the new broom that sweeps clean the no-longer-trusted establishment. 

Ruvalcaba has work to do. Currently his campaign financing does not say "local man makes good, very good." It says "upstate nurses lobby has a candidate." Voters will not want to pick between a Chamber swamp and a nurses lobby swamp coming out of the Democratic caucus swamp. Ruvalcaba needs to develop broad, deep local connections that make his campaign match his roots and the brand he is trying to establish. He can grow his local network, but I suspect that this takes more time than he has in this election cycle. 

I could be wrong. Possibly this is his year. We will see.

Letter from Cristian Mendoza Ruvalcaba

Dear Peter,

Thank you for the introduction. As you noted, I have been busy making calls and growing my base of grassroots support.

In conversations with voters over the past few weeks, it is clear that Democrats are looking for bold, fresh leadership. Leaders who are responsive, grounded in community, and accountable to working people. Many voters are frustrated with a political system that feels distant and disconnected from the realities they face every day. Many younger voters and voters from diverse communities feel disengaged because they do not see themselves represented in leadership. Many people who I have spoken with do not see themselves reflected in decision making spaces.

As the son of immigrants, born and raised in Medford, I put myself through SOU and completed both of my graduate nurse practitioner programs, and I proudly call Southern Oregon home. My path has been shaped by working class values and a strong sense of responsibility to the community that raised me and that I continue to serve.

Like many people in our district, I live with the financial pressures of a tight household budget with little room for savings, if any at all. These realities are not abstract to me. They are shared by the families I talk with every day on the campaign trail.

In my work as a registered nurse and nurse practitioner, I have seen firsthand how our broken health care system affects people directly. Patients delay care because they cannot afford it. Conditions worsen because preventive care is out of reach. People end up in costly hospital visits that could have been avoided with earlier access and support. These are not isolated cases. They reflect a system where access and affordability are out of reach for too many.

In my work in higher education, I have also seen students stretched to their limits, working full time jobs while trying to complete their education. Many are doing everything right and still facing rising costs and limited opportunity. Education, which should be a pathway to stability and mobility, is becoming increasingly difficult to access.

This is exactly the perspective we need more of in Salem. Working people who lead by listening and who govern with lived experience at the center.

In addition to endorsements from multiple Democratic state legislators who champion health care and labor, I am honored to have also earned the endorsement of Nurses and Friends for Single Payer, reflecting my commitment to advancing equitable, accessible, and affordable health care.

I am excited to continue listening to voters in SD3 and to connect with even more Southern Oregonians in this campaign.

Further information regarding my campaign can be found on my website. https://www.cristianforsd3.com/

Sincerely,

Cristian Mendoza Ruvalcaba, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, CPNP-PC, CNE
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Advanced Practice Registered Nurse
Family Nurse Practitioner - Certified
Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner – Primary Care
Certified Nurse Educator

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