Meet Jeff Merkley

Jeff Merkley: Democrat for Oregon

As our U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley will take on the special interests and fight for regular hardworking Oregonians.

Jeff Merkley will deliver the change we need in Washington. He will take on the big insurance and drug companies to make health care more affordable and accessible for all of us. He will end unfair trade deals that have cost Oregon 70,000 manufacturing jobs and will eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. And Jeff will end the war in Iraq, bring our sons and daughters home, and fulfill the commitment we have made to our veterans and men and women in uniform.

Born in the small town of Myrtle Creek, Jeff Merkley has spent his lifetime fighting for change for Oregon families. The son of a sawmill worker, he spent his early years in Roseburg, where the children of loggers and mill workers learned the value of honest work, good schools, and strong families. Jeff worked hard, earned scholarships and became the first in his family to go to college. To control nuclear weapons, he served as a national security analyst, first for the Pentagon and then for Congress. After returning to Oregon with his wife Mary, Jeff led Habitat for Humanity and worked with low-income families to rebuild neighborhoods and purchase their first home.

Eighteen months ago, Jeff led a band of progressives to take control of the Oregon House and became the first Democratic speaker in sixteen years. The Register-Guard called Jeff's session as speaker "one of the most productive in decades." He fought special interests to make health care more affordable, clamp down on pay day loan scams, pass landmark environmental legislation, and create thousands of family-wage jobs in Oregon.

Jeff Merkley will bring Democrats, progressives, and independents together to build a better nation not only for his own children, Jonathan and Brynne, but for every child and family in Oregon – a future with family-wage jobs, affordable healthcare, a clean and healthy environment, and safe and thriving communities.

More than 250,000 nurses, firefighters, teachers, steelworkers, electricians, truck drivers, and thousands of families across Oregon have endorsed Jeff Merkley's campaign, including:

- Over 145,000 hardworking men and women from the AFL-CIO
- More than 11,000 teachers from the American Federation of Teachers
- More than 24,000 environmentalists from the Sierra Club
- Over 11,000 nurses from the Oregon Nurses Association
- More than 50,000 health care workers and other service employees from SEIU

Jeff's campaign has been endorsed by Governor Ted Kulongoski, Governor Barbara Roberts, 4 other statewide office holders, 15 Oregon mayors, 30 State Representatives, and 13 State Senators, and over 100 community leaders across Oregon.

Today, Speaker Merkley lives in East Multnomah County with Mary, a professional nurse, and their two children, Jonathan age eleven and Brynne age ten.

Posted September 4, 2007

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