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Candidates › OR-04 race › 2025–2026
Monique Despain
R Republican nominee for U.S. House, OR-04
Has not served in Congress
- On the ballot
- Lost the general electionNov 3, 2026 · 96,960 votes (41.1%) · 2 of 3
- Where to vote
- Find a ballot drop box (opens in a new tab) · More ways to vote
- Top priorities
- Immigration
- Veterans Issues
- Public Safety and Crime
- Addressing Homelessness, Addiction, and the Mentally Ill
- Affordable Housing for Working Americans
- Money
- $921.9K raised, $768.3K spent, $153.6K cash on hand (through Oct 14, 2026). Where it comes from
- Who gives
- 27% of individual money from donors at $200 or less · 86% from Oregon · largest committee giver THE GUARDIAN FUND, $10K
- Outside groups
- $151.6K supporting Despain
- Backed by
- Crime Victims United · John Kilcullen · Larry Schrenk and 18 more. As the campaign lists them
19 priorities from moniqueforcongress.com, in the order they are listed there. Every heading and the text under it is copied exactly, as one passage for each page it is from, and links to that place on the page; hover a source to see which passage it opens.
Secure the Border. Fix the System. Restore the Rule of Law.
No reasonable person can deny the damage done by President Biden’s reckless border policies—policies fully supported by my opponent, Congresswoman Val Hoyle. Although the border has finally been secured, the consequences remain. Millions entered our country illegally, criminal cartels expanded their reach, and American communities were left carrying the human and financial costs of Washington’s failure.
We must never allow this to happen again.
America has spent enormous blood and treasure defending the borders of other nations. Securing our own is common sense and a fundamental responsibility of government. But border security alone does not resolve the larger problem created by decades of failed immigration policy.
We must secure the border, enforce the law, remove dangerous criminals—and finally create an immigration system that works.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Monique's Priorities” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
I am keenly aware of what it means to take the oath to defend our great nation and of the many sacrifices made by those who serve, and their families. I am proud to have served our country, alongside my brothers and sisters in uniform, for over 30 years in the U.S. Air Force and the Oregon National Guard. I will never forget or neglect our beloved veterans.
Every day, there are veterans in our country struggling to navigate a bureaucratic VA system just to schedule a medical appointment or ensure their benefits arrive on time. Tragically, many veterans face housing obstacles as well. Every day that I am in Congress, I will fight to remove obstacles and ensure our veteran benefits are protected and that veterans receive the care and attention they have earned. Back home in Oregon, I will have a veteran on my congressional staff who is dedicated 100 percent to working with me to serve all of my veteran constituents, including our forgotten homeless veterans.
As your Congresswoman, I will continue to stand up and fight for our current service members and veterans, and I will ensure we preserve their incredible legacies.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · moniqueforcongress.com/issues
Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Immigration” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
National security, safe communities, and safe workplaces are a fundamental, non-negotiable function of government. No communities are safe without adequate law enforcement. We are a nation of laws, and laws are only effective when enforced. I support the rule of law and the men and women of law enforcement and other emergency responders. It is my goal to ensure they have the necessary authority and resources to do their job effectively, from Customs and Border Patrol to our local sheriffs, police, and district attorneys. Public officials who refuse to enforce our laws and hold criminals accountable must be held accountable themselves and swiftly replaced with officials who will. I will not support federal funding for soft-on-crime cities or cities that defund the police and leave Americans vulnerable.
Almost every family I know has been touched by the tragedy of substance abuse. In 2023, over 100,000 Americans were killed by either a one-time fentanyl poisoning or fentanyl addiction. I refuse to accept this as America’s new ‘normal.’ To ensure safe neighborhoods in Congressional District 4, we must secure our nation’s border and stop the relentless flow of fentanyl, P2P methamphetamines, and other deadly drugs into Oregon. By ending cartel control of our borders and preventing criminals from illegally entering our cities and other communities, we will stop the delivery and distribution of deadly drugs, human trafficking, and other abhorrent cartel activity that is fueling addiction, homelessness, and the crime wave overwhelming our communities. It’s common sense.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Veterans Issues” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
Homelessness is not a single problem, so it cannot have a single solution. A person struggling with addiction requires a different response than a veteran experiencing homelessness, a person with severe mental illness, or a family working full-time but unable to afford housing.
My priorities are to advance and support policies that:
- Expand treatment capacity for addiction and mental illness, including medically assisted treatment, recovery housing, and long-term support.
- Require accountability for publicly funded homelessness, addiction, and mental health programs by measuring outcomes, not intentions. Taxpayers deserve to know which programs are helping people achieve recovery, housing, and independence.
- Support deflection and diversion programs that connect people to treatment, while maintaining accountability and meaningful consequences, before they enter the criminal justice system.
- Enforce laws against public camping, drug use, theft, and disorder while ensuring adequate shelter and treatment options are available.
- Increase housing supply by reducing regulatory barriers, streamlining permitting, and encouraging affordable workforce housing. I also support responsible forest management and sustainable timber production on public lands, creating family-wage jobs while generating revenue for counties, public safety, roads, schools, treatment programs and treatment facilities.
- Expand support for veterans experiencing homelessness and ensure they receive the benefits and services they earned.
Oregonians are compassionate people. But the way government (our elected representatives) has managed homelessness is neither compassionate nor sustainable. For too long, Oregon has measured success by dollars spent rather than outcomes achieved.
We should judge every homelessness policy by one question: Is it helping people recover from their actual problem, become self-sufficient, and return to stable housing and productive lives? Whenever the answer is no, we should stop funding that failure and invest in solutions that work instead.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Public Safety and Crime” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
To truly address and resolve the affordable housing crisis, we must address the skyrocketing cost of living caused by extreme policies coming from Salem and Washington, D.C. At the same time, we must increase housing availability and affordability. I support ending prohibitive and inflationary policies that stifle new construction with excessive permitting costs, building regulations, city and county codes, bureaucratic red tape, and outdated land-use restrictions imposed by the government itself. Do you know that the entire population of Oregon lives on approximately 7 percent of our State? These government-imposed restrictions, coupled with runaway inflation and interest rates, are pricing most working people out of the American Dream of home ownership. I want to be part of the common sense conservative majority in Congress that ensures the federal government does its part to lift housing restrictions.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · moniqueforcongress.com/issues
Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Addressing Homelessness, Addiction, and the Mentally Ill” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
Oregon’s natural-resource industries are the backbone of prosperity and livability in Oregon’s Congressional District 4. After decades of empty promises from career politicians, our timber communities and coastal residents deserve a strong, pragmatic advocate in Congress.
As your Congresswoman, I will champion responsible forest management grounded in co-stewardship with tribal nations, sustainable timber harvests, and proactive removal of fuel loads that drive catastrophic wildfires. The federal government must either step up or step aside: The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management should be required to rapidly suppress fires or immediately authorize state, local, and private entities ready to protect our forests and communities.
I will cut the bureaucratic red tape and impractical restrictions harming our farmers and ranchers. I believe in independence, innovation, and the right to thrive. I will defend a resilient “Made in America” food supply and safeguard farmers’ ability to farm and provide affordable, healthy choices for consumers.
I will also work relentlessly to remove federal barriers blocking development of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay—an untapped economic engine with the potential to serve the entire Pacific. Strengthening our coastal communities means investing in durable infrastructure, addressing housing and childcare shortages, and attracting the skilled workforce needed to power long-term growth.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Affordable Housing for Working Americans” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
Our forests should be working forests, not fuel for the next fire.
More than 60% of Oregon’s Fourth District is federal forestland. Decades of passive management, excessive fuel buildup, deteriorating access roads, and litigation gridlock have left our forests vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire. The consequences are devastating: burned homes and habitat, hazardous smoke, shuttered mills, lost family-wage jobs, and declining revenue for rural schools, roads, and public safety.
I will work with federal, state, tribal, local, and private partners to restore active forest management, including:
- Thinning overcrowded stands and removing dangerous fuel loads and ladder fuels.
- Sustainable-yield timber harvests and prompt, responsible salvage after fires.
- Prescribed fire and tribal cultural burning where they can be used safely.
- Protection of mature and old-growth trees through active management of surrounding fuels.
- Maintaining essential roads, trails, water sources, and evacuation routes.
- Rapid initial attack using federal, state, tribal, local, and private firefighting resources.
Federal tree plantations should be sustainably managed to produce renewable timber, materials for American homes, and family-wage jobs. Where restoration is the better use, selected overcrowded plantations should be converted into healthier, more diverse forests that can better withstand wildfire, insects, and disease.
When a fire starts, the Forest Service and BLM must suppress it immediately or authorize capable state, local, tribal, and private crews to act. I will demand transparency regarding response decisions, contract terms, expenditures, and fires that escape initial attack. Our priority must be protecting lives, communities, and forests—not sustaining an increasingly expensive and lucrative wildfire industry.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Climate Change & Environment” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
I have already submitted public comment supporting rescission of the one-size-fits-all 2001 Roadless Rule. Rescission would not automatically authorize logging or road construction. It would allow local forest managers to determine where carefully planned access is needed for wildfire response, restoration, recreation, and public safety, while retaining environmental review and protections for sensitive areas.
Not every acre should be managed identically. Decisions should reflect the land’s condition, habitat value, wildfire risk, and suitability for sustainable timber production.
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Responsible management can create family-wage jobs in forestry, trucking, firefighting, reforestation, milling, manufacturing, and equipment maintenance. Federal forest management should also honor the sustained-yield and revenue-sharing requirements governing O&C lands, generating dependable support for county schools, roads, law enforcement, and emergency services.
Healthy forests do not happen through neglect. They require stewardship, access, action, and accountability.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · moniqueforcongress.com/issues
Our government-run education system is failing our children, and Oregon ranks among the worst government education programs in America. Yet more money is being spent and extracted from taxpayers every year, only to produce steadily declining education results with our kids. Students are increasingly failing to meet minimum proficiency in reading, writing, and math. This shortfall imposes significant costs on families and employers and leaves young people unprepared for productive, independent lives.
As a single working mother whose children went through public 4J schools in Eugene, I know the strain and expense on families who step up to fill the gaps left by our government school system.
We must return parents, teachers, and local education partners to the center of decision-making. As your Congresswoman, I will support a Parents’ Bill of Rights to ensure real transparency and accountability: full access to curricula, clear reporting on school performance, and genuine school choice. Parents deserve a primary, active role in their children’s education—not a one-size-fits-all system dictated by distant bureaucrats.
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My goal in Congress is to help restore the American Dream for working families. A strong, growing middle class is essential—and today it is struggling and shrinking. As your Congresswoman, I will champion sustainable private-sector job creation, especially for small and medium-sized businesses and the skilled trades. I will support policies that rebuild American manufacturing, lower the cost of goods, and improve affordability so Americans can live and work with pride and dignity.
Prosperity requires government to get out of the way. We must cut excessive regulations, fix broken permitting systems, and reduce punitive taxation so Americans can keep more of what they earn and reinvest in their communities.
Crime is also driving up costs for law-abiding families. I support directing federal resources toward dramatically reducing property crime and theft that raise prices, inflate insurance costs, and force businesses to close. Inflation continues to crush family budgets and hit seniors on fixed incomes the hardest. This is not the future we want for our children or grandchildren.
In Congress, I will fight to end reckless, wasteful tax-and-spend policies coming out of Washington that fuel inflation, undermine affordability, increase the national debt, and place the American Dream out of reach for too many.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Education” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
The storms and wildfires in our District have made one thing clear: energy is civilization, and it is a critical national and local security issue. As your Congresswoman, I will oppose ongoing attacks on Americans’ freedom to choose their energy sources. The first-world nation we currently enjoy must continue to ensure access to an array of reliable and affordable energy options without the threat of arbitrary government bans, penalties, or prohibitive taxes.
Consumers and businesses—not distant bureaucrats—should decide when and how to adopt alternative energy options, free from prohibitive costs or forced transitions. To deliver on this, the government should pursue an “all of the above” energy strategy that strives to develop scientifically based, cleaner energy choices, protects our energy infrastructure, and ends reliance on sources of energy from hostile and unreliable nations.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Economy” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
Elected representatives of the American people have a legal and moral obligation to make all of their business of government, the business of the people, transparent and accountable to the people they serve. When elected, I commit to sharing all of my votes and reasons behind them for all the public to see. I will ask the tough questions in relentless pursuit of truthful, factual answers, followed by prompt and deliberate action. I will apply my experienced investigative eye and knowledge of the law to expose wasteful spending. Much like my work as a military and private sector lawyer, I will fight to eliminate discrimination, corruption, and cronyism, expose conflicts of interest, and bring an end to the careers of pay-to-play career politicians, starting with our corrupt Congresswoman Val Hoyle.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Energy” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)
As a retired Air Force Colonel with 30 years of service and a top-secret security clearance, I understand the stakes of America’s national security. Protecting our nation—at home and abroad—will always be a top priority. Peace through strength remains the proven strategy for deterring aggression, preventing conflict, and securing lasting peace and prosperity.
Our military must be vigilant, well-resourced, and capable of winning 24/7. That means maintaining our technological edge, reinforcing readiness, and investing in modern capabilities—especially cyber capabilities and missile defense—to meet rapidly evolving 21st-century threats.
I support the right of our allies to defend themselves from terrorists and hostile regimes, but I oppose unlimited foreign aid without strict oversight. No taxpayer dollars should be spent without accountability. Americans deserve full transparency on how their money is used and assurance that every defense expenditure advances our national security.
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Heading as listed on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading) · “Government Transparency & Accountability” on moniqueforcongress.com/issues ↗ (opens moniqueforcongress.com/issues at this heading)