Full interview: Rep. Janelle Bynum discusses run for Oregon House speaker

Well, I really appreciate the time. I mean, you know, we just, as you know, have a lot of questions and a lot of people are super interested. And you don't often get kind of an inside look at how this process plays out. It's been an education for a lot of people too. We have you was asking, what does the season mean? So I really appreciate the time. So, I mean, first question, just why? Why do you want the position? Why is this something that you are aiming for? Well, I think what's really important is to understand how the halls of power have been led since the founding of the state. It's generally been all white men. And now we've been fortunate enough in the last 20, 25 years to have some diversity in that leadership. And that I think is a good thing because diversity of thought, diversity of leadership gets us to better, you know, results, ultimately. What really compelled me this time is I sat down and I thought about how I wanted to make a difference from this particular position. And one of the things that I see pretty frequently is every time people of color come into the capital, literally or figuratively, they're on their knees. It's not from a position of power. It's not from a position of how can I add to the conversation. It's always, it's always a very, it's from a position of need, deep, deep, deep, deep need. And I felt that I wanted to change that perspective. I wanted to make sure that people always felt that they knew that the capital was their house, that they could make demands of it from a position of strength. And that we could transform our thinking into how can we, how can we deliver more for our communities from a position of strength, rather than relying on whatever, you know, the ways and means chair decides to give us. And I think that just comes from knowing that someone is there, who was friendly to their cause, who understands the needs of communities of color, rural communities, marginalized communities. Some might then think that the position, the issue that you're talking about the most is police accountability and police violence, but I would wager that we would argue that that point applies to sort of all facets. It's everything. I mean, most recently, I've been working on police accountability, but that's just one piece of it. I mean, I've, I've told people who are working on the African American like high school success plan. I think it was HP 2016, if I remember right and it was from 2016 or 2015. And we were trying to figure out how we got more money to invest in high school graduation rates for African American students. And there was this small pot. And I remember telling the gentleman who came in, we're not going to fight over a small pot when this is so vitally important to our communities. Every high school graduate is an important part of how we grow wealth in our community and how we make sure that people can become parents and support their families, right, like if that's what they choose to do. And so, so it's, it's high school graduation, it's housing, it's access to capital for small businesses, everything runs through the speaker's office, everything runs through the Senate president's office. You think the governor is powerful and she is, but everything runs through those two offices. The big question from those who are, and forgive me because I'm describing myself and a lot of my friends that work political nerds and they're wondering, they're really interested in the process and they're wondering why you didn't put yourself forward within your own caucus for this position. What is the answer to that question? The longer I stay in this position, the more I understand the nuances and the more I understand the game. And some of it is about how fair it is and some of it is about how true do you want to be to a process that doesn't produce outcomes that you can feel confident in. I didn't feel confident in the process. I didn't feel that people could completely, could completely understand the issues that I was trying to elevate and throughout all of this what I've learned is that there, there are a number of factors. There's the machine to get you there, there's the machine to keep you there, there's the machine to elevate you while you're there. And then they're the external parts like even the media and the press and what's really been fascinating. And if since apologized is you know one headline was like Tina Cocheck is challenged by black lawmaker. Right, like I have a name any racer is very commonly a part of the black political leader experience, the eraser of your identity and the reduction of you to whatever your grievance is or whatever your color is. And I don't think it was intentional to be to be disrespectful or racist. It just organically happens time and time and time again. And so I've always wanted to illuminate these types of things that prevent people really good people from going into office. So it's the whole process for me. The whole process is not. The whole process is very difficult to navigate if you don't have the nerves. The nerves, the nerves were you indeed nervous to have those conversations with my colleagues. Yeah, I mean some people say no one's going to put themselves forward if they in fact know that they wouldn't be successfully nominated. So to have the nerves to navigate that, that as you call it the system, I'm wondering how many conversations were had how certain were you that you wouldn't be in fact wait until after. Good question. I think so I had there's 37 members of the caucus. I had 35 conversations. I've knocked thousands of doors. So I'll talk to anybody. I'll talk to a dog. I mean, I, I can't talk to anybody. And so I did that. But the system is such that when you have a leader who is so powerful, where the power is so concentrated, people are afraid to buck the system. And it also, as it stands right now, encourages the people who are, you know, stepping up to run to pass out favors. I didn't do any of that because that's not my style anyway. But it encourages people to pass out favors, it encourages people, it encourages the status quo. And I think a lot of people while they respect me, it is very different to serve under an African American woman as a leader. That's hard for some people. I feel like a lot of people would be surprised to imagine a moment where you run or nominate yourself, I guess, and explain in the way that you have to me, why you think you would be the best person to lead the house, especially in this moment that we're all in. And then here that that many members of the Democratic caucus would have voted against you or voted for someone, the current speaker, instead of that. So for those who are thinking, man, that feels like a message that a lot of Democratic House members would want to buy into. It's hard to believe that they wouldn't why, and you just kind of did, but wanted you can explain why, why you think what that rationale would have would have been in this moment to say, you know what, no, it's still not time for a woman of color to be speaker of the house in Oregon. So let me be clear, so the requirements to be a state representative are two, you have to be 21 and you have to have lived in your district for one year prior to you running. And in order to be speaker of the house, you run. So for the people who can serve in the state is very low. It's everyone else that puts artificially high standards on this position. And where those standards are, they they have in their own mind. So for me, accepting rejection is okay. Like I said, I've knocked thousands of doors. I've had some slammed in my face of, you know, that that's okay. But to me, the message and I think is is broader. It's to my daughters, it's to young women, young black women, even older black women. The message to me is, if you don't try, you never know what the pitfalls are. And I'm okay with failure. I'm okay with that. But as I try, as I try to climb and reach and go higher, if I never step out, I never know what the pitfalls are. I never educated the people who are looking up to me as to what the process is. There are no mentors for me in this. There are very few allies. I have great staff. But people of color do not have, it's not like Chicago or, or maybe in the South, where you have a deep bench of leaders that will reach back and help people. It's not like that here. My parents were school teachers. I'm an engineer. Like, there's no playbook for me. So unless I try, unless I test the system, this is where my engineering part comes in, unless I test the system to stress and to failure, I never know what I need to do the next time. Failure is what. Failure is part of like vulnerability and courage and growing. And by no means do I think I have failed. There are systems that have failed in this whole process. But I think ultimately it has illuminated a lot of what. A lot of what the system is doing to produce its leaders. And it allows people to say, yeah, we should probably change that. For those who are, well, back up nationally, it's interesting. There's a lot of talk about division within the democratic party and infighting the democratic party. And the mechanics of that aren't necessarily mirrored here. Let's talk about sort of far left progress. And reaction by party leaders. But looking at this, I'm wondering for people in Oregon who were really glad to see the supermajority maintained. And now they look and they say, OK, here's an example of division within the democratic party in Oregon. And to feasibly be elected speaker of the house, they're wondering if you have to work with Republicans and they're wondering if. Because of that, Republicans are going to obviously ask for something in return. And they're thinking, well, that feels like a bit of a crack in the supermajority. And they're worried. And also asking what, you know, should those who are not happy that the supermajority was maintained should take away from this. Or with those who are happy, what should they take away from seeing this? And like we said, this normally isn't public period. This process isn't public. But now here it is. And it's an example of division. What should they take away from that? So close after the election when they when they saw this majority again was, was held in place. Yeah, I think this actually excites me and invigorates me that we can have a public debate and speech is allowed and we can differ. And we can bring a different perspective like that to me. And the fact that you and I are having this conversation and people are interested in how their government works, that to me is the win. In terms of division within parties, whenever you get a large group of people, you start to see the lines between between ideologies, even within a group, start to emerge. So that I think is a natural consequence of just large groups, like I've been married to my husband for 22 years. And he and I don't see eye to eye on whether the kids should have an iPhone or an Android. That is that is a big argument in our house. Right. So so it's not surprising to me that you see different ideologies popping up. In terms of working across party lines, I as a general rule, don't submit legislation for consideration if it doesn't have if I don't have a partner across the aisle. That's just how I work. And I don't make any apologies about that. I think in terms of the politics of it, I think Democrats can do a better job of walking the talk in terms of elevating black voices and black women honoring us for the work that we do. And that is not a request that is a demand that is very much a demand in terms of Republicans, they could do a better job of helping to heal racial wounds and not turning their eyes, turning, turning their backs on people of color in their communities and acting like racism doesn't exist. And to me is, those are just fundamental basic things. Ultimately, I think what Oregonians want is they want to be able to feed their families, have housing, you know, raise their kids and peace, have a vacation, have access to health care. Those are things that are not partisan to me. How we get there and how we discuss it. And for me as a leader, if I can create the atmosphere where we're vigorous debate is acceptable and ideas are not thrown out just because of your your stripe. And that's DORR, then that to me is the leadership that that I want to present. That's what I'm putting forward. Let's talk about it. Let's work through it. Let's find a value. But let's come together on the things that Oregonians want most. And they're pretty basic. What do you expect to happen? I expect this to be the start of many more adult conversations about how we can seriously fix our systems in terms of growing our bench for people of color to enter and serve in public life. I expect I expect to have more conversations with my caucus about what it's like to be the only African American woman who will serve in the next legislature. I expect a lot of people to wake up about their agency and the role that they play in electing people who will actually work on their behalf. I think it's a wake up call. We just had a very, we had a lot of months of anxiety over the presidential election. It was important, but the real issues are right here at home. And I hope that they they know that they should reach out to their legislators and they should hold them accountable. That's what we're here for. You expect to have those conversations and see that progress as speaker of the house. Absolutely. I expect to win. That's what I'm trying to do for you, I promise. I told you 15 minutes, so a little bit over. One of our political contributors at KGW said, well, you know, a lot of things like this happen when you have a new white new administration in the White House and people start wondering about a vacuum of power and who's going to be a member of the Biden administration. Is that a factor in this at all? If you expect openings to come down the pipeline. You know what I think is the bigger factor is the gubernatorial election that's coming up in two years. That's what I think. There may be a vacuum created for more again. I mean, we have really great leaders. Representative congressman Blumenauer. I think it's going to be some openings. All right, anything that I haven't asked you that you think is important to include. Yes, mental health. So I've been working on mental health and growing the number of mental health providers in the state Oregon ranks at the bottom. We absolutely have to make moves on that because as we can see, people are getting exhausted from the quarantining. I have sought mental health help like just counseling help just to help me deal better with the amount of problems that people are presenting and writing in about. And so if we don't take care of each other and if we don't invest in our mental health. Even, you know, just very simple conversations and very simple. Disagreements that we may have like the one we're discussing turn in to be more than what they should be. So I hope that we can make movement. Increasing the number of mental health providers in the state and really making that investment for the long run. All right, representative. I really appreciate it. Thank you.