Full interview: Rep. Janelle Bynum discusses run for Oregon House speaker [5:00-10:01]

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.