Full interview: Rep. Janelle Bynum discusses run for Oregon House speaker [15:08-20:05]

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.