Within the last few months, we have been witnessing progressive candidates upsetting establishment Democratic candidates, particularly at the federal level, but progressive upsets and wins at the state and local levels are imperative to course-correct America and pull it away from fascism, corporatism and imperialism. In Oregon, one such progressive candidate defeated a more mainstream Democrat in a defeat to special interests, including Big Tech. Myrna Munoz (she/her/ella/they), ran on a platform of opposition to data centers and ICE. This Mexican-American teacher and gamer has generated wide support in her race, including from the Democratic Socialists of America. Myrna identifies as a “justice seeker” and advocates for people and the environment over corporate profits, for gun control, for organized labor, and for Black & Brown communities.

Where are you based?
Resident of Forest Grove — Proud Grover!

What position are you running for?
I'm running for Senate here in District 15 (Oregon) to represent Hillsboro, Cornelius, Forest Grove, Parts of Beaverton, and Helvetia.

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
During the primary, I ran on three main priorities:

1. Civil rights protections as outlined in the constitution. No one should be kidnapped and caged on soil ground under any pretense without due processing. Everyone in Oregon MUST respect sanctuary laws and defend our safety.

2. Everyone deserves a quality education. We must assure the public good is protected by building schools that engage and prioritize our youth such that we can continue to run a representative democracy. Children deserve a safe, engaging, fruitful education in a community with diverse opportunity.

3. Healthcare for all. It is time that we energize around universal healthcare in our state and assure we can take care of our health and safety as a public good.

These were my three main priorities when I began my campaign. Knocking on doors and listening to the community, I also discovered that housing is a major concern, and the takeover of data centers is a central topic as it affects EVERYTHING on my priority platform.

Data center tax breaks are stealing the money meant for public good in our community. We intend to stop the sprawl, put health and safety measures in place for data centers, demand transparency, and insist on the ones that are already here paying their fair share. We love our environment and our families and insist on an economy where workers can thrive and our environment is safe from destruction. Our Oregon way of living is priceless.

What inspired you to run?
I had two big influences to run:

My incredible sisters. I have two sisters already entrenched in political work because of our family’s collective insistence on social justice for our people. My sisters and I grew up with an incredible immigrant Mom and Dad that were humble, but full of heart to help the people of our community. The three of us grew up with ample opportunity to watch our parents help all sorts of people in our community when times were hard. It’s no wonder the two of them teamed up and sat me down for a talk when things went wrong for our community with ICE.

My amazing community. We are a coalition of multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-generational people that want to protect our farms & the people living in our communities. Our resources must continue to have the water, electricity, and nature we depend on to continue producing healthy food for us, and not to enrich billionaires. We want to protect our economy from the singular silicone valley story rising from the politicians we elected to represent us, who have betrayed us by staying quiet as these companies take us over. We want to assure workers, families, and farms have what we need to sustain our lives here. We have never wanted our resources used for big tech to abuse for their future AI money. We will only continue to get stronger, louder, and more educated toward achieving the health and safety we need to thrive.

What change are you hoping to bring to your district and country?
We need our community voices heard. We need transparency from the leaders we’ve elected to keep us safe and healthy. We require representative democracy, that is, we need leaders who listen to us and respond to our concerns and requests in a timely manner. We have businesses, we have economists, we have votes, and we will work to create a community where we can all be safe, healthy, and keep leaders accountable to our voters — we are the constituents!

We think a moratorium on data centers in Oregon is ESSENTIAL as we develop guardrails for health and safety for US, the people that will live, go to work, go to school, farm, and exist in the same space as these things. We already know we don’t want them here AT ALL if they don’t build their own roads and contribute to the community just like everyone else that comes to do business.

We need leaders NOT wanting to privatize our public good. We need leaders moving forward our goals and objectives for health and wellness in the community, and not just those of big tech billionaires.

What do you consider to be your major accomplishments so far?
I have never been in office yet, and I still have a general election ahead of me, but I am already an accomplished organizer and campaigner. With a lifetime of membership in my worker unions, I have much experience organizing with workers to demand rights. I often say my union saved my life because as a single mother, my life would have been different if not for my teacher’s union. I have used this knowledge in the last year to fight for my community and run against an incumbent ignoring us and our concerns as a community. I have defeated a powerful incumbent here in Washington County. I am convinced we did it as a community because we built a coalition to fight against what this incumbent wanted to build in our community despite our loud protests. We don't want a data center economy, we need a diversified economy that respects land laws in place for farming to continue to be safe in this region. We need an economy that builds the housing we need and strengthens our environmentally conscious transportation assets. We must prioritize the well being of people as a public good and have transparent accountability of our progress for voters.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
My number one issue is civil rights given that my community, Latinos, are currently being kidnapped on the street and caged for profit. I think there's more we can do to create accountability for those breaking sanctuary law to aid ICE. This will be first order of business for me. As a Senator for the most affected county in 2025 I will do everything in my power to make our county safe for us all.

Quality education is an important issue for me as well. As an educator of over 25 years I have seen bad decisions (like these tax abatements for data centers to the year 2050 in Hillsboro) come and take excellent jobs and programs from our schools. These politicians that like to label themselves "good business people" continue to blame teachers for the destruction of schools even as they help the Trump administration with their mission of ending public education. This is great corporate allyship but far from good business. We need to stop them. Let these corporations pay their fair share of taxes as we all do.

Healthcare for all is essential to our state business plan. Untying our human needs to our jobs will be essential in saving administrative costs and cutting the price of healthcare. We must continue to make this a priority. Yes, we need to save Medicare, but we must do it with a plan in mind to address healthcare for profit. Healthcare is a public good, and allowing it to grow as it has is allowing companies to profit from killing us. It must stop.

America is extremely divided these days. How would you hope to bridge that divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
We have much to celebrate together as a country, we have existed beyond what the world thought was possible, we have blended, grown, and melted into each other, we are powerful and diverse. But we must also work to educate ourselves beyond our comfort. We must not fail to have the difficult conversations we must have to get closer to understanding each other in our diversity. The coalition we've built is always in danger of division because we're all so passionate about the things we care about. We need to remember that it is together that we win.

Our data center activism has served to remind us that through it all we actually want the same thing:

Health and safety for all Oregonians, and ultimately, Americans
A future we can look forward to. We must continue to look to the truth of what is happening as billionaires continue to put out fake news to divide us and get richer
When we work in coalition, there is no way to stop us from making the life we want for us

How do you see your unique identity and background to be an asset to you in office?
I am a proud bilingual/bicultural woman. I have for a long time noticed that what we most need in our country right now is a collaborative spirit, a desire and ability to listen to each other with empathy and a yearning for understanding each other and growing into solutions that can include us all.

I see these solutions arising and our helpless blindness to see them and take them. And why? Because of the massively successful campaign the billionaires are running. They are convincing us to look at all of the distractions they built rather than unite in coalition and love and refuse to let them impoverish us to become wealthier. I am a Mexican woman, in my core, I culturally tie being a mother — caring, consoling, feeding, growing, protecting — to my leadership. As Dolores Huerta has taught us, even when the war is long and timeless, a Mexicana battles without end for her children. Now more than ever, we need our motherly feelings to rise in protection of our children and defend what they’ll need to be well in the future:

-Water
-Food
-A safe community
-A quality education
-Healthcare

What is your motto in life?
My motto in life probably comes from my Dad. The hardest worker I know. My Dad always advised us to work hard and never stop fighting for what you knew you deserved. It’s interesting that he was talking about making a living as we are three sisters and my father has no sons. But I know he wanted us to be self-sufficient and depend on no one. He wanted us never to give up on our dreams. To keep going at them no matter our age or present condition.

It’s interesting to me that my Dad also told me all throughout my life that people can’t change the world, but the world always changes people. Because my dream has always been to make a safer and healthier world for us all, and I think the motto he prepared me with is actually helping me do it. While I agree with equity experts across the world that it will still take many generations to make a safer and healthier world for us all, I absolutely believe it is possible and each one of us makes a difference in making it better for the children of tomorrow.

Where can we find out more about you?
I have a website www.myrnaforsenate.com and have avenues to communicate with me there! There’s also a place to find out more about my supporters and how we’ll continue to move forward with progressive goals. Please, reach out if you have suggestions or want to join our coalition!

Instagram: myrnafororegon
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Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2026 - Myrna Munoz, Oregon State Senate District 15