Latest / Breaking The Meta / "2% of Congress Is Working Class" — Jessica Salas Is Changing That | Oregon's 3rd District
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Jessica Salas who is running for Oregon's third district. First time that I've gotten to interview someone in Oregon so very excited. Hello Jessica how are you doing today? Jessica Salas: Chillin', how are you? ⁓ Breaking The Meta: I'm chillin too it's just a wild world we live in right now. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For everyone for anyone who is listening and doesn't know anything about Oregon, could you let us know what part of Oregon is encompassed in the third district? Jessica Salas: ⁓ it's so fun. I love it a lot. ⁓ you're asking me. Hey, hell yeah. Okay. So totally. ⁓ we have East Portland, it's from St. John's all the way down to Selwood, but the central East side has like a perfect square cutout. That is not a part of district three. It's part of district one, one, believe. And then it goes completely East all the way through Troutdale, Grasham, ⁓ down to Cascade Locks and Hood River County all the way down to Mount Hood Village. Breaking The Meta: Yes, yes, I am. Okay. Jessica Salas: Estacada, Damascus, Happy Valley. It's a lot. It's a huge, huge district. Breaking The Meta: It's... That's so funny. Yeah. ⁓ Okay. So, time to learn a little bit about you. Let us know a little bit about yourself, but even more so, why the heck did you decide to run for Congress? Jessica Salas: It's enormous. ⁓ a little bit about myself. I could go through my whole entire story right now, but I will try and make it as short as possible. ⁓ I was born in California, Southern California, in like the desert area where it wasn't very exciting. And it was a place I used to go to club shell, which was just hanging out at shell gas station. And yeah, we called it club shell. And then I ended up moving up to like Orange County and I worked at Disneyland for three years. ⁓ and. Breaking The Meta: Okay. ⁓ Hey, you know? Jessica Salas: eventually went into the beer industry and worked there for about 12 years. I moved to Oregon in 2019. So I've been here for about seven years now and bought a house last year, actually a year today. And just living in the south deep southeast area of Oregon, Portland. And yeah, just just a working class gal. Breaking The Meta: Heck yeah. Jessica Salas: Always been in the service industry. I have been spit on, yelled at, almost punched, thrown up on, cleaned vomit out of a sink. Really good times. Yeah. Right. And then, ⁓ I just, I was, ⁓ I started a nationwide beer collab, which ended up turning into an international beer collab called Hasta La Raíz. And essentially it's, I started it in June and it's, ⁓ Breaking The Meta: I mean, that sounds like Congress right there. Jessica Salas: Beer collab that proceeds of the beer go to freedom for immigrants, which is a nonprofit trying to end detention for immigrants. And then it took off. It's still going right now. I have the deadline of March. and you know, it's been pretty cool to connect. I did about 80, 80 businesses connected to businesses together. And during that time I realized like the government is so crazy right now. ⁓ I don't trust anybody. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ well. Jessica Salas: to better my life in any way. And I started looking up government positions just for fun. I was just bored as one does. Yeah. Breaking The Meta: That's what we all do, let's be fair. The random person's always like, you know, I wonder what government positions are in my district. Jessica Salas: I was like, ooh, maybe city council will see. And then I was like, Congress, that'd be so funny. And then I was like, what qualifications do you need? And I looked up, it was just like living in the United States for seven years, live in your district. And I thought you would have. Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yep. And depending on how wealthy you are, that's not even really a requirement. Jessica Salas: No, no, you don't even have to live in the district. And I was like, that's pretty crazy. I could, I don't need like a bachelor's degree. I'm only a high school graduate. Like, and I have some college, but that's about it. And I looked more into it, sat on it for like a week and just made a video saying that I was going to run for Congress and posted it. in a ballsy way and then ⁓ got a lot of responses on it. I could tell a lot of people were like, this is something completely out of the ordinary for her. ⁓ But I just couldn't stand anybody anymore in the government. And I found out about 2 % of Congress is represented the working class and more than half of them are millionaires. So I didn't feel represented at that time. And I still don't. So I don't know my Breaking The Meta: Yeah. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Jessica Salas: thought what a great thing to do maybe. Breaking The Meta: Hey, know, there are people that I know that are running in some districts that have run three times in a row because they knew they were going to lose the first time, two times. And now they're like, they actually have a shot this time, which is pretty cool. So, you know, you never know what's going to happen in 2026 of any year. You really never know what's going to happen. So it's exciting. And I appreciate the fact that you're running because it's something I wouldn't do. Jessica Salas: a little bit. know. Yes. Thanks. Yeah, didn't think I... something completely... I would never do this in my life, but I want to say that I think it's because my mental health is in a good space and I actually take like meds that are helping me along the way and I stopped drinking that I don't think I would be where I am today if it weren't for that. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Well, mental health is an important thing, so that's good to hear. ⁓ Okay, so let's also learn a little bit about your district. What are, when you go around and talk to people, what are the pain points in your district? What are the things that most of the people talk about when they say, I need you, Jessica, to fix this when you're in office? Jessica Salas: I'm so big on mental health. It's a wide and diverse district. It's one of the most ⁓ diverse and progressive districts in Oregon. And so I have from the city to rule to farming and like suburbs and whatnot. So mostly it's affordability of trying to housing and helping the homeless. It's very expensive. Breaking The Meta: Oregon's pretty expensive. Jessica Salas: And then I recently went down to Parkdale, which is a very small town of like 200 people and 30 people showed up to my meet and greet. And that was like really cool for me. I almost cried. ⁓ I get, I get very emotional. ⁓ they were talking to me about just the way that farming communities have been forgotten. ⁓ it's a very wide range of exactly what it is, but definitely like jobs, affordability, the, the, ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Wow. Mm-hmm. Jessica Salas: prices and the way that farmers can't price their own produce and they're not making enough money. All they need is five more cents on pears and 10 more cents on cherries and they'd be, they would be set and it's crazy. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ That is crazy. Some of the other things that are constantly that I hear constantly talked about and actually I'd say it doesn't even matter whether you're progressive or conservative is this idea of accountability or lack thereof when it comes to our representatives. What do you what does accountability mean to you? What does being held accountable by the people in your district look like to you. Jessica Salas: I tried, ⁓ by the way, I have three dogs, so they might bark. I think one's dreaming. I heard her growling. ⁓ So accountability to me is something that I have been working on just personally myself. So it's really just facing your own demons. And I, I believe that I should have a wide, I should have an open mind and I should approach everybody, no matter who it is, where their views are or. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ okay. Jessica Salas: like if they'd completely disagree with me and I should be able to sit down with them, hear them out and listen to their criticisms, even of me. I just, yeah, so there's this thing that I'm gonna mention that I'm gonna announce soon, but it's something that I also wanna do for when I do win Congress. ⁓ It's putting a... Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jessica Salas: an office in every single one of the cities that are in my district in order for them to have their constituent ⁓ services readily available near them because at the moment it's in Portland and some people just can't reach that area. Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Yeah, especially if it's as big of a district as yours is. Jessica Salas: huge and a lot of people can't it's about an hour and a half to get to Portland from the other side of my district so it's like some people just can't do it no but I think accountability is just making sure that you can hear your constituents and you aren't going to essentially just fail them ⁓ my other one is a what I just named it is a constituent advisory table cat cat and ⁓ it's essentially just Breaking The Meta: Dang. Yeah, those people aren't gonna do that. Mm. Okay. Jessica Salas: ⁓ a table where because I want everybody at the table with me. This this run is not about me. It's about everybody else. And I want to have in each city about ranging from eight to 10 people from different areas like worker, service workers, renters, homeowners. And basically when I would get a bill proposed to me or anything that would affect their lives, I would go to my advisory council, which is Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jessica Salas: would have maybe I think it would be the major cities of mine so about five so total of 40 maybe people on my advisory table and they would just give me advice on how this bill would affect their lives and how I should make that decision and I just think that's that's exactly what accountability should be I don't yeah Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's awesome. So you said that your district is one extremely progressive. Is that so it's a very blue district is. Are there like are Republicans, I mean, are there Republicans in your district? OK. Jessica Salas: Mm-hmm. It's a very blue district. There is, I would say in Damascus or Staketa and happy Valley ish. like the South, Southeast areas. ⁓ I just sat down with one Republican on accident because I had did a mass text and he came up to me at the coffee shop that I was doing a meet and greet at. And he just said, you texted me. I said, I probably did. How's it going? ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mm. Jessica Salas: And he just sat down and we had like an hour and a half conversation. And essentially I just blew his mind because he kept asking me like, why are you, I don't like Democrats. And I said, me neither. And he goes, what are you talking about? I was like, I also don't really like liberals either. So like, what can you say? And he was like, who are you? I'll surprise you. And I ended up telling him that I own guns and that I want to go hunting. I like shooting a lot. And at the end of it all, he was like, I really like you. I was like, yep. Breaking The Meta: Nice. Mm-hmm. That's one of the reasons that I asked that question. There's this really... Normally, I just go, what do what's it like when you go talk with someone who's a Republican and you like they find out you got a D next to your name? Because I think I think this this administration more than any, but probably just these last 10 years really have have really started shaking the idea of of identity politics for people. And man, I would be the happiest person on the Jessica Salas: Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: land it if people stop identifying as anything and stop voting for people because they got a letter next to their name, no matter which one it is. It's Jessica Salas: Exactly. I know it's been really fun to talk to people from that side. I took, spoke with somebody, I was doing a meet and greet somewhere, put my flyer down and was just like, hi, I'm running for Congress. He's like, I'm conservative. And I went, I like your dog. And then he's like, because I actually, you know what? I actually don't like what's happening right now. And I said, tell me more. And I sat down and it was about 40 minutes. Breaking The Meta: Yeah! Yep. Jessica Salas: He was just going off and I enjoyed the whole conversation. I told him exactly who I was. Again, I blew his mind about guns and that's a, that's a good one. I reel him in somehow with that one. And, ⁓ yeah. Then he was like, I'm going to keep an eye on you. I was like, all right, have a good day. I was just like, nobody ever talks to me. Once they hear that I'm a conservative, they just blow me off. And I go, I'm not that way. It would be against if once I get voted in, it would be. Breaking The Meta: Heck yeah. Heck yeah. Well, one, yeah, if you get voted in, you can't do that. Jessica Salas: Yeah, I would be everything. would be, I would be failing at my job if I didn't listen to everybody. Yeah. Couldn't. Breaking The Meta: Well, you can't even legally do it because you'd be part of the government. literally could not. Not that that stopped, at least to some extent, to the people that that work for us currently, but. know. Another thing that is, you know, since World War Two, America has kind of been. At the head of every single table. Jessica Salas: Yeah. Breaking The Meta: because we were the only ones that were isolated enough from World War II to be able to just decide, to decide everything from that point on. And ⁓ this last year, ⁓ Trump and this administration have destroyed every aspect of our foreign policy and our place at the table and things such as that nature, whether you're talking tariffs or, ⁓ there they go, tariffs or Venezuela. Jessica Salas: There they go. Breaking The Meta: or Greenland or everything going on with NATO or leaving the WHO. Because of that, we literally, ⁓ in some cases, potentially, like, are no longer allowed at the table, let alone even just ⁓ no longer at the head. So my question is, ⁓ that there is a lack of trust now by our allies as much as anything in the United States, knowing that Jessica Salas: Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: there's a knowledge that even a trade like deal, even a treaty, even something that is decided by the American people or at least the American government that we want and need can be gotten rid of just like that. How do you see America's foreign policy going forward with that reality? Jessica Salas: That's loaded. ⁓ my goodness. ⁓ I don't know and I know there's so many things I'm to be able to have to like fight and put my foot down for so many different things. I actually have foreign policy in my policies. I have 43 policies on my website because I want everybody to know where exactly I stand. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Heck yeah. Yeah. Jessica Salas: But let me look at it really quick, because I wrote it all down and then I just completely dumped it out of my brain for the rest of the... ⁓ Yeah, require congressional approval for any deployment in public civilian casualty reporting across all theaters. Stop arming human rights abusers. Make diplomacy... ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Hehehehehe Jessica Salas: the first tool, not the last and make climate the new national security, replace corporate trade with fair trade, align immigration policy with the realities we create abroad. And Yeah, reject war. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, like that one. ⁓ I think I think my biggest thing and one of the reasons that I go with that question, and I sort of said it with the comes to the trust. So my biggest thing right now is, know, we had we had a trade deal with Canada and Mexico. And he just said, even though regardless of the fact that he negotiated it, let's not even go into that part. But he said, it's bad. It's gone. It just decided that he wants to get rid of it. I mean, I know he didn't end up doing it. There's a whole other problem with that. then he put on the tariffs on Europe so then he could then negotiate with them. And then they came to a deal supposedly. And then when they wouldn't support his desire to take Greenland, he threatened to put tariffs back on them again. So my thing is, okay, the tariff thing was bad. There's a loss of trust, especially considering some of these people are our closest allies. Hell, half of them are NATO to any feel that, okay, so say we get a democratic president in 2028. Jessica Salas: Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: Well, what if we get a Republican president just as bad as this current one in 20, what is it, 32? And why would anyone make a trade deal with us knowing that they can so easily just Jessica Salas: Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: get rid of everything that they potentially have worked years to put together for us. And how do we get past that? Jessica Salas: I'm really big on, I don't know how I can get like everybody to, you know, I like to do things head on, especially with talking and having conversations with folks. And I don't know exactly how we could do that, but I would do my best in order to try and talk to people. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. I mean, it would take time, right? It would definitely, it wouldn't be easy and we'd probably need to put safeguards in place that would make it so we can't just do exactly what. I mean, arguably, as much as I hate this administration and this presidency, what they have done is open some real, they've shown where our system is lacking immensely. Jessica Salas: It would. Breaking The Meta: And we need to fix a lot of things. Jessica Salas: So many loopholes need to be closed. Breaking The Meta: So many. And we need to start wording things so our Supreme Court can't just interpret as they see fit. Jessica Salas: Expand the Supreme Court. Breaking The Meta: Well, yeah, you could do that too. either way, I think things in the Constitution need to be written where it cannot be. There's no gray line that can be wiggled back and forth on depending on who gets put in the Supreme Court at what time. ⁓ Jessica Salas: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I feel like just, hope a lot of people know that out there in the world that we all don't agree with Trump and we are all doing our best to fight this fascist regime. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, and I think a lot do, but I also think there's like how can we still trust you guys because the reality is 77 million people voted for this. Which is, that's a whole different problem that we're not getting into right now. ⁓ gosh. So. Jessica Salas: Yeah. It's a whole different- Breaking The Meta: Let's do a little bit of future casting. ⁓ So I don't know if you're, you are running against an incumbent. So let's say you get through the primaries, you win. Woohoo, congratulations. November ⁓ 3rd comes around, you also win. Again, congratulations. January 2nd comes around and you get sworn in as the Congresswoman for Oregon's third district. And then what do you do? Jessica Salas: Okay. I Mm-hmm. Thank you. introduced articles of impeachment for Trump. That's immediate. That's that's I'm a part of citizens impeachment. Well, yes. And so that's definitely my first thing that I'm going to be doing. Second thing would be for some reason, I just really want a chili cheese dog. And then third, I would try and push to abolish ICE completely. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ yes. Yep. Yeah. Mm. Abolish as in kind of go back to an extent to how it was before or create something brand new because you know, there is that argument and again, I'm not sitting here talking about whether it's right or wrong, but there is there is that argument from people that we need some because there are criminals and there are we need some sort of something in place that works on getting rid of the criminals our problem is not at least my problem is not Jessica Salas: Fuck it. Yes. Breaking The Meta: Criminals being deported. It's what they're doing to everybody else that aren't criminals Jessica Salas: Mm-hmm. I believe that we could abolish ICE completely and use all of those funds and redirect that to create a better immigration process, a quicker immigration route, and that would also create more jobs within that system. ⁓ And we would have to, I know some people call to abolish DHS, but I know that hasn't been around that long either, but we've always had border patrol and Breaking The Meta: Mm. DHS and ICE were created at the same time. Jessica Salas: Yeah. And I do think that we could be fine without it. I don't, I do think I, I agree though, but we should keep the criminals out. But I think that with the immigration process, especially when it's sped up more, we can find those and weed them out. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yep. let's just, while we're at it, let's just, ⁓ let's create an immigration process that actually works. Jessica Salas: Mm hmm. Exactly. So many jobs could be created with that. We don't need ICE agents that are abusive. Breaking The Meta: you know, I so many. But you know what? They're already worried about everybody taking their jobs, even though they're doing jobs that no one wants to do. And I'm not even going to go into any of that, because we could be on here for the next hour about all the ridiculous things that are argued there. Jessica Salas: Yeah. Breaking The Meta: For anyone that has listened this far and heard everything that we talked about, what are one or two things that no matter what you would want someone to walk away with knowing about you and your campaign? Jessica Salas: just want them to, I would want them to know to ⁓ keep watching. I am a big human, big on humanity ⁓ trying to bring that back to government. ⁓ am literally not doing this ⁓ ⁓ me in any way because this is torture to be honest. ⁓ don't sleep well. I have lost a lot of weight during this and ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Jessica Salas: Yeah, I don't know. My campaign is completely people powered. I'm super grassroots. am not making a lot because I am representing the working class and that is okay with me. Probably not my staff, but it's okay with me. And yeah, I don't, I'm not taking any corporate money, any PAC money, and I am not definitely not taking any APAC money like my incumbent did. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Got him. ⁓ Jessica, for anyone that wants to learn more about you, ⁓ support you, whether by volunteering or donating, where can they find you? Jessica Salas: I got him. J-S-A-L-F-O-R-ORGAN.COM. You can sign up, you can donate, you can read 43 of my policies because there's one specific one that I'm really proud of and it's called ACAB. America Can't Afford Billionaires. It's my favorite. Breaking The Meta: J-SAL. Yep, I saw that one right on the top. We can't. I agree. ⁓ Jessica, thank you for coming in here and sitting down and letting us learn a little bit about you and your campaign. I appreciate it. Yeah. Totally fine. ⁓ Everyone else that listened, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Please hit one of those buttons down below. Actually hit all of them, the like, the subscribe, the notification. Just hit them all. That's all you need to do. It helps me. ⁓ Jessica Salas: Thanks for having me. Sorry about the dogs. you you Breaking The Meta: keep doing what I'm ⁓ Especially in this case for people like Jessica who aren't taking PAC money, who want to be held accountable, who want to do all the things that we keep saying we want people to do, which is do things the right way and actually care about us. It's a shocker, I know, but there are hundreds of people that are running right now that want to do it, which means they need name recognition. They need visibility because they don't have millions of dollars to just flood everywhere. with ads and things like that. So please watch, follow, not just my content, but their content. It's something you can do that's easy, it's free, and it helps so, so very much. If you know anyone in Oregon, share it. If you know people not in Oregon, share it. You'd be amazed how good you feel seeing all these amazing people across the country that are running for office and they're not crazy. Jessica Salas: They're very sweet. I'm in contact with a lot of them and they're very funny. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. So definitely do all that. ⁓ And if you don't know much about this podcast, just know that Breaking the Meta is about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo, and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Jessica, thank you again for being here. And for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys. Jessica Salas: Thank