Mark grew up with a single mom who couldn’t always pay the bills, so nobody has to explain to him what high prices do to a family. He made Big Tech pay for the power their data centers use instead of sticking the rest of us with the bill. He also helped pass Oregon’s Child Tax Credit. Next session, he wants to go after the cost of groceries, rent, prescriptions, and child care.

For years, people here were told tolls on I-205 were coming no matter what. Mark never bought it. He voted against the 2017 law that started the toll plan, and he kept pushing until the Legislature scrapped it last year. A daily commuter crossing both bridges could have paid up to $2,200 a year. He voted against tolling the I-5 bridge too, and he’ll fight any attempt to bring tolls back to I-205.

Health care costs too much, and Mark has gone after some of the reasons why. He helped cap the cost of insulin and other prescription drugs and protected coverage for more than a million Oregonians on the Oregon Health Plan. He’s taken on drug companies that keep raising prices and corporate investors buying up local clinics. He wants seniors on a fixed income to be able to fill every prescription their doctor writes.

Mark served in the U.S. Air Force, from 1983 to 1990, as a staff sergeant in the Security Police. In Salem, he’s put more money into veterans’ services. He made sure low-income veterans can afford to see a dentist, and he made it easier for vets to get apprenticeships and business loans.

Police officers and firefighters see things on the job most of us never will. Mark passed a law so those with job-related PTSD get the disability benefits they earned. He also voted to make drug possession a crime again, with a path into treatment. It’s a big reason police chiefs, troopers, and firefighters are backing him. He’s also pushing for more housing people can afford, more treatment beds, and keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of violent criminals.

Mark was the first in his family to finish high school, and he gives a lot of the credit to teachers who believed in him. He wants every kid here to get the same chance he got. He voted for the Student Success Act and has protected that school funding ever since. Now he wants more mental health help for kids, more hands-on career classes, and strong community colleges.

Decisions about abortion and birth control belong to a woman and her doctor, not politicians. Mark will keep it that way in Oregon.