Once again, my opponent Val Hoyle is lying about my clearly stated record to scare voters into supporting her. She has every reason to change the subject. Hoyle is consistently dishonest: she broke federal law by failing to disclose 217 stock trades on time, a STOCK Act violation she has acknowledged, and she remains under federal investigation over a federal grant she championed for a nonprofit tied to her La Mota donors. She needs voters distracted from her record. I will not let her rewrite mine.
So let me be clear.
Setting the record straight: https://youtu.be/DlTacYB1Ypc
Secure the Border. Fix the System. Restore the Rule of Law.
No reasonable person can deny the damage done by President Biden’s reckless border policies—policies fully supported by my opponent, Congresswoman Val Hoyle. Although the border has finally been secured, the consequences remain. Millions entered our country illegally, criminal cartels expanded their reach, and American communities were left carrying the human and financial costs of Washington’s failure.
We must never allow this to happen again.
America has spent enormous blood and treasure defending the borders of other nations. Securing our own is common sense and a fundamental responsibility of government. But border security alone does not resolve the larger problem created by decades of failed immigration policy.
We must secure the border, enforce the law, remove dangerous criminals—and finally create an immigration system that works.
Keep the Border Secure
As your Congresswoman, national security will remain my top priority. I will support an all-of-the-above approach to border security using physical barriers where appropriate, advanced sensors and drones, strong cybersecurity, and a properly staffed Border Patrol empowered to enforce the law.
I will work to close asylum loopholes, prevent the return of catch-and-release policies, and ensure that our laws never again create incentives for mass illegal entry.
Dismantle Cartels and Remove Dangerous Criminals
Drug and human trafficking cartels exploit vulnerable migrants and threaten communities across America—including here in Oregon’s 4th District.
I support using every appropriate federal law-enforcement, intelligence, financial, and national-security tool to dismantle these criminal networks.
Noncitizens who commit serious violent crimes, engage in human or major drug trafficking, participate in gang violence, or otherwise pose a serious threat to our communities, should be removed. State and local governments should cooperate with lawful federal efforts to keep dangerous offenders off our streets.
Create a Lawful Path for Long-Settled Residents
We also must honestly confront the reality created by decades of failure by the federal government.
Millions of undocumented people have lived in America for years—some for decades. Many work, pay taxes, raise families, operate businesses, and contribute to their communities. Indiscriminate mass deportation is neither a realistic nor constructive solution.
I support a one-time opportunity to earn lawful status for long-settled, non-criminal residents who meet strict requirements. They should be required to:
Those who qualify should be able to live and work here lawfully rather than remain indefinitely in the shadows.
This is not automatic citizenship. It is a path to lawful status with accountability.
And there must be a firm line going forward: those who enter our country illegally after this reform is enacted should not receive the same opportunity. This must be a solution to an inherited problem—not an incentive to create the next one.
Modernize and Streamline Legal Immigration
Law-abiding immigrants have suffered for too long under an immigration system that is slow, expensive, confusing, and badly outdated.
If we expect people to use the front door, the front door must work.
I will work to streamline lawful immigration, modernize processing and fraud detection, reduce unnecessary bureaucratic delays, and protect family unity. People who follow our laws and seek to immigrate legally should not be trapped for years in an inefficient and outdated system.
Create Legal Pathways for America’s Workforce
America needs workers, and our immigration laws should reflect our real economic needs. Here in Oregon, agriculture, forestry and wildfire management, construction, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, and other critical industries depend on reliable access to workers when Americans are not available to fill those jobs.
I support legal, efficient workforce immigration pathways that allow employers to meet legitimate labor needs while ensuring workers are screened, authorized to work, and protected from exploitation. That includes sensible merit-based immigration and temporary-worker programs that respond to actual workforce shortages.
We should make it easier to hire workers legally—and harder to employ people illegally.
Fix the Asylum System
America should remain a refuge for people genuinely fleeing persecution. But our compassion cannot become an invitation for fraud or abuse.
I support a modern asylum system that allows claims to begin through secure processes before migrants make dangerous journeys to our border whenever possible, uses biometric and identity verification, rapidly screens fraudulent claims, and provides legitimate applicants with timely decisions.
Protect the truly persecuted. Discourage fraud. Restore order.
Require Employment Verification and Employer Accountability
Immigration reform will never succeed if our laws prohibit unauthorized employment while our system quietly tolerates it.
We need a fast, accurate national employment-verification system that allows employers to determine whether someone is legally authorized to work. Employers who follow the rules should be protected. Those who knowingly exploit illegal labor should be held accountable.
Qualifying workers already here should have an opportunity to come forward, undergo screening, and transition into lawful employment as part of the one-time reform.
A Front Door That Works—and a Back Door That Closes
Washington has spent decades presenting Americans with a false choice: tolerate illegal immigration or deport millions of people who have built lives here.
I reject that choice.
We can secure our border and treat people with humanity. We can enforce our laws and acknowledge the consequences of decades of government failure. We can remove dangerous criminals while giving long-settled, law-abiding people a rigorous opportunity to come into legal compliance.
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan captured the principle decades ago: those who should be admitted should get in, those who should be kept out should be kept out, and those who have no lawful basis to remain should be required to leave.
That remains the right standard.
Secure the border. Remove those who threaten us. Give long-settled, law-abiding people a rigorous way to get legal. Fix the front door. Close the back door. And never allow this crisis to happen again.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
Monique DeSpain Condemns Hoyle’s Vote Against Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act
Monique DeSpain Skewers Val Hoyle for Desperate Border Letter to Biden and Her Census Vote
DeSpain Scorches Val Hoyle for Vote Against Holding Criminal Illegal Immigrants Accountable
DeSpain Slams Incumbent Val Hoyle for Rubber Stamping Biden Border Disaster
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
American Sheriff Alliance Immigration and Border Security Priorities and Positions Sept 2024
National Sheriffs Association Opposes Senate Border Bill 02-06-2024
I am keenly aware of what it means to take the oath to defend our great nation and of the many sacrifices made by those who serve, and their families. I am proud to have served our country, alongside my brothers and sisters in uniform, for over 30 years in the U.S. Air Force and the Oregon National Guard. I will never forget or neglect our beloved veterans.
Every day, there are veterans in our country struggling to navigate a bureaucratic VA system just to schedule a medical appointment or ensure their benefits arrive on time. Tragically, many veterans face housing obstacles as well. Every day that I am in Congress, I will fight to remove obstacles and ensure our veteran benefits are protected and that veterans receive the care and attention they have earned. Back home in Oregon, I will have a veteran on my congressional staff who is dedicated 100 percent to working with me to serve all of my veteran constituents, including our forgotten homeless veterans.
As your Congresswoman, I will continue to stand up and fight for our current service members and veterans, and I will ensure we preserve their incredible legacies.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
National security, safe communities, and safe workplaces are a fundamental, non-negotiable function of government. No communities are safe without adequate law enforcement. We are a nation of laws, and laws are only effective when enforced. I support the rule of law and the men and women of law enforcement and other emergency responders. It is my goal to ensure they have the necessary authority and resources to do their job effectively, from Customs and Border Patrol to our local sheriffs, police, and district attorneys. Public officials who refuse to enforce our laws and hold criminals accountable must be held accountable themselves and swiftly replaced with officials who will. I will not support federal funding for soft-on-crime cities or cities that defund the police and leave Americans vulnerable.
Almost every family I know has been touched by the tragedy of substance abuse. In 2023, over 100,000 Americans were killed by either a one-time fentanyl poisoning or fentanyl addiction. I refuse to accept this as America’s new ‘normal.’ To ensure safe neighborhoods in Congressional District 4, we must secure our nation’s border and stop the relentless flow of fentanyl, P2P methamphetamines, and other deadly drugs into Oregon. By ending cartel control of our borders and preventing criminals from illegally entering our cities and other communities, we will stop the delivery and distribution of deadly drugs, human trafficking, and other abhorrent cartel activity that is fueling addiction, homelessness, and the crime wave overwhelming our communities. It’s common sense.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
Monique DeSpain Launches TV Ad in the OR-04 Congressional Race Focused on Public Safety
Monique DeSpain for Congress Announces Law Enforcement Endorsements in Race for OR-04
Monique DeSpain Condemns Hoyle’s Vote Against Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act
DeSpain Scorches Val Hoyle for Vote Against Holding Criminal Illegal Immigrants Accountable
Guest Column: Why don’t we have a safe and prosperous Oregon?
Homelessness is not a single problem, so it cannot have a single solution. A person struggling with addiction requires a different response than a veteran experiencing homelessness, a person with severe mental illness, or a family working full-time but unable to afford housing.
My priorities are to advance and support policies that:
Expand treatment capacity for addiction and mental illness, including medically assisted treatment, recovery housing, and long-term support.
Require accountability for publicly funded homelessness, addiction, and mental health programs by measuring outcomes, not intentions. Taxpayers deserve to know which programs are helping people achieve recovery, housing, and independence.
Support deflection and diversion programs that connect people to treatment, while maintaining accountability and meaningful consequences, before they enter the criminal justice system.
Enforce laws against public camping, drug use, theft, and disorder while ensuring adequate shelter and treatment options are available.
Increase housing supply by reducing regulatory barriers, streamlining permitting, and encouraging affordable workforce housing. I also support responsible forest management and sustainable timber production on public lands, creating family-wage jobs while generating revenue for counties, public safety, roads, schools, treatment programs and treatment facilities.
Expand support for veterans experiencing homelessness and ensure they receive the benefits and services they earned.
Oregonians are compassionate people. But the way government (our elected representatives) has managed homelessness is neither compassionate nor sustainable. For too long, Oregon has measured success by dollars spent rather than outcomes achieved.
We should judge every homelessness policy by one question: Is it helping people recover from their actual problem, become self-sufficient, and return to stable housing and productive lives? Whenever the answer is no, we should stop funding that failure and invest in solutions that work instead.
To truly address and resolve the affordable housing crisis, we must address the skyrocketing cost of living caused by extreme policies coming from Salem and Washington, D.C. At the same time, we must increase housing availability and affordability. I support ending prohibitive and inflationary policies that stifle new construction with excessive permitting costs, building regulations, city and county codes, bureaucratic red tape, and outdated land-use restrictions imposed by the government itself. Do you know that the entire population of Oregon lives on approximately 7 percent of our State? These government-imposed restrictions, coupled with runaway inflation and interest rates, are pricing most working people out of the American Dream of home ownership. I want to be part of the common sense conservative majority in Congress that ensures the federal government does its part to lift housing restrictions.
Oregon’s natural-resource industries are the backbone of prosperity and livability in Oregon’s Congressional District 4. After decades of empty promises from career politicians, our timber communities and coastal residents deserve a strong, pragmatic advocate in Congress.
As your Congresswoman, I will champion responsible forest management grounded in co-stewardship with tribal nations, sustainable timber harvests, and proactive removal of fuel loads that drive catastrophic wildfires. The federal government must either step up or step aside: The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management should be required to rapidly suppress fires or immediately authorize state, local, and private entities ready to protect our forests and communities.
I will cut the bureaucratic red tape and impractical restrictions harming our farmers and ranchers. I believe in independence, innovation, and the right to thrive. I will defend a resilient “Made in America” food supply and safeguard farmers’ ability to farm and provide affordable, healthy choices for consumers.
I will also work relentlessly to remove federal barriers blocking development of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay—an untapped economic engine with the potential to serve the entire Pacific. Strengthening our coastal communities means investing in durable infrastructure, addressing housing and childcare shortages, and attracting the skilled workforce needed to power long-term growth.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
Monique DeSpain Endorsed By Citizens for Sensible Forest Management (CSFM)
More than 60% of Oregon’s Fourth District is federal forestland. Decades of passive management, excessive fuel buildup, deteriorating access roads, and litigation gridlock have left our forests vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire. The consequences are devastating: burned homes and habitat, hazardous smoke, shuttered mills, lost family-wage jobs, and declining revenue for rural schools, roads, and public safety.
I will work with federal, state, tribal, local, and private partners to restore active forest management, including:
Federal tree plantations should be sustainably managed to produce renewable timber, materials for American homes, and family-wage jobs. Where restoration is the better use, selected overcrowded plantations should be converted into healthier, more diverse forests that can better withstand wildfire, insects, and disease.
When a fire starts, the Forest Service and BLM must suppress it immediately or authorize capable state, local, tribal, and private crews to act. I will demand transparency regarding response decisions, contract terms, expenditures, and fires that escape initial attack. Our priority must be protecting lives, communities, and forests—not sustaining an increasingly expensive and lucrative wildfire industry.
I have already submitted public comment supporting rescission of the one-size-fits-all 2001 Roadless Rule. Rescission would not automatically authorize logging or road construction. It would allow local forest managers to determine where carefully planned access is needed for wildfire response, restoration, recreation, and public safety, while retaining environmental review and protections for sensitive areas.
Not every acre should be managed identically. Decisions should reflect the land’s condition, habitat value, wildfire risk, and suitability for sustainable timber production.
Responsible management can create family-wage jobs in forestry, trucking, firefighting, reforestation, milling, manufacturing, and equipment maintenance. Federal forest management should also honor the sustained-yield and revenue-sharing requirements governing O&C lands, generating dependable support for county schools, roads, law enforcement, and emergency services.
Healthy forests do not happen through neglect. They require stewardship, access, action, and accountability.
Issue | Monique DeSpain | Val Hoyle |
Fix Our Forests Act | Supported the legislation from the beginning. | Voted against it in September 2024, then supported the reintroduced bill in January 2025. |
O&C lands | Supports sustained-yield timber production and restoring legally required revenue to O&C counties. | Has not championed restoring sustainable harvest levels and county timber revenue. |
BLM Western Oregon plan | Supports moving the revised plan forward to improve forest health, increase responsible harvests, and stabilize rural counties. | Joined a March 2026 delegation letter requesting an extension of the public-comment period. |
Roadless Rule | Formally submitted public comment supporting rescission and restoring flexibility to local forest managers. | Has not publicly championed rescission of the national rule. |
Forest-policy support | Endorsed by Citizens for Sensible Forest Management, Forests for Oregon, Coos-Curry Farm Bureau, Oregon Family Farms Association. | Holds a 98% lifetime score from the extreme national League of Conservation Voters. |
Val Hoyle tells timber communities she supports active management, but her record too often follows the organizations that helped lock up our federal forests. I have one message throughout this district: manage our forests responsibly, protect our communities, restore rural prosperity, and demand results.
Since my corrupt, career politician opponent has been lying about my record on countless issues, including gay marriage, I feel compelled to set the record straight. I have always supported equal marriage rights and that includes the right to marry for gay couples. I am proud to have countless friends and supporters in the LGBTQ community and believe this issue has been settled by the Supreme Court.
Our government-run education system is failing our children, and Oregon ranks among the worst government education programs in America. Yet more money is being spent and extracted from taxpayers every year, only to produce steadily declining education results with our kids. Students are increasingly failing to meet minimum proficiency in reading, writing, and math. This shortfall imposes significant costs on families and employers and leaves young people unprepared for productive, independent lives.
As a single working mother whose children went through public 4J schools in Eugene, I know the strain and expense on families who step up to fill the gaps left by our government school system.
We must return parents, teachers, and local education partners to the center of decision-making. As your Congresswoman, I will support a Parents’ Bill of Rights to ensure real transparency and accountability: full access to curricula, clear reporting on school performance, and genuine school choice. Parents deserve a primary, active role in their children’s education—not a one-size-fits-all system dictated by distant bureaucrats.
My goal in Congress is to help restore the American Dream for working families. A strong, growing middle class is essential—and today it is struggling and shrinking. As your Congresswoman, I will champion sustainable private-sector job creation, especially for small and medium-sized businesses and the skilled trades. I will support policies that rebuild American manufacturing, lower the cost of goods, and improve affordability so Americans can live and work with pride and dignity.
Prosperity requires government to get out of the way. We must cut excessive regulations, fix broken permitting systems, and reduce punitive taxation so Americans can keep more of what they earn and reinvest in their communities.
Crime is also driving up costs for law-abiding families. I support directing federal resources toward dramatically reducing property crime and theft that raise prices, inflate insurance costs, and force businesses to close. Inflation continues to crush family budgets and hit seniors on fixed incomes the hardest. This is not the future we want for our children or grandchildren.
In Congress, I will fight to end reckless, wasteful tax-and-spend policies coming out of Washington that fuel inflation, undermine affordability, increase the national debt, and place the American Dream out of reach for too many.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
DeSpain Calls Out Extreme U.S. Rep Hoyle’s Vote Refusing to Denounce the Horrors of Socialism
Monique DeSpain Endorsed By Citizens for Sensible Forest Management (CSFM)
Monique DeSpain Endorsed By National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB)
Monique DeSpain Announces Opposition to Inflationary, Economically Destructive Measure 118
Monique DeSpain Scorches Val Hoyle Over No Vote To Fix Oregon’s Forests
Monique DeSpain Says Val Hoyle’s Failure to Oppose BOEM Wind Farm Leases Stunning
Guest Column: Why don’t we have a safe and prosperous Oregon?
The storms and wildfires in our District have made one thing clear: energy is civilization, and it is a critical national and local security issue. As your Congresswoman, I will oppose ongoing attacks on Americans’ freedom to choose their energy sources. The first-world nation we currently enjoy must continue to ensure access to an array of reliable and affordable energy options without the threat of arbitrary government bans, penalties, or prohibitive taxes.
Consumers and businesses—not distant bureaucrats—should decide when and how to adopt alternative energy options, free from prohibitive costs or forced transitions. To deliver on this, the government should pursue an “all of the above” energy strategy that strives to develop scientifically based, cleaner energy choices, protects our energy infrastructure, and ends reliance on sources of energy from hostile and unreliable nations.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
See Monique’s Position on the Fix Our Forests Act
Monique DeSpain Says Val Hoyle’s Failure to Oppose BOEM Wind Farm Leases Stunning
Monique speaks out on proposal to prohibit natural gas in new homes
Elected representatives of the American people have a legal and moral obligation to make all of their business of government, the business of the people, transparent and accountable to the people they serve. When elected, I commit to sharing all of my votes and reasons behind them for all the public to see. I will ask the tough questions in relentless pursuit of truthful, factual answers, followed by prompt and deliberate action. I will apply my experienced investigative eye and knowledge of the law to expose wasteful spending. Much like my work as a military and private sector lawyer, I will fight to eliminate discrimination, corruption, and cronyism, expose conflicts of interest, and bring an end to the careers of pay-to-play career politicians, starting with our corrupt Congresswoman Val Hoyle.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
Monique DeSpain Calls on Val Hoyle to Resign Over Damning Text Messages with La Mota CEO
Monique DeSpain Applauds News that Feds Expand Investigation into Hoyle’s BOLI Grant to La Mota
DeSpain Blasts Hoyle for Gross Neglect, Failed Leadership in 2nd BOLI Racial Discrimination Claim
As a retired Air Force Colonel with 30 years of service and a top-secret security clearance, I understand the stakes of America’s national security. Protecting our nation—at home and abroad—will always be a top priority. Peace through strength remains the proven strategy for deterring aggression, preventing conflict, and securing lasting peace and prosperity.
Our military must be vigilant, well-resourced, and capable of winning 24/7. That means maintaining our technological edge, reinforcing readiness, and investing in modern capabilities—especially cyber capabilities and missile defense—to meet rapidly evolving 21st-century threats.
I support the right of our allies to defend themselves from terrorists and hostile regimes, but I oppose unlimited foreign aid without strict oversight. No taxpayer dollars should be spent without accountability. Americans deserve full transparency on how their money is used and assurance that every defense expenditure advances our national security.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
DeSpain Calls Out Extreme U.S. Rep Hoyle’s Vote Refusing to Denounce the Horrors of Socialism
Our election system, like any aspect of our government, must be secure, accurate, and transparent. It is absolutely essential to our democratic process of one person, one vote. This includes requiring a photo ID to vote, updated and accurate voter registration records, and vote tallying by controlled, certified machines and software that are made in America. I strongly support Oregon’s treasured citizen initiative process that serves as an essential check on government overreach and ensures that the voices of everyday Oregonians—too often overlooked—are heard.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES:
Monique DeSpain Skewers Val Hoyle for Desperate Border Letter to Biden and Her Census Vote
China is our foremost strategic adversary, and our government must remain vigilant and aggressive in maintaining strength and readiness every moment of every day. That is what China is doing. Our federal government needs bold, astute leadership in every elected position to include all Congressional representatives. National security is a core function of our federal government. Having served as a senior leader in our military for 30 years, I understand the threat China poses to our nation, our freedom, and our prosperity. I vow to continue to put American interests first. Always. I will work to hold the Chinese Communist Party and its leadership accountable for their hostile, invasive actions and end their technology theft, cyber warfare, trade exploitation, currency manipulation, institutional infiltration, and military aggression.
It is essential to peace on earth that America stands against terrorism and stands proudly and strongly with its allies, including Israel. America should and must defend herself against all enemies, and I support all nations in defending themselves against attacks on their people and their sovereign lands. When elected, I will ensure that Israel and its enemies never doubt that America will stand for Israel and against terrorism. This clear rejection of terrorism will also deter similar terrorist attacks on our homeland.
RELEVANT PRESS RELEASES: