_color%203is.png)
"We need to come together to fight the system, instead of fighting each other."
Proudly Nominated & Endorsed by the Independent Party of Oregon
"Working families, small businesses, retirees, and younger generations are being fleeced by oligarchs who have purchased our representatives. Enough is enough.
As your next State Senator who still lives paycheck to paycheck, I will prioritize the needs of the people over corporate special interests.
If we want real change in our government, then we must stop putting our faith in this broken two-party system, and start electing minor party representatives.”
Clay Bearnson
Get to know Clay
Clay Bearnson has lived in the Rogue Valley for nearly four decades and has owned a business in downtown Medford for 23 years. He knows what it takes to belong to a community, listen, collaborate, make payroll and balance a budget. He brings more than ten years of public service experience, including two terms on the Medford City Council and member of numerous local commissions and committees. He has served as a volunteer board member of the Downtown Medford Association, and this year the board elected him president.
Clay is running for Oregon State Senate District 3 to represent the people’s voices. Special interests currently finance most candidates' campaigns, then show up at the table to write the policy. The result benefits the few at the expense of the many, and the wealth gap keeps widening while working families fall behind. Clay’s campaign is people powered, small donors are fueling change. Southern Oregon deserves a senator who owes nothing to either party machine. Clay Bearnson is the only candidate who fits the bill.
Clay's Political Philosophy
Political discord has Americans being divided. Both parties own the systemic failures at the great expense of working families. Lincoln warned that a house divided against itself cannot stand. We need to vote purposefully, and elect leaders who unite people instead of profiting from the division.
Policies Clay Will Support
Affordability Through Tax Reform:
Over the past few decades, government has quietly shifted the tax burden off wealth and capital and onto labor. Clay will support legislation that shifts it back, putting real money in working-class pockets. Oregon's income tax rates are among the highest in the nation, and because our top brackets kick in at relatively modest incomes, the burden falls hardest on ordinary earners, not the wealthy. That same structure squeezes small businesses and discourages new employers from coming here. Oregon is not a small-business-friendly state, and Clay intends to change that.
A Future All Generations Can Actually Afford:
Our elderly population is among the most vulnerable to homelessness as the cost of living increases faster than their fixed incomes. Clay will support policies that will help prevent them from being priced out of their livelihoods.
Millennials and Gen Z are being handed a raw deal and told to be grateful for it. Home-ownership is drifting out of reach, rent eats a growing share of every paycheck, and student debt delays everything from starting a family to saving for retirement. Meanwhile, AI and automation are reshaping the workforce faster than any legislature is discussing it.
Younger generations are barely part of the policy conversation. Clay intends to change that. He will support:
• Expanding attainable housing and real pathways to home-ownership
• Increasing access to affordable physical and mental healthcare
• Strengthening apprenticeships, trades education, and workforce retraining
• Getting ahead of AI-driven job displacement instead of reacting after the damage is done
• Lowering the barriers facing young entrepreneurs trying to start something of their own
Every generation deserves a fair shot at a stable life. Right now, the youngest ones are not getting it, and pretending otherwise is exactly the kind of politics Clay is running against.
Elections & Campaign Finance Reform:
This is, by far, the most critical reform needed in government. If not prioritized, any other reforms are going to be watered down by special interests. Dark money is a cancer in our government, and almost nothing else gets fixed until it is treated.
Clay supports opening Oregon's primaries and adopting more representative voting systems like STAR or ranked-choice voting. He supports statewide campaign contribution limits and truth-in-advertising laws for campaigns. Oregon cannot overturn Citizens United, but it can build guardrails that make it harder to buy influence in secret. Elections should reward broad public support, not the deepest donor list.
Live campaign finance tracker for this race:
Physical/
Mental Healthcare Reform:
Clay's personal experiences have taught him a hard truth; He is a middle-aged man with no health insurance as he doesn't qualify for subsidies and it's a financial burden his business cannot afford. He also has a family member who has recently navigated through the broken mental healthcare system and has witnessed how Oregon has dumped its mental health crisis on the criminal justice system. Judges have become the gatekeepers who decide who gets treatment.
People without money for care cycle through crisis, arrest, and recidivism before a court finally orders the help they needed all along. That is not a healthcare system. It is a moral failure, and it is expensive on top of being wrong. Nobody should have to commit a crime to get treatment. Clay will fight for community-based mental healthcare, crisis services, and early intervention, so cops and courts can go back to doing their actual jobs.
Protecting The Environment For Future Generations:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is daily practice for Clay, and he realizes that if we don't take care of our planet, then humanity has no chance. He will support policies that consist of economic incentives, prescriptive regulations, and collaborative goal-setting to ensure good environmental stewardship. He opposes any economic incentives for installation of AI data centers, especially in rural areas where the resources are more finite and proximate to our natural environments. The AI industry can more than afford mitigation of its environmental impacts.
Join the Movement!
Invest in Independent Leadership
Amount
$10
$27
$50
$100
Other
0/100
Comment (optional)
DONATE BY MAIL
Prefer to contribute by check?
Please make checks payable to:
ClayForChange Committee
Mail to:
113 S Grape St
Medford, OR 97501
Please include your
full name - address - occupation - and employer
with your contribution
