Putting the North Coast First
Affordability & Cost of Living
Salem has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Oregon families are working harder than ever—and keeping less and less of their paychecks. Too many are struggling under the weight of rising taxes and fees, unaffordable housing, and ballooning healthcare costs. Max will fight for tax relief for working families by stopping new taxes and hidden fees and cutting the regulatory burdens driving up fuel, energy, and housing costs. Max helped give voters the final word on Tina Kotek’s $4.3 billion gas tax package, and he will make sure that tax stays gone, instead of being brought back under another name.
Jobs & Natural Resources
The backbone of our district’s economy—family farms, fisheries, timber, and coastal tourism—faces increasing pressure from regulation, taxation, and global competition. As a farmer and retired 35-year educator in technical and agricultural fields, Max knows this world intimately. He will be a strong advocate in Salem for policies that support sustainable agriculture and resource industries, protect jobs in fishing and timber, reduce burdensome regulation where it doesn’t increase safety or productivity, and promote apprenticeships and career training so young people can stay in the region and build good lives.
Roads & Infrastructure
Good roads, safe bridges, and reliable infrastructure matter, especially for rural and coastal areas where farm trucks, fishing boats, school buses, and local businesses depend on them. Voters in our district are frustrated to see resources directed away from their communities and toward urban centers.
Max will hold the Oregon Department of Transportation and other agencies accountable for oversight and spending problems and prioritize spending infrastructure money where it belongs—repairing highways, maintaining bridges, investing in broadband, and ensuring that projects aren’t designed for political insiders, but for the working families who live and commute here.
Public Safety & Homelessness
Our neighborhoods need to be safe, clean, and free of encampments, open drug use, chronic property damage, and lack of enforcement. Max believes public safety isn’t just about police presence—it’s community responsibility, strong families, supportive schools, and fair and funded enforcement. Max will fully fund local law enforcement, back deputies and city police, and support treatment and recovery alternatives that actually get homeless people off the streets. He will also strengthen community-based solutions (including faith-and service-based nonprofits) and encourage local decision making so that residents feel heard and protected.
Education & Career Technical Training
As a 35-year classroom teacher and FFA advisor, Max believes parents belong at the center of their children’s education. He has already testified to stop budget cuts that would gut CTE and student organizations and if elected, will push schools back to basics, promote parental rights and school choice, and work to fund Career & Technical Education—FFA, SkillsUSA, welding, agriculture, and the programs that give our kids a path toward an abundant future, right here on the coast.