Claire Reneau is a French teacher at Westview High School in Beaverton. She's also one of the co-founders of BEAU (Beaverton Education Association United), a reform caucus that in its first year swept elections for union president, vice president, and executive board, but her story doesn't start there.

She grew up in a home with an alcoholic father and an abusive grandfather. As a child, she named what was wrong in her own family, even when it made everyone uncomfortable. She learned early that you can't accept that's just how it is. Later, she taught in New Orleans where she witnessed systems that abandoned kids. Then she moved to Beaverton and saw the same inequality playing out here, with schools north of Highway 26 thriving while schools south were starved of resources.

When Eric ran for school board, Claire was there, but the union that should have had his back didn't. That's when she realized something was broken. She connected with organizers, read Jane McAlevy, and started asking questions. Why did the union operate like a service model when members had so much collective power? Why were decisions made in secret? Why couldn't people demand transparency?

She didn't just complain. She organized. She and others built a movement that changed how the Beaverton Education Association runs. They demanded answers and voted down appointments. They stripped away the invisibility and continue to fight to make their union actually serve the teachers in it.

Listen to what happens when teachers stop accepting the way things have always been done.

Guest: Claire Reneau: French Teacher & Co-Founder, BEAU (Beaverton Education Association United)

Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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Lesly Munoz is the State Representative for House District 22, representing Woodburn, Gervais, Brooks, and North Salem in Marion County. She won her seat by 161 votes in November 2024, the single margin that gave Oregon Democrats the super majority in the House. One woman. One neighborhood. Everything changed.

She grew up in LA County where she learned what it meant to work your hands to the bone and still not have enough. Her father landscaped for people who wouldn't pay him. Her mother cleaned houses and worked at the library. She grew up poor and bilingual and she learned early on that the system wasn't designed to protect people like her family.

She was studying to be a teacher when someone came into her social justice class talking about unions. About contracts. About workers having a say over their wages and their lives. She saw it as a dream. She applied for an internship and never looked back. For fourteen years she fought for workers. Then she fell in love with an undocumented man and learned the immigration system from the inside out. That's what made her a fighter in her bones.

Now her district is the epicenter of ICE enforcement in Oregon. And she passed the Protect Your Door Act during the recent short session, allowing Oregonians to sue federal agents for Fourth Amendment violations. Listen to what one woman can do. Listen to what she's building.

Guest: Lesly Munoz, Oregon State Representative, House District 22

Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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Blayne Soleymani-Pearson is running for Washington County Commissioner in District 2. He's a domestic violence prosecutor and a father to kids who deserve to grow up in a county that fights for people who look like them.

When he was three or four years old, he watched his mother get attacked. He shielded his little brother. He chased the man away. He couldn't save her, but that moment moved through his whole life. It's why he became a lawyer. It's why he's spent years prosecuting domestic violence cases, connecting that childhood wound to helping the next person, the next family.

When the federal government threatened to strip funding for DEI, other counties sued. Washington County said we won't rock the boat. And Blayne watched the most diverse county in the state abandon its own people. He watched Nafisa Fai stand alone.

He's running to stand with her. Because people who look like his wife and his kids deserve a commissioner who will fight. Not compromise. Fight.

Listen to why he's in this race.

Guest:Blayne Soleymani-Pearson, Candidate for Washington County Commissioner, District 2

Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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Myrna Munoz is running for State Senate District 15. She's an educator, a UC Berkeley graduate, and the daughter of farm workers and warriors.

Her grandfathers came through the Bracero program to work the crops while American men fought in World War II. Her grandmother lived in a time when women weren't allowed to be educated. So she spied on a teacher, made a deal to do her laundry, and learned to read. That's the lineage Myrna comes from. That's who she is.

Now she's stepping away from her work as an educator to fight for all of us. Listen to why she's running, where her power comes from, and why the next State Senator from District 15 is already here.

Guest: Myrna Munoz, State Senate Candidate, District 15 

Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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Dr. Melissa Bird is a congressional candidate challenging the incumbent in Oregon's 4th Congressional District Democratic primary. She holds a PhD in social work and brings years of experience writing and killing legislation at both state and federal levels as an advocate and lobbyist.

A descendant of the Shivwitz band of Southern Paiutes, a bisexual woman, and someone who has lived through poverty, Dr. Bird speaks to the lived experience that informs her policy work. She discusses why new voices are essential to democracy, what she's learned fighting for communities left behind, and why we need people in Congress who understand what it's like to struggle to afford groceries.

As fascism rises and the social safety net crumbles, Dr. Bird argues we need fighters in Congress who aren't bought by corporations. Tune in to hear from the candidate the Oregon Education Association did not want you to hear from.

Guest: Dr. Melissa Bird, Congressional Candidate, Oregon's 4th Congressional District
Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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John Wasilewski, affectionately known as Waz, is a middle school teacher and primary challenger in House District 38, running against incumbent Daniel Nguyen in one of Oregon's few competitive Democratic primary races. In this episode, Waz walks us through what drove a civics educator from the classroom to the campaign trail, why 2026 is a pivotal election, and what he's witnessing in schools that state legislators are getting wrong.

From the Lake Oswego School Board forums where the current representative didn't show up, to the mental health crisis facing students, to the real cost of housing on a teacher's salary, Waz breaks down the infrastructure of advocacy and representation that politicians often overlook. He shares what meaningful advocacy actually looks like and why grassroots organizing around education, community safety, and the cost of living is the only path forward.

He also opens up about running as the first openly gay candidate for this seat, the difference between corporate PAC money and grassroots donations, and why building schools and communities that work for everyone requires engagement from the ground up. This is the story of someone who believes democracy requires showing up, doing the work, and refusing to play the games politicians play behind closed doors.

Guest: John Wasilewski (Waz), primary challenger, House District 38
Hosts: Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins

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This inaugural episode of Oregon Voices confronts the state's celebrated "blue state" identity, revealing the complex realities beneath its progressive facade. Co-hosts Eric McGuire and Katherine Watkins, seasoned Oregon educators, share their radically different lived experiences, from rural white upbringing to navigating mixed-race identity on a reservation, to expose how Oregon's exclusionary history and contemporary policies perpetuate systemic inequities in education, politics, and social justice. This episode serves anyone seeking an authentic, critical examination of Oregon's past and present, offering unheard perspectives and challenging listeners to engage with difficult truths about their state.

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