Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten to run for Governor of Oregon
By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Wednesday, June 30th, 2021 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News
BAKER CITY – Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten announced yesterday that she will be running for Governor of Oregon.
Elkhorn Media Group staff spoke one on one with McQuisten for a short interview on what brought her to this decision.
(Q) Kerry what brought you to the decision to run for Governor of Oregon?
(A) I didn’t plan on doing this a year ago, but after the media storm, really hit after our resolution. I started hearing from people, not just across the state, but across the United States. I heard from elected officials at Federal levels, State levels, at local levels, all corners of Oregon citizens from every county in the state all asking me if I would do this and after a while, I started listening, I think. That’s kind of what led up to this. The second part of that was I took a trip around the Western half of the United States, I took a road trip and as soon as we got across the state line, there was Freedom. I started going through these states and they felt like things felt in Oregon when I was a kid growing up here and I started realizing how much, how much things have changed here and how oppressive it felt the minute I came back home and it’s not, right. So, something’s got a switch with that, and I knew I couldn’t do anything else probably in my capacity, as mayor, you know I am handling City business, but I can’t handle anything at a state level. Instead, city council and mayor were just reacting to all these things that are coming down from Salem.
(Q) You have been the mayor of Baker City for roughly six months now, what qualifies you for the position of Governor?
(A) Mayor has only been six months of my life. So but prior to that I was a republican PCP volunteer, which meant that I got to learn the political system in Oregon inside and out. So, none of that is foreign territory to me. Professionally I was a Corporate Executive in the architecture, engineering and construction business for quite some time up in Seattle area. I was handling Business Development, Communications, Public Relations and Marketing.
I have also lived all over the world and then when I came back here to Baker City, I started my own business. So, I’m a small business owner, I also worked in the corporate arena and then I came back here and became a small business owner myself and actually was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year from the NEODD at one point. So, there’s this quite a bit of a background out there that’s not pertaining to being a mayor.
(Q) What is the next step as you move forward?
(A) The next step is to get the campaign going. I’m approaching it from a very grassroots point of view with volunteers and a strong team all across Oregon. Like any candidate all of us we have the same exact problem which is, we need to raise funds. So, without donations, there is no campaign which means a Democrat will get back in that seat. So that is the first thing to focus on. I’ll be scheduling events and things around the State over the next several months.
(Q) Is there anything else about you or your reasoning for choosing to run for Governor that you think people need to know about?
(A) The thing about me is I don’t back down. I’m very secure with who I am inside. I’m very authentic with what I’m going to present to people and voters can choose me if they like.
I am not going to pretend to be something I’m not. I’m coming in from outside the political arena. I’m not a serial candidate who’s run again, and again, so hopefully, they’ll see some benefits to that.
Also, the interesting thing, I can’t find a governor from the east side of the state since the 1950s We had a gentleman named Elmo Smith, he was appointed and served h for two years and then ran for re-election and lost. So that’s, that’s the last time we’ve had Eastern Oregon represented in that office.
For more information on McQuisten, log on to https://www.kerrymcquisten.com/
