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Joe A. Meyer (Oregon's 3rd Congressional District)

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Joe Meyer
Image of Joe Meyer

Pacific Green Party

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Evanston Township High School

Ph.D

Brown University, 1990

Personal
Birthplace
Chicago, Ill.
Religion
Agnostic
Profession
Writer
Contact

Joe Meyer (Pacific Green Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Oregon's 3rd Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Meyer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Joe Meyer was born in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Evanston Township High School. He attended DePaul University and earned a Ph.D. from Brown University in 1990. His career experience includes working as a writer, free county bus driver, and table tennis teacher. He has been affiliated with the North East Tool Library and Concordia Tree Team.[1]

Elections

2024

See also: Oregon's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024

Oregon's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (May 21 Democratic primary)

Oregon's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (May 21 Republican primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Maxine Dexter defeated Joanna Harbour, David Walker, Joe Meyer, and David Frosch in the general election for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Maxine Dexter
Maxine Dexter (D) Candidate Connection
 
67.7
 
226,405
Image of Joanna Harbour
Joanna Harbour (R)
 
25.2
 
84,344
Image of David Walker
David Walker (Independent Party / Progressive Party)
 
3.1
 
10,245
Image of Joe Meyer
Joe Meyer (Pacific Green Party) Candidate Connection
 
3.0
 
10,106
Image of David Frosch
David Frosch ()
 
0.7
 
2,459
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
810

Total votes: 334,369
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on May 21, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Maxine Dexter
Maxine Dexter Candidate Connection
 
47.3
 
47,254
Image of Susheela Jayapal
Susheela Jayapal
 
32.8
 
32,793
Image of Eddy Morales
Eddy Morales Candidate Connection
 
13.4
 
13,391
Image of Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas Candidate Connection
 
2.4
 
2,359
Image of Nolan Bylenga
Nolan Bylenga Candidate Connection
 
2.1
 
2,138
Image of Rachel Rand
Rachel Rand Candidate Connection
 
0.9
 
856
Image of Ricky Barajas
Ricky Barajas
 
0.6
 
649
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.4
 
430

Total votes: 99,870
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Joanna Harbour defeated Gary Dye and Teresa Orwig in the Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on May 21, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Joanna Harbour
Joanna Harbour
 
55.0
 
13,948
Image of Gary Dye
Gary Dye Candidate Connection
 
27.1
 
6,869
Image of Teresa Orwig
Teresa Orwig Candidate Connection
 
17.0
 
4,303
 Other/Write-in votes
 
1.0
 
258

Total votes: 25,378
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Meyer in this election.

2014

See also: Portland, Oregon city council elections, 2014

Elections for the city council of Portland, Oregon took place on May 20, 2014. Incumbent Dan Saltzman defeated Joe Meyer, Nicholas Caleb and Leah Dumas for the Position 3 seat.[2][3][4]

Portland City Council, Position 3, 2014
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.pngDan Saltzman 63.1% 60,844
Joe Meyer 10.6% 10,228
Nicholas Caleb 19.4% 18,697
Leah Dumas 6.3% 6,125
Write-in 0.6% 596
Total Votes 96,490
Source: Portland Auditor's Office - Official 2014 Election Results


Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Joe Meyer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Meyer's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I went to Brown University in Providence, RI from 1984-1990. I received a Masters and a PhD in Physics. I played rugby and got a try against Yale at home. I was good at physics and, more importantly, thinkers like Aurelius, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Camus, and Popper started to change my mind: maybe there was more to life than sports and science.

My first Post-Doc was at Penn State University where I built a machine to see atoms and was setter for the club volleyball team. I got married in little chapel in State College, PA and we have been together for 33 years.

My second Post-Doc was a Humboldt Fellowship for research in Ulm, Germany. I saw a lot of different atoms and published dozens of paper. I was invited to give scientific lectures in castles all over Europe. I even tried to speak French, once. In Germany our first child was born and the German government started sending us a check every month for 'child money.'

As a young man I thought all our problems had a technical solution. Oh we have pollution? Let me move some atoms around and build a better catalytic converter! Oh we need clean energy? Let me research more efficient solar panels! After unplugging from the research world and raising two kids, I now see our problems as social and political in nature. I think Technology is neutral and that we need to learn how to get along.

  • I am running for Congress because there has been a coup in the United States. We the people lost; corporate and foreign interests won. They won and they continue to beat us by mastering our elections. Corporate and foreign interests invest mere millions in politicians; they receive back billions in tax breaks, subsidies, and weapons of war. This system of legalized, open bribery is already a hint that we lost.
  • I call it a coup because this regime doesn't care about the life of US citizens: 500,000 sleep on the street, 30% of families are housing insecure, 16% of children live in poverty, poverty is trauma, nuclear annihilation looms, and our environment is increasingly unstable. Since Reagan, this regime transferred $50 trillion of wealth to the top 1% and eviscerated the middle class. I call it a coup because this regime attacks the liberty of US citizens: students are violently denied the right to protest, FISA 702 kills our right to privacy, costly cop-cities proliferate, healthcare is poor and expensive. Whistleblowers and publishers are robbed of their liberty for reporting regime crimes.
  • I call it a coup because this regime is complicit in genocide. They supply weapons with no conditions or red-lines. They continually veto peace on the world stage. We receive heart-breaking images of torn children, institutionalized torture, and cold-blooded massacres. This regime denies what America sees and sends more bombs, provides more diplomatic cover. We need a revolution to take our country back; I'm running because I want a peaceful one. I want a smaller US Government that starts with the life and liberty of US citizens. I want green-energy independence to eliminate wars, to save the environment, and to gainfully employ America. I want our bill of rights back. I want every child to be our child.
I agree with 90% of Americans: campaign cash has too much influence in our elections.

During the primary for this race, the Intercept published: “AIPAC is Secretly Intervening in Portland's Congressional Race to Take Down Susheela Jayapal...” (https://theintercept.com/2024/05/03/portland-aipac-susheela-jayapal-maxine-dexter/).

We are not a democracy if foreign interests pick our Representatives. I'm running for Congress because the first responsibility of the US Government is the regular US citizen - not the wealthiest 1%, not big oil, not endless wars and genocides.
Charles Jordan was a City of Portland Commissioner. He promised Portlanders that he would always tell them the reasons behind his votes, and he did.
To understand my political philosophy please read my substack at http://meyerja.substack.com.

My understanding of political theory follows my understanding of human nature. All social animals, (like wolves, elephants, baboons, chimps, and humans), have an evolved politics, a way of organizing, deciding, and getting along. For example, when an individual baboon is attacked by a cheetah, the whole baboon troop instinctively mobs the cheetah, and, most often, rescues the individual. Just as baboon politics evolved for the good of the baboons, humans have an evolved politics that is good for the humans. Our democracy is in crises because we are far from home, far from our genetic expectation of how things are supposed to be.


During homo sapiens' first 100,000 years we lived in groups of a few hundred individuals where everyone had a share of power and there was no such thing as wealth. It was our shared stories, our myths that provided the glue for group cohesion. Our stories evolved alongside of our bodies, most notably our big brains, and taught us how to behave, how to organize, how to share, and how to get along; our stories provided a common morality and a shared sense of humanity. Then, just 10,000 years ago, agriculture happened. Agriculture created wealth, wealth required violence, and humanity was divided into owners and workers. We lost our stories, we forgot how to get along, and we have been at war with ourselves ever since.
The most important characteristic of an elected official in 2024 is that they are not bought off by AIPAC to perpetuate the genocide of the Palestinian people. AIPAC spent over 100 million dollars in Democrat primaries in this election season. AIPAC brags that they entered 90 races and won all 90 of them. AIPAC is buying our congress with the goal of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. In this race they spend over 5 million to get their soft-on-genocide Democrat on the ballot.

Politicians have been doing lip service to campaign finance reform for generations and things have only gotten worse - much worse. Since I was old enough to vote in 1980 the Republicans and Democrat Parties have worked together to transfer over 50 trillion dollars to the top 1%. The top 1% in return buy more politicians and the cycle continues.

The Republicans and Democrat Parties have no real interest in campaign finance reform as corporate and foreign cash is their bread and butter. Rather than real reform they play 'move the loophole' and keep raking in millions. Only the voters can get money out of politics: vote Green, vote for Joe!
I will be a Representative with both the correct analysis of a PhD Physicist and the empathy that comes with raising kids in a community of friends. My heart says, 'every child is our child' and my brain says, 'show me the numbers.'
The core responsibility of a US Congress person is the well-being of US citizens. In our current AIPAC controlled congress war and genocide seem to be their top priority. They supply weapons to Israel with no conditions or red-lines. They continually veto peace on the world stage. We receive heart-breaking images of torn children, institutionalized torture, and cold-blooded massacres. This regime denies what America sees and sends more bombs, provides more diplomatic cover.
I would like to see world peace in my life time. I would like to see our one planet earth treated with respect and to stop the mass extinction brought on by climate disasters. I would like to end homelessness and poverty in America.
MLK said that the US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world; a year to the day later he was assassinated.
Crime and Punishment is my favorite novel because it is an awesome portrayal of the inner mind.
The Origins of Totalitarianism is my favorite non-fiction book because it explains the all-too-human tendency towards totalitarianism.
Oh my name it means nothing and my age it means less. The country I come from is called the mid west. I was born and brought up there the law to abide and to ever fear nothing with God on my side.
As a boy I loved only sports. It was hard to grow up, and worth it.
As Pericles said 2500 years ago, an empire is a dangerous thing to let go of, and this is the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade. We have to slowly and steadily bring home our troops from the over 800 bases around the world. We have to relearn diplomacy and stop relying on military force. The US empire is already starting to collapse and I want to help orchestrate a soft landing.
The evidence is clear: the longer someone is in power the more their frontal lobe atrophies and the more entrenched they are in the pay-to-play world of US politics. The US Presidents have term limits and so should the Senate and so so should the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Senate is full of millionaires who want to be billionaires. Most members have been in power so long that their prefrontal cortex is completely atrophies. The are not only psychologically incapable of humane thought they have shrunk to be physiologically incapable of humane though. The predictable result is a war-first foreign policy, a domestic policy that has eviscerated the middle class, and wanton destruction of the environment.

In short the US Senate is a brain dead institution, they are killing the rest of us as they strive for billionaire status.
No. Previous experience amount to learning how to serve corporate and foreign masters. In 2024 previous experience means learning how to accommodate genocide. Previous experience in government means that you are practiced at the art of deception, that you have mastered the Platonic lie.

We need to restore the government of the republic to the hands of the regular people with whom it originated.
I think the filibuster is one of many mechanisms of minority power in the US. It is one of many mechanisms to server corporate and foreign masters while keeping the US citizen under heel. If not for the filibuster the Supreme Court would have a different make up. If not for the filibuster a women's right to choose would be the law of the land.
Time flies like an arrow;
fruit flies like a banana.
The more important criteria to apply when deciding whether to confirm presidential appointees to their Cabinet is whether they can still use their full brains, whether they can think reasonable and compassionately. Tony Blinken and LLoyd Austin, for example, fail on the latter.
Our government has become disconnected from regular citizen and completely unaccountable to regular citizens. The reason for this is simple: politicians rely on large donors to get elected. Study after study shows the US is more accurately described as an oligarchy that a democracy.

As Ignatius L. Donnelly said at the 1892 Farmers Alliance Convention, "We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. ... We seek to restore the government of the republic to the hands of the 'plain people' with whom it originated.

Only the voters, the regular citizens can reclaim our democracy: Vote Green! Vote for Joe!

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Meyer’s campaign website stated the following:

End Homelessness and Poverty


The first responsibility of the US Government is the health and welfare of US citizens. If citizens are not healthy and secure, democracy is not even possible. We already have the solutions to our social problems; what we lack is a Congress that actually represents the interests of US citizens.


  • Universal healthcare would save US citizens $500 billion dollars a year and provide better outcomes.
  • Housing the homeless would save US citizens $10 billion dollars a year and liberate our public spaces
  • A negative income tax, or a universal basic income, is a simple way to lift US citizens out of poverty.


Stop Genocide and Endless War

The current US foreign policy of 'total spectrum dominance' is not tenable; humans love to be free, not dominated. US empire, like all empires, will end and I want a soft landing.


  • Stop the Palestinian genocide with an immediate arms embargo followed by BDS.
  • Reduce the military budget 20% per year.
  • Start closing our 800 foreign military bases.


Stop Corporate Welfare

Corporate and foreign interests control our Congress with a system of legalized bribery. The donate millions to elect their pawns to Congress and receive back billions in subsides, tax breaks, and weapons of destruction.

  • Stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and start the transition to renewables. It would cost $1.7 to build enough solar panels to power America. That is a lot of money and less than 2 years of military spending.
  • Stop subsiding big agriculture; bring back sustainable family farming, bring back 40 acres and a mule.
  • Stop bank bailouts and 'too big to fail'; re-implement the Glass–Steagall act. The 2008 crash and bailout resulted in 8 million home being transferred from family ownership to Wall Street ownership.[5]
—Joe A. Meyer’s campaign website (2024)[6]

Campaign finance summary


Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Joe Meyer campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024* U.S. House Oregon District 3Lost general$528 $528
Grand total$528 $528
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

See also


External links

Footnotes


Senators
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
Val Hoyle (D)
District 5
District 6
Democratic Party (7)
Republican Party (1)