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Karyssa Dow

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Karyssa Dow
Image of Karyssa Dow
Elections and appointments
Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Walla Walla Valley Academy

Other

College of Hair Design Careers, 2014

Personal
Birthplace
Walla Walla, Wash.
Religion
None
Profession
Business owner
Contact

Karyssa Dow (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Oregon House of Representatives to represent District 18. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

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

Biography

Karyssa Dow was born in Walla Walla, Washington. She earned a high school diploma from the Walla Walla Valley Academy and a degree from the College of Hair Design Careers in 2014. Dow also attended Chemeketa Community College. Her career experience includes working as a business owner. As of 2024, Dow was affiliated with Silverton Food Co-op.[1]

Elections

2024

See also: Oregon House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Oregon House of Representatives District 18

Incumbent Rick Lewis defeated Karyssa Dow in the general election for Oregon House of Representatives District 18 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Rick Lewis
Rick Lewis (R)
 
70.8
 
26,553
Image of Karyssa Dow
Karyssa Dow (D) Candidate Connection
 
29.0
 
10,884
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
61

Total votes: 37,498
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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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 18

Incumbent Rick Lewis advanced from the Republican primary for Oregon House of Representatives District 18 on May 21, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Rick Lewis
Rick Lewis
 
99.3
 
6,062
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.7
 
42

Total votes: 6,104
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.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Dow in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

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

Expand all | Collapse all

Small business owner in Silverton, OR.

Sitting member of the Silverton Affordable Housing Taskforce. Board President of Silverton Food Co-op.

Community Activist. I have been married for 13 years and have a child in middle school.
  • As someone who attended private school through high school, I put my daughter in public school for a reason. As the oldest in my family, I got to see the opportunities afforded to my younger siblings and cousins through public schools that I didn’t have because it was assumed that families were able to pay for them privately. Every child deserves access to a safe, quality, and dignified education.
  • Oregon’s constitution enshrines reproductive rights, but Project 2025 seeks to use federal law to overrule state laws. Every person, and family, deserve the freedom to make their own family planning choices without the government invading their home and doctor’s office. Additionally, doctors deserve the right to practice medicine without the threat of criminal prosecution for providing proper medical treatment to their patients.
  • It’s a fact that Oregon needs more housing, but it is also a fact that our farmlands and forests are crucial to the fight against climate change. We have had urban growth boundary rules that have worked well for over 50 years and we can’t throw them aside in the work of increasing housing supply. We need to maintain and respect the UGB rules. It is actually cheaper for taxpayers to increase housing density within cities that already have existing infrastructure for sewer, utilities, and public transit. Affordable housing developments that are a 15-20 minute drive from schools, stores, and jobs are not actually affordable for lower incomes because they require a vehicle to access those things.
Fully funding public education is of utmost importance to me as the mother of a K-12 student in Oregon’s public schools. The middle that my daughter attends is partially condemned. That is completely unacceptable and our teachers and students deserve better. Oregon needs to reevaluate its tax system and distribution mechanisms to better fund schools without putting the burden on the middle class.

We also need to increase affordable housing while being mindful of Oregon’s farmlands and forests. Increasing housing density is more affordable for tax payers and better for the environment. Once farmland is developed, it is gone. Oregon’s Urban Growth Boundary rules have worked well for over 50 years. They must remain in place and be respected.
I greatly respect Senator Ron Wyden’s commitment to yearly town halls in every county in Oregon and would like to emulate that on a smaller scale within my district when elected.
I recommend everyone in Oregon watch “Majority Rules” ahead of the General Election! It does a deep dive on ranked choice voting, which is on our ballot November, 2024. It was funny and educational.
Elected officials must be good listeners and have a willingness to learn because no one is capable of knowing everything. The ability to answer a question with “I don’t know, but I will educate myself and get back to you” is incredibly important. They need to be able to accept honest criticism without getting defensive and take responsibility when they made a bad decision. Officials must have integrity, strong morals, and a wealth of empathy. They also need to be clear communicators.
I like to work collaboratively, which is imperative if you want to be an effective legislator. I am not afraid to call out something if I think it is wrong. I am not interested in working for corporations or the top 1%. My family is middle class and I know the day-to-day struggles of being there. I want to make life easier for my peers, not harder.
State representatives listen to the concerns of the citizens in the districts they represent and then take those concerns to the state legislature to advocate for their constituents. They should regularly be available to their constituents in a larger capacity than via email or a few hours at the state capitol. As representative I will commit to quarterly town hall meetings in various areas throughout district 18, to ensure that I am personally kept aware of your concerns.
I was 10 years old when the Twin Towers were hit. We watched it over and over and over, all day long, in my 5th grade classroom.
Cleaning horse stalls at 12 years old in exchange for private horse riding lessons. I did it for 4 or 5 summers.
I couldn’t pick if I tried. Just this year alone I have read almost 100 books and far too many of them are too good to pick a favorite.
I grew up very religious and conservative. Separating myself from that and finding out who I really am has been very difficult.
They need to work together, but also hold each other accountable. No piece of legislation is worth sacrificing your integrity or compromising your morals. Good leaders shouldn’t expect others to do that anyways.
Our school buildings are crumbling and we have no plans on how to fix it. My towns district has skylights falling out of ceilings and a condemned middle school. There are currently no methods to correct this without overburdening the already struggling middle class.
I think that as long as the legislator is willing to put in the work to learn the job quickly and govern cooperatively, there doesn’t need to be previous experience.
Yes, there is power in numbers and when the name of the game is majority rules, you better have some numbers to back you up. Being a lone seal in a pod of orcas is never going to end in one’s favor.
When our community was hit with a historic ice storm in 2021, my husband made lunch and dinner for our community for an entire week. We had people reaching out daily for meals that weren’t able to leave their homes due to debris covering the roads. They had lost all their refrigerated food and were without power for days. Many of them would not have eaten if we hadn’t cooked and organized delivery. Being able to provide that for our neighbors will always have a special place in my heart.
Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Marion County Democrats, Clackamas County Democrats, Eric Hammond (Silverton City Council), and Karen Garst (author and former Executive of the Oregon State Bar).
Taxpayers deserve to know where their tax dollars are being spent. Financial transparency and accountability are two of the most important factors in the taxpayers believing that their elected officials are looking out for their best interests.

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 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.


Karyssa Dow campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024* Oregon House of Representatives District 18Lost general$6,604 $3,504
Grand total$6,604 $3,504
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

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 8, 2024


Current members of the Oregon House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Julie Fahey
Majority Leader:Ben Bowman
Minority Leader:Lucetta Elmer
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
Pam Marsh (D)
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
Jami Cate (R)
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
Ed Diehl (R)
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
Ken Helm (D)
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
District 36
Hai Pham (D)
District 37
District 38
District 39
District 40
District 41
District 42
Rob Nosse (D)
District 43
District 44
District 45
Thuy Tran (D)
District 46
District 47
District 48
Vacant
District 49
District 50
District 51
District 52
District 53
District 54
District 55
District 56
District 57
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District 60
Democratic Party (36)
Republican Party (23)
Vacancies (1)