Scott Phillips (Oregon)

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Scott Phillips

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

May 17, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

University of Washington, Seattle, 1987

Graduate

Georgetown University, 1997

Personal

Birthplace

Walla Walla, Wash.

Profession

Programmer

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Twitter

Personal LinkedIn

Scott Phillips (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Oregon's 1st Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on May 17, 2022.

Phillips completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Scott Phillips was born in Walla Walla, Washington. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1987 and a graduate degree from Georgetown University in 1997. His career experience includes working as a programmer and a volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps.

Elections

2022

See also: Oregon's 1st Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Oregon District 1

Incumbent Suzanne Bonamici defeated Chris Mann in the general election for U.S. House Oregon District 1 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Suzanne Bonamici (D / Working Families Party)	67.9	210,682
		Chris Mann (R)	31.9	99,042
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	519

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 310,243
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Nicholas Rascon (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 1

Incumbent Suzanne Bonamici defeated Scott Phillips and Christian Robertson in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 1 on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Suzanne Bonamici	88.2	80,317
		Scott Phillips	8.6	7,832
	Submit photo	Christian Robertson	2.9	2,625
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	287

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 91,061
= 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.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 1

Chris Mann defeated Army Murray in the Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 1 on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Chris Mann	66.9	19,605
	Submit photo	Army Murray	30.9	9,047
		Other/Write-in votes	2.3	671

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 29,323
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• David Russ (R)

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Scott Phillips completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Phillips' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a pragmatic, technology experienced, problem solver. As a former Peace Corps volunteer and staffer, I’m someone that can jump into the mud and show you how to plant rice in a swamp. And, after a two-decade career in IT consulting with Accenture, a global consulting firm, I’m also someone that can sit down and train you on machine learning and Cloud or talk process, innovation, and change.

My life experiences are broad and diverse from poor to middle class, urban to rural, local to global. I have worked in large organizations. I know how to detect issues and dysfunction in practical terms. I’ve been a change agent from dorm halls to African villages to the halls of Fortune 500 companies. I’m a husband and I’m a father of two teenagers.

I’m running because I want to leave a better future for my children and I believe we are running out of time to solve our biggest challenges in a world getting more dangerous by the day. We need to rebuild everything from global supply chains to our own domestic institutions to our entire energy infrastructure. We need real structural change and innovation and less ideology and polarization.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Theme #1: New Frontier Future. America’s past prosperity has largely been based on our ability to lead the world on the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation. Today, it is critical for America to make bold bets on that next wave of high-paying jobs of the future from AI to Blockchain, Semiconductors to Space. But we also need to share the benefits of innovation more broadly from rural America’s farming communities to rebuilding blue-collar manufacturing to produce more goods using the advanced manufacturing of the future. The digital economy is not enough. We need a bolder New Frontier Future that is fair and creates opportunities for all.
• Theme #2: Grow the Democratic Party. To protect our democracy, we need to broaden our coalition and win back people who were once Democrats. Rural America was heavily Democrat. They largely left. We need them back. Blue-collar America was once reliably Democrat. They are leaving. We need them back. Hispanics may split evenly between both parties by 2024. To win back former Democrats, we need to get back to basics on affordability, crime, education, and homelessness. We need to solve problems and fix our cities. We need to listen better and blame less. We need new ideas in Congress that offer a bolder, more prosperous American future for all.
• Theme #3: 500 Miles. I’ve walked over 400 miles in the neighborhoods I hope to represent from Portland to Astoria. The incumbent has the money, I have shoe leather. I have seen who is doing well and who isn’t at a porch-to-porch level. Most people I meet are focused on the basics. Affordable housing. Accountability. Ending homelessness. Public safety. Cost of living. This is old-school social media: Pavement politics. Hundreds of conversations have helped focus me on key issues. Overall, I believe we need structural change and innovation to make progress on our biggest challenges and that message seems to resonate. If I had to do it again, I would do 500 miles and then 500 more. Cue the Proclaimers' “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles).

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Higher Education - Empower all Americans to study for a college degree any way they want, any time they want, and take a test to earn credit recognized by all institutions for 10% of current cost.

Jobs of the Future - Create and spread the high-paying jobs of the future from AI to Blockchain, Semiconductors to Space.

Climate Change - Transform carbon villains into carbon heroes with a pathway to better jobs in a carbon-free future.

Homelessness - End homelessness in America in two years with transitional college-style dorms that are safe, secure, and caring.

Rural America - Rebuild prosperous rural communities and small family farms across America.

Manufacturing - Recapitalize American manufacturing and reinvent unions for the advanced manufacturing of the future.

Poverty Reduction - Cut urban poverty by 50% in 5 years with both short and long-term approaches.

Space - Create a public vision for a future in space that delivers new growth and economic prosperity for all.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

I believe the core responsibility of this elected office is to find a path forward and make progress on key issues that matter to your constituents even when those constituents may represent a diverse blend of mixed opinions and contrary interests and the people you have to negotiate with in Congress are just as different and contrary, if not more so.

What legacy would you like to leave?

We have huge problems hitting us over the next 10 years, more challenging than anything in the last 30 and the last 30 was not without its share of crises. If I can contribute to resolving or making headway on the major issues of our time from climate change to a more peaceful world that is safe for democracy and freedom, that would be a fantastic legacy to leave.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The Apollo moon landing. I remember watching it on TV. I was 5. I was playing with a Tonka truck. I remember the adults on the couch watching it on TV. It has left me with a lifelong interest in space and a lifelong disappointment at our lack of progress. When I was 15, I read Gerard O’Neill’s book, The High Frontier, and was captivated. I was sure I would be living in a space colony by the time I was 40. In high school, I joined the L5 Society, which promoted that future and was later absorbed by the National Space Society. There are some wealthier Americans (Musk, Bezos, etc.) who are better known who share a similar fascination with our future in space. What they don’t have, that I do, is a public vision, a rationale for why this might be important to explore as a publicly funded initiative at very large scale. Not long ago, I wrote a long essay exploring the political economics of a future in space. I put it online for free as the New Frontier Playbook (www.newfrontierplaybook.com). It suggests the possibility of a high growth frontier that could reinvent the potential of our economy at home. We need a vision for a space economy that can create opportunity for all Americans and can help us solve our problems on Earth.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Lately it’s been the Proclaimers song ‘I’m gonna be (500 miles)’ because as I like to say, the incumbent got the money, but I have shoe leather. I’ve been walking neighborhoods all over my district hand delivering flyers to porches and getting to know the neighborhoods and people that I want to represent. I’ve walked over 400 miles as of April 15. I’ll be at 500 miles soon. This wasn’t the plan, but it’s been a great way to connect with real people very randomly outside of the bubble of partisan events. I’m a better candidate for what I’ve learned directly from people about what they consider their top priorities. I will have walked 500 miles by the end of this campaign and I’d gladly walk 500 more, as the song says.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

Over the past several election cycles more than half, and nearly two-thirds, of new Congressional representatives have had no political experience before their election. That is the key context to this question. Voters, themselves, clearly don’t think it matters so much. The actual answer is, it depends. There are pros and cons to having previous elected experience. The pros are the networks, the endorsements, the donor funding, the practice with the media, the experience of give-and-take in the legislative process. The cons are all of the same pros, but reflecting the fact that these same people now have favors they owe, are acculturated to the groupthink of their political party, and have been taught not to take chances for fear of offending or challenging established interests. I believe voters have lost faith in our current politics and politicians and they are looking for fresh ideas and fresh new approaches. I also believe we need to begin implementing major structural changes and innovations that make being acculturated to a party and a rigid way of thinking counterproductive.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

We face an existential threat from climate change, a more immediate threat from totalitarian regimes which mean us harm, and the pandemic and then war in Ukraine have destabilized our economy creating the highest inflation in 40 years. Our country is heavily indebted at around 100% of GDP, on par with debt levels after World War II. Our global economy is broken, its fundamental premise proven false (that countries that trade with each other don’t make war against each other), and now requires us to reinvent supply chains to manage for pandemics, wars, and the likely aggressions to come. The global order is unwinding, under pressure, and the long peace of the post-Cold War may be coming to an end.

Against this very grim set of fundamental challenges, we have an opportunity to reinvent the future, rebuild our domestic institutions, re-energize our democracy, and create a more prosperous American Dream for all by creating a New Frontier Future to rebuild urban and rural America, seize the frontier of space, and create a more just economy at home.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

Yes, the founders had it right. The House is a seething Populist cauldron of invective, insult, and intemperance. It was designed to be exactly that, to reflect the passions and conspiracy theories of the day that roil their way through the nation’s daily political fabric and to then change rapidly to reflect the next wave. For all the unseemly faults of such a system and a short term length, it is the shining virtue of what makes a democracy different from the totalitarian sameness of single party states where everyone bows to whoever is at the top or fakes real discussion in order to please just one person. Our faults and disagreements are on display every day. That was the entire point of the two years for representatives and it remains as an important check and balance in our democracy on restraining the executive branch.

Vladimir Putin is Exhibit A for why we have the system we do. He doesn’t have that check and balance on his power that our Congress provides in America. And look at the stupid foolishness he has committed and the lengths of repression that he is going to against his own people while piously talking about defending traditional values. Vladimir Putin is exactly the reason we have a two-year term and a robust system of checks and balances.

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.

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2022 Elections

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Candidate

U.S. House Oregon District 1

Website

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Footnotes

[show]

Oregon's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jeff Merkley (D)

Ron Wyden (D)

Representatives

District 1

Suzanne Bonamici (D)

District 2

Cliff Bentz (R)

District 3

Maxine Dexter (D)

District 4

Val Hoyle (D)

District 5

Janelle Bynum (D)

District 6

Andrea Salinas (D)

Democratic Party (7)

Republican Party (1)