Tom Harrison (Oregon)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Tom Harrison

Republican Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

May 19, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Dartmouth College, 1975

Personal

Birthplace

Milwaukie, OR

Religion

Christian

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign X

Tom Harrison (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Oregon's 3rd Congressional District. He lost in the Republican primary on May 19, 2020.

Harrison completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Tom Harrison was born in Milwaukie, Oregon. He earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1975. Harrison's career experience includes working in computer systems and software.

Elections

2020

See also: Oregon's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020

Oregon's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020 (May 19 Democratic primary)

Oregon's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020 (May 19 Republican primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Incumbent Earl Blumenauer defeated Joanna Harbour, Alex DiBlasi, and Josh Solomon in the general election for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Earl Blumenauer (D / Working Families Party)	73.0	343,574
		Joanna Harbour (R)	23.5	110,570
		Alex DiBlasi (Pacific Green Party)	1.9	8,872
	Submit photo	Josh Solomon (L)	1.5	6,869
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	621

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 470,506
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Edward Baker (Nonpartisan)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Incumbent Earl Blumenauer defeated Albert Lee, Dane Wilcox, Matthew Davis, and Charles Rand Barnett in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on May 19, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Earl Blumenauer	80.5	140,812
		Albert Lee	16.8	29,311
	Submit photo	Dane Wilcox	1.1	1,966
	Submit photo	Matthew Davis	0.6	1,101
	Submit photo	Charles Rand Barnett	0.5	953
		Other/Write-in votes	0.4	714

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 174,857
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Gregory Aller (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Joanna Harbour defeated Tom Harrison and Frank Hecker in the Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on May 19, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Joanna Harbour	62.8	21,114
		Tom Harrison	23.1	7,751
	Submit photo	Frank Hecker	12.3	4,147
		Other/Write-in votes	1.8	612

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 33,624
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Josh Solomon advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on July 6, 2020.

		Candidate
✔	Submit photo	Josh Solomon (L)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= 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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Pacific Green Party convention

Pacific Green Party convention for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Alex DiBlasi advanced from the Pacific Green Party convention for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on June 6, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Alex DiBlasi (Pacific Green Party)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= 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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2018

See also: Oregon's 3rd Congressional District election, 2018

General election

General election for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Incumbent Earl Blumenauer defeated Tom Harrison, Marc Koller, Gary Dye, and Michael P. Marsh in the general election for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Earl Blumenauer (D)	72.6	279,019
		Tom Harrison (R)	19.8	76,187
		Marc Koller (Independent Party of Oregon)	5.6	21,352
		Gary Dye (L)	1.5	5,767
		Michael P. Marsh (Constitution Party)	0.4	1,487
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	514

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 384,326 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Incumbent Earl Blumenauer defeated Ben Lavine, Charles Rand Barnett, and Eric Hafner in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on May 15, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Earl Blumenauer	91.0	91,226
		Ben Lavine	6.0	6,008
	Submit photo	Charles Rand Barnett	1.6	1,586
		Eric Hafner	1.4	1,377

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 100,197
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Tom Harrison advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on May 15, 2018.

		Candidate
✔		Tom Harrison

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.
= 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.

Independent Party of Oregon primary election

Independent Party of Oregon primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3

Marc Koller defeated David Walker in the Independent Party of Oregon primary for U.S. House Oregon District 3 on May 15, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Marc Koller	55.7	930
		David Walker	44.3	741

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 1,671
= 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.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Tom Harrison completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Harrison's responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Principled Conservative since 1973, graduated from Dartmouth with honor in 1975, married a month later, business owner since 1979, with 5 kids and 8 grandkids... so far. My education was in Math, Physics, and Computer Science, and a political confrontation in 1973 not only converted me to conservative thinking, but convinced me that I needed to understand the economics of markets and governance. The Declaration affirms that all people have inherent, inalienable rights, and that just governments are established to protect them, including the rights to life, liberty, property, and freedom of conscience. These were not new thoughts, but the first time they were used to construct a country. Too often, government ignores rights that are inherent, and creates privileges that are not inherent rights, to replace the rights denied. The task ahead is to return to the roots of just government - a process that certainly will take a long time, given a hundred years of moving the other direction - while retaining the progress in stepping beyond the defects we began with. To this challenge I bring the determination that private incentive solutions will always succeed more than government mandates, that taxation must be limited because all taxes affect every person (and therefore government must be limited, as well), and that local governance is to be preferred over distant governance. In other words, it is better for government action to be closer to the people, with a lighter burden.

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?

• All taxes tax the poor. Whenever any entity is taxed, behavior is changed to accommodate the burden of the tax: whoever is taxed will spend less, save and invest less, and thus create fewer jobs. That change in behavior affects others, who now share the burden of that tax - even though they did not write the check to pay it - and who will also now respond by spending less, saving and investing less. This cycle is inevitable, and unstoppable: it will continue through the economy until it has touched every person who spends or earns a dollar, regardless of whether they are a taxpayer or not. As the process proceeds, people and companies adjust. But the poorest see higher prices and fewer opportunities, and have no easy adjustments to make.
• The rights of the people should be the model for the actions of government. We each have the right to decide who enters our home, how long they may stay, and what anyone in our homes may do while there. On behalf of all the people of the United States, through representative law, we together may decide who enters our country, how long they may stay, and what activities are permitted, as limited by the rights protected by the Constitution. To this end, it is entirely appropriate to limit immigration to LEGAL immigration, to manage and enforce visas and temporary asylum protection, and to protect against dangerous pursuits (like making fireworks in a subdivision). Yes, build a wall, and prevent lawless immigration and trafficking.
• No inherent rights require active participation by others. Inherent rights we all have individually compel only toleration by others, not agreement, and not even silence (that is, denial of free speech rights). If you pursue happiness by buying a new car, your neighbor is not compelled to pay part of the purchase cost. Too often the idea of "capability" is confused with "right". A person may have the capability to throw a brick at another, but that is not a right, except in self-defense.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Debt load: we must cease casting a burden on our children and grand-children. Would they not vote to prevent being saddled with debt, if they could understand what is being done to their future? Limited government, not unlimited and spendthrift.

Taxation: since all tax burdens touch all people, it is essential that government be limited, so that the tax burden can be limited, as well.

Defense: when Washington warned against foreign entanglements, we were secure if nothing came within 20 miles of our shores. Today, threats can come from anywhere on the globe. It is essential that we project our defense outward, and that our defense be believed as credible and unstoppable.

Human rights: protection of human rights is the foundation of our government, but not the substitution of "I want to" as meaning "I have a right to". This will always be an area of conflict, and is essential to our existence as a country: we must separate rights that cannot be taken away, from privileges that society chooses to grant, from behaviors we choose to tolerate but not agree with, to behaviors we ban, as guided and restrained by the Constitution.

Science and government: because government will always be partisan, and should be, it is essential that reliance on science be through open confrontational debate. We are seeing the influence of a lack of open debate today, with the partisan divisions on the issue of climate effects, and partisan silencing of some medical doctors.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to people I can learn from, people who have succeeded where I have failed, people who take risks to help others, people who operate on moral principles over popular acceptance. From a single mom raising 3 kids on wages from McDonald's, to a personable and approachable billionaire you would never guess was one. There's only One perfect example. Fortunately, His attributes show up in people from time to time, and they set a good example for boldness and uprightness in the doing of things.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I have a tendency to speak and act boldly without regard for whether it's popular to do so. I believe that it is essential to test beliefs when confronted with disagreement, by revisiting the reasons I hold my beliefs, and trying to understand the foundation of the contrary belief I'm confronted with (as the Bible records, "Iron sharpens iron"), and that disagreements are where growth occurs. I believe that no person, and no small body, is as good at guiding a country than the people are, which is why I believe in small government.

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

To be true to heart and words of the Declaration and the Constitution: protect inherent rights, as the Declaration affirms as the reason for governments to be instituted.

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

The assassination of John Kennedy. I was 11, in 6th grade.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Ski wear model, when 6 years old. I was paid $5 for one walk on the runway.

More seriously, my first job was as a computer operations management trainee for U.S. Bank in Portland, lasting through my summer break after my first year at Dartmouth. I got that job because the VP/Operations heard from a relative of mine that I was about to be hired (starting in the fall) as a systems programmer for Dartmouth Time Sharing, where the concept of multi-user shared simultaneous use of a large computer was pioneered, and where BASIC - an educational computer language - was created. That job lasted 27 months, followed by 4 months setting up a copy of that time sharing system for Grumman Data Systems, in Long Island.

I group those three jobs together because they spanned my undergraduate years at Dartmouth, all related to the same fundamental connection: Dartmouth Time Sharing, a leading-edge adventure in computing, built by undergraduates at Dartmouth, from the multi-person football game through the complex statistical research project known as Impress.

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

Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Too often, that is a model of life in the political world.

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

No. It is imperative that they be representatives... of life as lived by their constituents. Better the watchmaker, or the employer, or the steel worker... then the lifetime politician.

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

Preservation of sovereignty in a world devoted to abolishing national borders and distinctiveness. Preservation of liberty when man's tendency is always toward authoritarian governance and control. Preservation of human rights (inherent), as distinguished from human desires (self-interest), particularly those enumerated in the Declaration and Constitution. Preservation of free markets and free trade in a world always striving for advantage by government action. And preservation of this concept of a Constitutional Republic, where there is both popular democracy (the House) as well as respect for regional uniqueness (the Senate), merged into the uniqueness of the Executive and the Presidency (the Electoral College).

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

Yes. The House is a popular expression of the people, and should swing with popular thinking. The Senate represents the states, and this should reflect stability. Fascinating balance is brought to the presidency, which depends both on the popular swings of the population, and the steadier hand of the Senate, by the unique Electoral College.

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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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)