Bend entrepreneur, CEO, business consultant and author Sam Carpenter has filed a Statement of Organization for Candidate Committee with the Secretary of State’s office, to consider candidacy in the upcoming 2018 gubernatorial contest.
In 2016 Carpenter ran for U.S. Senate in Oregon and was endorsed in the Primary election by The Oregonian and the Bend Bulletin. He was also endorsed by 2014 U.S. Senate candidates Jason Conger and Monica Wehby. Carpenter was narrowly defeated in that 2016 race.
Carpenter, a Republican, states, “I am considering this candidacy for governor because the hardworking families of our state deserve a leader who best represents their on-the-ground needs. Specifically, a candidate who embraces a pro-life, pro-small business, pro-jobs, school choice, controlled immigration, and limited-government/free market platform; a political outsider who will not be swayed by large corporate donors, and who won’t be intimidated by the Oregon progressive far-left faction which has dominated our state politics for too many years.
Carpenter continues, “I am troubled by the enormous debt with which we Oregon citizens are burdened, job-killing high taxes, over-regulation of small business, unfettered illegal immigration/sanctuary city policies, public sector union over-lording, pervasive rural poverty due to radical governmental strictures on our natural resources, and to that end, the escalating forest destruction by disease and wildfire due to state and federal policies of hands-off, non-management. (Look around right now: Oregon is on fire, and it’s not due to global climate change…).
“And I’m disappointed that the declared and rumored candidates currently in the field have not supported President Trump and his vision of economic growth and government reform. Therefore, as an early endorser and continued supporter of our President’s national agenda, it makes sense for me to assertively foster those concepts right here in Oregon.”
“But this is not just about winning a Republican governor’s seat. I am calling for an ‘Oregon Red Trifecta’ in which both sides of the legislature also come under Republican control. Nationally, Oregon’s Red Trifecta will be a cultural-capstone to the steady grass-roots political gains of the last eight years. If I choose to run, my candidacy will be wholly dedicated to this purpose.”
Carpenter says he will make a final decision regarding candidacy by October.