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September 18, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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...Firefighter for the House
From Page 1
nual fire camp for young women.
It’s now in its 10th year.
One winter, she realized
TVF&R was getting lots of 911
calls to check on unhoused peo-
ple, and it was putting a burden
on the system. So with support
from her union, she started a
free clinic for houseless resi-
dents of Tigard and King City.
Every Saturday from November
to March she volunteers at a
space in Tigard’s severe weather
shelter to do triage and foot care,
and she partners with county
health officers to provide flu
shots and vaccinations.
She also became one of the
most active volunteers in the
union’s political program, and
traveled to Salem repeatedly to
testify on legislation. In May
2019, she was at the Capitol
with her fellow IAFF members
when she got a text: “Come to
the gallery.” Democrats were
preparing to vote on a bill to cut
contributions to public em-
ployee retirement accounts.
“All the firefighters, we were
all in uniform … We stood there
while they screwed us over. We
wanted them to have to bear
witness that these are the faces
of the people doing the work.”
Now one of those faces will
most likely be heading to the
Capitol as a legislator. Grayber
got the idea to run for office
from her own state representa-
tive, staunch labor ally Margaret
Doherty. After spending a day at
the Portland Metro Fire Camp,
Doherty told Grayber she was
planning to retire, and suggested
she run to replace her.
“I laughed,” Grayber recalls.
“I came home that night and
told my husband, ‘Rep Doherty
said the craziest thing to me.’
And he looked at me and said,
‘Oh my god, why wouldn’t
you?’ I said, ‘Because I’m not a
politician.’”
Then it dawned on her: “I
look at the world my kids are
about to inherit. I look at the
things I’ve fought for. When I
go to work and someone’s hav-
ing the worst day of their life, I
have the ability to tackle that
head-on and make things better
one call at a time.” Being in the
Legislature, she’d have a chance
to make things better on a much
bigger scale.
Sponsored by her union,
Grayber enrolled in the Oregon
Labor Candidates School, and
learned the nuts and bolts of run-
“All these things that we could kind of
politely ignore and talk around, we can’t
do that any more. The patient is bleed-
ing out. Let’s get to work.”
— Firefighter Dacia Grayber, running for HD 35
ning a political campaign. She
graduated March 7, just as the
pandemic hit.
Now co-workers, even some
conservative ones, are rooting
for her. Grayber tends to swear,
so they’re preparing her for the
Legislature with a swear jar.
“Every time I drop an f-bomb, I
have to put a dollar in.”
House District 35 covers all of
Tigard, some of Southwest Port-
land, and a little sliver of Clacka-
mas County.
“It’s a strong labor district, a
lot of labor households,” Grayber
says. “I’m excited by that. It’s a
lot of working class folks.”
Her opponent, conservative
Republican Bob Niemeyer, got
just 33% of the vote in his chal-
lenge to Doherty two years ago,
but Grayber’s supporters aren’t
taking chances. As of early Sep-
tember, her campaign had raised
$116,000, including over
$55,000 from her union’s local,
state and national political action
committees, and cash and in-
kind support from a dozen other
unions. Niemeyer has raised just
$1,500.
If Grayber wins, she’ll fight to
expand health coverage, afford-
able housing, and public trans-
portation infrastructure. She’ll
push to lower college tuition, re-
duce carbon emissions, and build
more renewable energy. Having
been the one who had to tell a
mother her child was dead due to
gun violence, she wants common
sense gun violence reduction
measures, like secure storage of
firearms. She wants police re-
form. She wants a more equi-
table tax code. She wants Oregon
to be better prepared for earth-
quakes and wildfires.
The work ahead is urgent.
Grayber likens it to her work as
a firefighter. “Right now the en-
tire building is on fire, and people
are jumping out the window. We
have this emergency in our state,
and across the nation.”
MORE ABOUT HER CAMPAIGN
DaciaForOregon.com