Wasco, ore. (AP) – The Senator of Oregon, Ron Wyden, is in the congress in his fifth decade and shows no tendency to step aside, even if the pressure on the aging democratic officials builds up a new generation.
He says he is planning to look for another term in 2028 if he will be 79 years vintage. Every year in which he was in the Senate, he has traveled to all 36 Oregon Counties and intends to continue doing this.
After a recent town hall in Wuco in the conservative Sherman County, Wyden said that questions about age are a “fair game of debate”, but that he still has grown the job and the fight against the policy of Republican President Donald Trump.
“I think they should be held accountable,” he told the Associated Press in an interview. “But I think the founding fathers wanted a result -oriented, reasonable approach for the government, and I try to do that. And I have the energy.”
Calls for a new generation of managers
Many Democrats are afraid of Joe Biden’s decision, despite the persistent concerns of whether he was on the job at the age of 81, to apply for a second term of the White House. He was eliminated in July 2024 and Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris at the time.
“I consistently demanded all the elected officers over 70 years to do this at their last term-to withdraw and make room for the next generation of managers,” said Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run for Tony, a group that supports progressive adolescent candidates.
Many Democrats believe that bidges have withdrawn too slow and the party cost the presidency. Several democratic senators have announced this year that they are not aiming for re-election, including the 80-year-old Dick Durbin from Illinois. Durbin’s career in the congress began in 1983, two years after Wyden joined the house.
Litman said she hoped that another Democrat appears to challenge Wyden.
“I think in particular are competitive primary elections, how we as a party decide what we believe,” she said.
“Every Oregonian counts”
Wyden continues to travel through his state, who is committed to the voters of all political stripes. The Wasco town hall was the 23rd that he held this year, and the 1st 125. City hall of his career. Around 20 people gathered in a former primary school between wheat fields and wind turbines.
“Every Oregoner counts, no matter where they live,” said Wyden.
When other Democrats fight for the strategy, the senator of the vintage school building tradition has become an vital communication instrument at a time of deepening.
“I think the city meetings are now more important than ever because they enable an opportunity in a community to move away from some polarization and distrust,” he told the AP.
In contrast to the Republicans of the Congress, who have largely avoided in recent months that the town hall meetings where they often have demonstrators. The National Republican campaign committee recently encouraged the GOP legislators to promote the new tax breaks and expenditure cuts, but they can control them in smaller environments.
A civil exchange
About 75% of Sherman County’s voters delivered ballot papers for Trump last November, and Wyden has not worn the county with around 2,000 people since 2004. However, the tiny town house assembly emerged compared to the recently from other members of the congress, both Democrats and Republicans faced crowds and the Republicans.
Wyden met with a tiny group of Democrats, Republicans and Independent in Wuco and spoke in detail about health care, trade and democracy. While some Wyden pressed, they waited to be called and thanked him that he had come.
The 71 -year -old Charlie Hogue asked a question that focused on democratic concerns that the leaders did not push back difficult enough against Trump.
“I thought we had checks and balances in this country, and I start losing hope because the current government ignores court commands,” he said. “So the Democrats are planning to make only one message for the next elections … or do you have a plan?”
Wyden cited examples of how he had questioned Trump: a recently to Canada, where the senator spoke to the prime minister about the trade and talked to the discussions with Oregon Wheat Farmers about tariffs.
The 76 -year -old TL Fassbender wondered why the Democrats support immigrants who have illegally joined the country.
Wyden replied that he believed that the immigration system was “broken”, and found that a cross -party border law collapsed in the Senate last year after the then candidate Trump came out.
In the following exchange, Fassbender said that he didn’t think Wyden answered his question, and the senator tried again.
“For example, if someone has committed a crime, I don’t think this should be something that is protected as part of the legislation,” said Wyden. “Unfortunately, what was going on that we come some governmental authorities and open people who did nothing wrong.”
When immigration later reappeared, Wyden noticed that his parents flee from Nazi Germany when they came to the USA.
“I think the legal immigration makes our country better and stronger,” he said.
Persecution of the Epstein recordings
Wyden recently developed as a leading democratic voice to urge further information about the Jeffrey Epstein case. He is not new to the effort that has become a political crisis for Trump.
The supporters of the president are livid that his administration did not consider any promises to publish records from the investigation into the exploitation of minor girls for sex through the wealthy financer for sex. The Ministry of Justice and the FBI recently said that there was no “list of customers” from Epstein, which gave back an idea that the administration had previously promoted.
As a top democrat in the mighty Senate Finance Committee, Wyden had pushed for Epstein’s financial documents long before the scandal reappeared.
“We spent three years after the money,” he told the AP after the town hall of Wuco. “And we will stay with it until the facts come out.”
Wyden said that the Democrats, who qualify about the morals of voters and the party strategy, should hold further meetings in conservative areas in which they could possibly learn something from the people they represent.
“The old saying is:” Most of the life only appears, “he said.” But it is particularly vital in the government because there is a feeling that this is manipulated. “
