By  Rebecca Hansen-White/KLCC

Democratic incumbent Val Hoyle is in a rematch against critics on both the left and right in the race to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.

Hoyle again faces Republican Monique DeSpain, a retired Air Force Colonel, and Pacific Green Party candidate Justin Filip.

During DeSpain’s first run for Congress in 2024, she repeatedly accused Hoyle of corruption, calling her opponent a career politician and a liar.

She said her opinion of Hoyle hasn’t changed and she’s used the last two years to educate as many voters as she can.

“I’ve really learned a lot about how dirty politics is and how corrupt Val Hoyle is,” DeSpain said. “She’s so willing to lie to her constituents to just get their vote, and then not serve them in the end.”

DeSpain has worked as a military lawyer in the Air Force and a private attorney. Hoyle was Oregon’s Labor Commissioner, served in the Oregon legislature, and worked in the bicycle industry before she was elected to Congress. She said DeSpain’s accusations, such as that she violated congressional stock trading disclosure law, are old news that she already addressed appropriately.

“She’s been running for this seat for four years,” Hoyle said. “[She] loves the attention it brings but really has no concrete plans other than attacking me.”

Hoyle also argued that a vote for her opponent is a vote for President Donald Trump’s agenda.

DeSpain disagreed with that characterization. She said if elected, she has no plans to support bills to ban abortion, same-sex marriage, or mail-in voting. She said she believes strongly in local control and the Constitutional right of states to govern themselves.

“I’ve been very clear that I would not support any federal policy that encroaches on the law of Oregon,” DeSpain said.

DeSpain is one of two Republican congressional candidates in Oregon not endorsed by Oregon Right to Life this election cycle, according to the group’s online voters guide. Oregon Right to Life endorsed five other Republican congressional candidates.

House majority

According to a September analysis by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, Democrats are on track to win the House this year. If that comes to pass and Hoyle wins, it would be her first time being a part of the majority since she was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022.

Hoyle said she’s been able to make progress while in the minority, pointing to the inclusion of legislation she worked on making it into a major housing bill that is now law. She said her office has been able to bring back resources to the district and her constituent services team recently won an award for excellence.

“Our office is very effective and we will continue to do that, hopefully in the majority where we will be able to have an agenda that delivers for working people,” Hoyle said.

She said her first goal, if she’s a part of a Democratic majority, is to roll back cuts to the social safety net, especially new Medicaid restrictions that Congressional Republicans passed last year.

She said she also wants to use her congressional authority to force companies to negotiate on drug prices, and pursue other measures to lower healthcare costs.

“We have to get hedge funds and venture capital firms out of our healthcare system,” Hoyle said. “They are specifically to make money for their shareholders, not to deliver care.”

Homelessness

DeSpain said her number one issue is homelessness. She said Eugene, and many rural communities in the district, are seeing more people on the street, despite hundreds of millions of state and federal spending on the issue.

She argued Hoyle, as a member of Congress, should provide stronger oversight to ensure every taxpayer dollar is going where it should, and getting results.

“We are a generous, compassionate society,” DeSpain said. “I don’t think any of us would mind paying the taxes, if we really felt that the money was hitting the target, and that is, the addicted, the mentally ill.”

Meanwhile, Pacific Green Party Justin Filip said he’s an alternative for voters who are tired of big money in politics. He argued both major party candidates are more focused on donor and partisan interests than the needs of their constituents.

Filip said his number one issue is also homelessness. He argued neither of his opponents have real solutions to help the district’s most vulnerable residents.

“The biggest moral catastrophe is that we have so many people, our neighbors, living on the street,” Filip said. “I think the government serves a role of taking care of the people. That’s what it should be there for.”

Filip said he also sees himself as the most anti-war candidate in the race, saying he would oppose military action regardless of who was in the White House.

“We just need a vocal person in Congress that is anti-war all the time,” Filip said. “Not just when the other party’s in charge, but have a consistent moral compass to call these things out for what they are.”

Immigration, health care

Hoyle and DeSpain also offered differing visions on immigration.

Hoyle called Immigration and Customs Enforcement the Trump Administration’s personal army, pointing to shootings of detainees and bystanders. She called for the agency to be abolished.

“In the next Congress I will continue to work to hold this administration accountable for the murders they have committed,” Hoyle said. “And, make sure we have control at the border, but make sure we are not terrorizing communities of color.”

Hoyle also said she has been concerned about her own constituents, saying she has been periodically visiting those who have been arrested by immigration enforcement and detained in Tacoma.

DeSpain said “rogue officers” who work in Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be prosecuted, but disagreed with disbanding the agency altogether.

She said if elected to Congress, she’d like to create a pathway to legal status for those who are already here, but haven’t been arrested for a crime. She said the federal government also needs to continue to strengthen the border to stop the pipeline of illegal entries.

“We have an exacerbated problem with a lot of people here illegally, and that was a terrible mistake on the part of the government,” DeSpain said. “I don’t think that the individuals who came into our country under those circumstances should bear the full burden of that terrible mistake.”

Both Filip and Hoyle have said they support universal health care.

DeSpain said she’s also worried about healthcare costs, but argued more government spending isn’t likely to solve the district’s healthcare problems, saying Congress should focus on curtailing middlemen in the healthcare industry, like pharmacy benefit managers, to try and lower overall costs.

DeSpain said she also supported accountability measures to prevent Medicaid and Medicare fraud.

Campaign ads

In addition to trading barbs over their own records, Hoyle and DeSpain have also clashed over campaign ads.

Both candidates have recycled talking points from the first time they faced each other in 2024. DeSpain launched a website this spring with a timeline of controversies during Hoyle’s tenure as Oregon’s Labor Commissioner including Hoyle’s relationship with scandal-plagued cannabis company LaMota.

Hoyle has previously said the owners of the company misled her and she returned their campaign contributions.

In an online ad, Hoyle has again drawn attention to DeSpain receiving the Constitution Party’s nomination in her 2024 bid for Congress. The minor political party lost its status in August of this year because it had too few members.

Hoyle said DeSpain had to take a pledge to follow conservative, anti-abortion principles to receive the nomination and argued it was still relevant two years later.

DeSpain accused Hoyle of misleading voters about her stances on abortion and has sent Hoyle a cease and desist letter.

In this cycle, Hoyle has raised about $1.2 million, according to the Federal Elections Commission.

About $300,000 in independent expenditures from a pro-artificial intelligence linked PAC has been spent in support of Hoyle this cycle. Another PAC, Safer Stronger Oregon has spent about $425,000 in independent expenditures against Hoyle and in support of DeSpain, according to FEC documents filed on Oct. 13.

DeSpain has raised about $680,000 in campaign contributions.

Filip is not fundraising.

The 4th Congressional District includes a significant portion of the Oregon coast, the Roseburg area as well as Eugene-Springfield.