Former Oregon House Speaker Dan Rayfield is known for having a leadership style that’s focused on addressing the goals people hold in common and navigating the many approaches they take to get there, no matter how different they may be. In such a divided political climate, he’s proven his strength as someone who can bring people together on the most complex issues facing Oregonians—including gun violence prevention—and achieve real results for his state’s children and families.

Throughout his career, Speaker Rayfield has consistently put public safety first and striven to build a better future for the next generation. As a state legislator, he helped pass lifesaving legislation to protect survivors of domestic violence, increased funding for background checks, and instituted needed strategies to get untraceable ghost guns off the streets. As house speaker, Rayfield also helped convene a working group to address deadly gaps in his state’s gun laws and strove to fund early violence intervention work. Like so many in this movement, Speaker Rayfield knows that it’s unconscionable that our children fear going to school due to possible threats of violence, and as Oregon’s next attorney general, he’ll partner with law enforcement and criminal justice leaders to build an integrated plan to protect communities from gun violence that is focused on strengthening protections for everyday Oregonians and standing up to the gun lobby and its corrupt practices.

In a time when gun safety laws are under attack from coast to coast, it’s imperative that voters elect strong champions this November who will be stalwarts in defending these protections in court—champions like Speaker Dan Rayfield. With him leading the charge on gun violence prevention in Salem, we know that a future free from gun violence is within reach for families from Portland to Eugene.

We are proud to endorse Dan Rayfield for attorney general of Oregon.