We have all heard it all of our lives, “Money Wins Elections.” I have always said, “As long as Money Wins, we will get what we have always had.”
People keep asking where the money is. They ask it like the answer is supposed to embarrass me. It does not.
I filed the #RussIsForUS third-quarter report with the FEC today. When it posts, you will see that I brought in just over $19,000 this year. I do not have a million dollars of my own to drop into the campaign and call it a “movement.” The RNC took money from my constituents and gave it to candidates in other states instead of me. The NRCC did not send money, and refuses to respond to me. I received no money from Big Industry nor Big Pharma. No other politician nor organization elevated me, funded me, nor sent me out to read a script. Funding from those people means I have no hooks in me and can represent you (#US) completely and without reservation.
What I did receive was the overwhelming support of Oregon District 6 Republican voters in the 2026 primary.
That is the part the establishment talking heads never understand. They treat a small donation number as a failure. As stated in the heading of this post, “As long as money decides who gets elected, we will get what we have always had.” This is how we (#US) break that cycle. It is also how I stay out of the kind of trouble that follows the money. Large totals create large problems.
The truth is, people who have big money in their election coffers generally didn’t get it from you. When did you last contribute to a congressional candidate? For the average citizen, the answer is “never.” I never did, except now to my own camapaign committee. That is true for most people in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District. That is who I represent.
Andrea Salinas is the other model. This cycle she has taken $656,650 through ActBlue, 2,280 of her 5,200 individual donations. You can look at the filings yourself: FEC receipts, Andrea Salinas for Oregon. ActBlue is not a neighbor handing her twenty dollars at a picnic. It is a national (international?) machine, and that machine is currently under investigation. Three House committees just reported that ActBlue failed to stop illegal foreign contributions, and last week they summoned ActBlue’s attorney over the contradiction in its own story: House report, Fox News, September 28.
So where is my campaign money? It is not in a committee account with strings that tie me and my Congressional Votes back to the donors. It is still in your pocket, serving you…Like I will. I am a candidate with no owner except those who elected him. That is worth infinitely more to you than the candidate bought and paid for by the political machine.
This is your opportunity to break the cycle.
Vote for Russ. He’s #ForUS
#RussIsForUS